The Ladder is a game used to help solidify phonics reading skills for children. The key is to find a popular word ending that can have many different beginnings. For example, -at is a short vowel word ending that can have many different letter beginnings. You can make many different words ending in –at including cat, mat, rat, sat, scat, brat, hat, and so on. The Ladder helps your child visualize this by laying the words out in an organized fashion.

1) If you have a movable alphabet, lay out a small rug or piece of felt and use the movable alphabet to build each of these words. At the top of the rug/felt place the ending of the word (in our case this is –at).

2) Along the length of the rug/felt place five or six –at endings with enough space in front of them to add beginning consonants to make whole words.

3) Now ask your child to get involved. Using the movable alphabet, hold a ‘b’ up to the first empty space next to the –at word ending. Ask them “Does this make a word?” Then sound out the word: “b-a-t”. “Yes, this makes the word ‘bat’!” Now try it with the letter ‘c’ at the next empty –at word ending.

4) Keep making words in this fashion until the entire Ladder is filled with words. Have your child write the words down and save the word list to be included in a book of Ladder word lists later on.

*Note: if you don’t have a movable alphabet, the Ladder can be played by drawing it out on a dry-erase board and simply writing in the words as you go.

Phonics reading is a great foundation for your child's reading skills!

Keep reading www.phonicsreadingpro.com for more tips!

You can’t be a Phonics Reading Pro or teach your child to become one before you know exactly what phonics is! So let’s rewind: what is phonics? Our favorite way of thinking of phonics is as a “decoder” of written language. Early on children realize that there are patterns in how we read words. These patterns can be made into rules and the rules can be taught in sequence. This is the main idea of phonics. Teach reading rules in sequence to help children attain the knowledge quickly and with less difficulty. Their reading lessons build on one another and build a solid foundation of reading skills.

Phonics does not only help your child learn how to read, it also lends itself to greater spelling skills, better reading comprehension, and word identification. Usually phonics is taught from kindergarten through 2^nd grade, but programs are popping up earlier and earlier now and we are seeing parents teaching phonics skills before their children even reach pre-school. Additionally, if children are having more trouble than usual learning their reading skills, it isn’t uncommon for phonics to be utilized through 3^rd grade. And that, my friends, is a quick summary of phonics!

Phonics Reading Pro has noticed that parents are often the first to see when their children begin to recognize all letters can take two forms: capital and lower-case. In the early stages of reading it’s not important to explain when and why capital letters are used. However, as your child takes notice you should take the opportunity to introduce the rules of using capital letters vs. lower-case. Try to make sure this is in conjunction to when your child’s teacher is doing the same or if you are a homeschooler do it when you feel your child is ready.

If you want to introduce this concept early in your at-home phonics reading practice, invest in alphabet cards that can be mounted to your child’s wall, much like those seen in kindergarten classes. These are helpful because they show the capital and lower-case letter next to each other, so if your child knows the form of the letter in lower case they can deduce that the other capital letter is the same. There are also fun, colorful pictures to illustrate the letters so they make fun and useful room decorations!  Why not use these tools as tools for your child’s early lessons in phonics reading?

Phonics Reading Pros believe that there is a “write way to reading”. What I mean by that is have your child write out words as well as read them. Everyone learns differently. Some of us learn best by hearing, others by reading, and some by doing. When your child is just learning to read it isn’t easy to know which style of learning is going to work best for them. Therefore, do a little bit of everything! Read the books, write the focus words, and build the focus words with a movable alphabet. Through one or more of these methods your child’s ‘light bulb moments’ will start happening with more frequency and before you know it they’ll be begging you for more reading time!

Keep your child’s word lists together so you can make mini books with them. For example, when your child writes out the most frequent short vowel ‘a’ words they read, staple them together and make a special cover for them. Have your child sign their name on the cover and read it to friends, family, and all that will listen! They will all be impressed by your child’s phonics reading skills! 

Phonics Reading Pro wonders if these words remind you of a previous discussion we’ve had:  The, Your, Of, Are, Come, To, For, Have, What…

If you answered “sight words”, you are correct! Sight words are those little tricksters that might throw you a curveball when you are trying to teach your child how to sound out words phonetically. Just try sounding out “your” when the vowels are pronounced with their short sound: “y (as in yoyo) o (as in octopus) u (as in umbrella) and r (as in rabbit). That doesn’t sound anything like “your” does it? If you tried to teach your child that way they’d be totally confused!

That’s why it’s important to introduce sight words early. Let your child know there are certain words that can’t be sounded out called sight words. After that you’ll have to teach your child sight words through rote memory (repetition) to recognize words that can be sounded out and words that can’t. After a while your child will be able to see a sight word coming a mile away and be able to tell you “that’s a sight word isn’t it?”

Here are some tips:

-   Make flashcards of the most common sight words and go over them with your child daily

-   Ask your child to search and find sight words in their favorite books

-   When writing sentences ask your child to point to the sight words

In other words, sight words are just a small stepping stone for your child to cross before becoming a phonics reading pro J

I think one of the things that make Phonics Reading most fun for kids to learn is not only its simplicity, but also how easy it is to learn it by playing games! There are so many opportunities to slip in a game here and there while you are doing lessons with your child, that you’ll find you and your child will look forward to lessons and homework instead of pushing it off until the last minute.

Rhyming is a good way to test your child’s understanding of beginning reading. Let’s say you have been studying short vowel ‘a’ words such as ‘bat’. Make a game by saying “If we took away the 'b’ and put an ‘m’ in its place, what would it say?” When your child catches on ask them to try replacing the first letter of ‘bat’ and see if they can make real words. Explain to them that this activity is called rhyming and then challenge them to a competition to see who can make the longest list of rhyming words! When your little phonics reading pro begins writing, have them write down the list of rhyming words for practice. You can post them up in their room or on the refrigerator to show off your little star's good work This is only one example of a fun phonics reading game. Stay posted and we’ll discuss more in the future!

At Phonics Reading Pro we’re all about helping you be the best teacher you can be for your child. As you start your quest into teaching initial sounds of letters to your child remember to have a pattern to follow. What I mean by that is, don’t just teach reading lessons indiscriminately. If you taught your child the short vowel sound of “a” one day, you shouldn’t follow it up with teaching “ch” the next day. Kids need to build from more simple lessons to more complex lessons.

With this in mind, lessons should follow a path similar to this: Short vowels first (a,e,i,o,u), followed by long vowels, blends, the ‘er’ family (er, ir, or ur, ear), diphthongs, etc. Confused? Don’t worry! This site will teach you step by step what you need to know to give your child the best phonics reading foundation. You can also purchase the premiere complete phonics reading program called " How to Teach Reading: A Golden Age Success model" by A. Victoria Pugh. This phonics reading program will give you instructions and materials to teach your child how to read step by step with a proven method developed by a Montessori master teacher. Please check out the link on this site and let us know what you think!

March is the month to celebrate reading with your little Phonics Reading Pro! It is National Reading month and now is the time to commemorate with your child! No matter where your child is in their reading development, find a way to have fun and cultivate a love for reading—this month especially.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

– Go to your local library and get a list of activities they will be hosting for the month

–Aside from planned library activities, take the time to go explore books with your child to take home and enjoy!

–Read a new bedtime story to them every night

– Or have your child read you a new bedtime story every night

–Discuss your favorite books growing up

–have your child write their own storybooks

So get out there and have a great time reading with phonics with your child!

“The more that you read, the more that you’ll know, the more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ~ Dr. Seuss

The more ways you introduce your little Phonics Reading Pro to language, the better they will be able to grasp an understanding of the spoken and written word and how language works as a whole. This is why from birth it is so important to talk to your child, ask them questions, answer their questions and really develop their speaking skills in the process. I know it’s easy to get roped into day to day responsibilities, but remember that your child is a sponge wanting to soak up all the information around them. Don’t let the TV become a replacement for real interaction.

Here are some things all parents should do with their kids to immerse them in language early on and subsequently help them academically before they even make it to preschool:

–Read books and encourage your child ask questions and predict the course of the story

– Sing songs and recite poems together

– Teach them rhymes

– Play interactive games like “I spy” and “Memory”

– Start to teach your child the letters of the alphabet and their sounds

– Point out signs when you’re out driving to introduce word association

…you get the idea! There’s a whole exciting and new world out there for your child to explore, so engage them in it and the possibilities will be endless!

A tip Phonics reading Pro would like to share with you is to spend some time researching companies that sell phonics workbooks. Workbooks are very important because they solidify the reading skills your child learns and helps them learn critical writing skills. Workbooks can also give you ideas for activities you can branch off of and teach to your child when you’re done with the workbook or for extra lessons in the meantime. There are many companies that make phonics workbooks, yet the books don’t follow any one order.

 Because of that it’s very important to be sure the workbooks present the lessons in the same order that your child is learning them in school or at home. It’s okay to skip around in the book if you have to! It’s more important that you not confuse your child with lessons that they haven’t learned yet, right? Something you can try is to find workbooks that come from the same company that you buy your child’s phonics reading books through. Helping your child become a Phonics Reading Pro can take some research and work sometimes, but it is definitely worth it!