Do you have a young child who will be ready to read soon? You can start preparing them now! Children possess an innate desire to understand the world around them and one of the best things you can do to spark a love for learning in your child is to share your own excitement and curiosity with them. Point out the beauty and tiny details, ask questions, find answers.
Here are some helpful ways to set them up for reading success.
Foundational Phonics begins with ear, eye, and tongue training, which helps students to understand the connection between the sounds they hear, the words they say, and the letters they see. Ear training helps your child to start hearing letter sounds in the words that are spoken. This draws attention to the fact that words are actually made up of many different sounds blended together. Playing with sounds like this can start before any formal letter training begins.
Here are some examples (to avoid confusion we will use lower case letters here to represent the sounds and capital letters to represent letter names). “Can you find the t-t-tiger on this page?” “Let’s mail this l-l-letter.” “Can you pet the c-a-t?” “Let’s h-o-p to the b-o-x.” Be sure to always enunciate each sound clearly and avoid adding vowel sounds to the ends of consonant sounds: “d” not “duh.”
Once your child is able to start recognizing individual sounds in words, tongue training becomes a natural continuation of learning. Make a game of gently pointing out the sounds of objects you encounter throughout your day. “Let’s make supper. Can you get me the p-p-pot?” “What sound does pot start with?” “Can you hear it? p-p-p.” “Yes! Pot starts with p!”
Eye training begins when your child discovers that the sounds he can hear and say have symbols (letters) that represent them. Each letter will be systematically taught in Letter Mastery, but there is no reason to wait until your child is ready for more formal learning to begin this process.
In the same way you point out sounds in the words you say, you can point out words and letters during your everyday interactions. Read a variety of interesting picture books and alphabet books together. Point to the letters and practice the sounds together.
Play with flashcards, alphabet puzzles, and memory games, saying the letter names and sounds, like: “A, a, apple. A is for apple.” “This is J. J says j for jaguar.” “Did you know P is for pot and post office?” “What other things can you think of that start with the p sound?” “Your name starts with M. Did you know M is for Mordecai?” “What does my name start with?” “ mmmm.” “Yes!” “M is for Mommy too!” “What does Daddy’s name start with?” “d-d-daddy!” “D is for Daddy.”
Whether you practice these things on a trip to the post office, during story time, while you are cooking dinner, or in the car, building this training into everyday life in the early years helps lay the groundwork for reading success.
Once you sense an eagerness, there’s no reason to hold your child back from learning how to read through the organized, systematic phonics approach used in Letter Mastery.
Here are a few ways to adapt Letter Mastery for younger children who are eager to start reading. If your child does not yet have the dexterity for handwriting, instead, you can practice handwriting on our Jumbo Letter Cards (place glue dots to make them more tactile!), in sand or salt trays, in shaving cream, etc. You can also use highlighters or dot markers instead of circling letters and words. The most important thing is to keep it fun. The goal is to instill a love of learning in your child. Many children are not developmentally ready for formal training at a young age. In that case, learning should be kept to exploration, play, and discovery.
All the lessons in Letter Mastery are open-and-go, but flexible to your child’s age, fine motor skills, and academic stamina. As the person who knows your child best, you can freely adapt these lessons to your child’s specific needs. There is no pressure to stick to a rigid schedule or complete every activity a certain way. As your child interacts with all 26 letters of the alphabet through a variety of multi-sensory activities they can experience quick success by reading their first word within the first few chapters. The Foundational Phonics series provides everything you need to teach your child to read in a simple, effective manner for a lifetime of learning success.