Teaching Sounds! (Finally)

I know I said I'd post this post way before I broke my leg, well, it got put on hold! So, here it is finally! When teaching littles sounds, first break the alphabet down into 3 parts, 1st set, 2nd set and 3rd set. Basically, from the easiest sounds to the hardest sounds to learn. I also use sandpaper letters to teach sounds and break them down into the 3 groups. Always use short sounds in the beginning. For example "a" like in hat, not "A" like in gate. Once they have mastered the sounds in each set, you can put together words with those particular sounds, like pictured. I also teach the name of the letter, they are sponges and can learn it all! So, "A, sounds like aaaaa" -(this is much harder to type than just telling someone!) Teach 3 sounds at a time, the same 3 until it is mastered, by saying "what is this?" if they get it correct, they've mastered the sound.

A great way to teach them their sounds is to make little books out of old business cards or scraps of paper. They love to take these little books around and "read" them all day! You can do this with shapes and colors too! Once they have mastered more and more letters, you can make little word books the same way.

See? Cute little book!
They also love it when you put "the end" on the last page, it teaches them those couple sight words early! It's also ok if they've memorized the book, as that is how we learn. After the first set is learned and mastered, they can read real books like "The Cat in the Hat"!

2nd Set

3rd Set. The 3rd set works well with pictures or objects, as there are not many words you can do with these letters, but you can build them with the other sets they have learned already by this point. So, the child says the sound and matches it with the correct picture or object.

It really depends on the child, when you would want to start doing this. With my first, he was doing this around age 2, my next not until she was 4, as my 3rd child. My 3rd child, the current 4 year old, "Mary" loves to do all the sounds at once! SO, it's a little challenging, as she is not making those little successes with learning a couple sounds at a time. My 2 year old Babycakes is learning right with Mary so, again it really depends on the child.

Only 5 minutes per day is all it takes. Keep the lessons short. You also don't need sand-paper letters, as you can trace drawn letters just as easily. It's the repetitive, tracing the sound, saying the sound, having the child copy you tracing the sound and saying the sound. Which also gets them ready for handwriting and the correct way to write letters.

I hope this helps at least someone out there. It's simple, cheap and fun!