When your child is ready to learn to read, you will want the best phonic program available! But it might be a challenge just to know where to begin.
Here are 4 important questions to ask yourself to help with your search:
Q: What are phonics, anyway?
A: The phonic approach to teaching reading is simply assigning sounds to the letters of the alphabet. It is essential that you teach your child the correct letter sounds for their ultimate success!
For example, you may think that you know how to say the letter, “b”. Go ahead and say it out loud by itself now. When you said it, did it come out as “buuuhhh”?
That’s how almost everyone says it! But, guess what? That’s wrong! Adding the “uh” sound to the “b” will confuse the young emerging reader.
If your child thinks that “b” says “buuuhhh”, then when they attempt to sound out the word “big”, they will say “buuuiig, buuuig, I know! Bug!” Or they will simply ask, “What’s a buuuig?”
So how do you say “b”? Say a short, “b” sound…not drawn out, and try not to add a “u” vowel after it. For a helpful letter sounds demonstration video, click here.
Unfortunately, “b” isn’t the only letter that is easy to teach the wrong way. The video will help you to understand how each letter should be pronounced. Like, with which letters do you use your voice? Which ones are whispered?
Even experienced, avid readers can be unsure when just saying one letter sound. We are just used to saying the whole word without thinking about it when we read!
Like with the letter “x”. How do you say that all by itself? That one is a strange letter, because it’s pronounced “ks” as in “ax”, but no word in the English language begins with “x” saying “ks”. Heave you noticed that?
Think about it…”xylophone” and “xerox” start with a “z” sound. In order to teach this letter sound, you will need to introduce it at the end of words—ax, mix, fox—or in the middle like “boxes”.
When teaching this letter, I always teach it last. Ask your child to listen for it at the end of the word and begin teaching “blending”.
Blending is the act of blending letter sounds, or sounding them out, to make a word. I ask my students to “squish the sounds together with your voice” to make the word. “Mmmmmaaaannnn, mmmaann, man.”
Q: After you child learns the letter sounds, it’s time to practice blending. What program will help do that?
A: The best phonic program will allow for a lot of practice with blending sounds into words.
After learning the letter sounds, your child is not yet ready for a lot of sight words, like “was” or “of”. They would expect these words to be spelled, “wuz” and “uv”. So confusing!
They will learn these kinds of sight words later on, but for now, they need to practice getting confident in their blending…reading!
They need phonetically correct words, like: at, on, if, red, cat, sit, bend, pond, camp. These words use the short vowel sounds and hard consonants that they have been taught.
Phonetically correct words also do not have strange letter blends like: tion, eigh, oa, dge. Your child will learn about these phonograms and more as they progress in their reading journey.
You can find books with only three sight words, “a, the & is” and no phonograms in them with Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books. With 18 books, your child will be able to have a lot of practice blending and feel successful right from the beginning!
Q: So many reading programs have levels. How do I know when my child is ready to advance to the next level?
A: I get this question a lot! The main thing to consider before moving up a level is the ease and confidence your child demonstrates with the current level.
When your child is reading Level 1 books in Miss Wendy’s Favorite Phonetic Books, how is their fluency? Is there a lot of stopping and starting with the words?
You know your child best. If you feel that they can read clearly and with at least some confidence, it may be time to move to the next level.
Don’t hesitate to have your child reread the books first, and remember that you can always go back to Level 1 if they get a bit overwhelmed. This should be enjoyable, yet slightly challenging!
Q: What about reading comprehension when looking for the best phonic program?
A: The whole point of learning to read is to understand what the author is trying to communicate.
When we read, we want to enjoy new, fun experiences in the book! At the very least, it’s important to understand what is being communicated, like when reading instructions.
So comprehension is crucial! Your child needs to have books that they can understand and engage with easily.
Look for stories that “speak” to your child. Is he learning how to be a friend? Look for a story that demonstrates friendship. Does he love camping? Find a story about a child who goes camping.
Q: How do I develop comprehension and critical thinking in my child with the phonic program?
A: Finding questions to ask your child about the stories they read is important.
Try looking for descriptive words, or adjectives. Those kinds of words provide a lot of opportunities for questions. What color was the bus? Was the pig big or small? How many were there?
To encourage critical thinking, ask your child questions that call for conclusion or give an opinion. Why do you think he did that? Would you have chosen to do that? Why or why not? Even though it didn’t say exactly, what do you think it meant? What was really happening there?
The most basic beginning books, with only one or two sentences per page, can provide opportunities to ask these kinds of questions. Try to find at least one or two questions to ask for each page in these beginning reading books.
I hope that this information has been helpful in your search for the best phonic program for your child!