phonics book

A good phonics book has a lot of repetition and sentences that sometimes make sense

To teach reading to a child you should teach phonics. Phonics takes the guesswork out of reading. With phonics you have a way to sound out words so they sound the way we speak. If your child can speak the word

To teach phonics it is best to have a phonics book that contains a lot of rhyme and repetition, or you can use the Montessori way and make up words with sandpaper letters. The sandpaper letters have the advantage off adding feeling to the learning experience. 

A good phonics book will have lists of rhyming words like cat, mat, sat, hat, and bat. The accompanying passage will have sentences using all the rhyming words that make up a story. Even if the story doesn’t make complete sense it doesn’t matter, as you are getting your child to say similar sounding words. Anyway your child will not really understand the story, but that doesn’t matter. The main exercise of the story is to expose your child to as many rhyming words that sound the same, so your child can start to distinguish between different sounds. 

When I read these rhyming stories with my kids I like to make up the main words with sandpaper letters. Then you only have to change one letter to make up a new word, Children seem to love these sandpaper letters as it gives them a break from reading all the time. And the simple action of drawing the letters prepares the child to start writing.

For a list of phonics courses that I recommend as well as a Montessori course see our teach reading page.