Letters, Colors, Phonics

Some practical things to share tonight. A great way to reinforce onsets and rimes is with these handy flip cards. The rime is the phonics chunk (comes second) and the onset is the initial consonant or consonant blend.




This is Emily's favorite color book. I extend it by singing about what she is wearing as well. "Emily wore her pink sleeper, pink sleeper, pink sleeper. Emily wore her pink sleeper all night long." She loves it. Although she is young for learning colors, I do think this is a great start. Most children love learning through song, and personalizing lessons is always effective. You can make your own book using drawings or photos of your child's clothes or toys. ie. "Ryan has a blue truck, blue truck, blue truck. Ryan has a blue truck in his room. Ryan has a green train, green train, green train. Ryan has a green train in his room."



Emily Rose has learned the p and t sounds, using a hand-sized alphabet book series I obtained about eight years ago. These books are great because of the simplicity. I review them everyday during her nap and bedtime story segment. She really looks forward to it, perhaps because I have her make the sound with me. Teach three letters at a time. I recommend these first: m,p,s,t,b,d
The rest are more difficult and can be taught in any order, although Y,W,H are the hardest for kids to remember and should probably be done last. I'm sure similar books are available in larger book stores. I purchased mine from the Scholastic Book Club. As a homeschooler, you can request a monthly Scholastic catalogue and benefit from the same prices classroom teachers get. Most of the selections are paperback and average $2.95 per book. I think I paid twenty for these alphabet books. They've lasted a long time.

The Leapfrog Fridge Phonics is also very effective, especially if you put just three or four letters at a time on the fridge. Then add a couple more, and keep reviewing the old ones.

More later. Anna Grace has completed her twenty-minute nap. Of course my house is a mess because I'm here on the computer instead of folding clothes during my twenty minute "break".