Word Sorting: The Low-Tech Phonics Strategy with Big Results
Among kindergarten teachers, word sorting holds a quiet kind of reverence. It asks for nothing more than a small pile of word cards and a child willing to look closely,…
Your family plays a big role in helping your child learn to read and write. With the right phonics activities at home, you can support your child’s literacy development and academic success. The more you understand how and why phonics instruction works, the better you can facilitate effective and meaningful learning experiences with your family.
To help your child practice phonics at home, read our insights for parents below! You can also browse our phonics program reviews for more.
Your child has been learning letter sounds for weeks. They can tell you that...
Right now, you’re reading these words without thinking about how you’re doing it. Your...
Most parents celebrate when their child can sound out words on a page. That’s...
Before a child ever sees a letter on a page, their brain is already...
Your child passed the eye exam with flying colors, but they still mix up...
Your family speaks Spanish at home, but your child is learning to read in...
Most people assume phonics and hearing loss don’t belong in the same sentence. After...
Your toddler points at the dog, lights up with excitement, but stays silent. Meanwhile,...
There’s a moment that many first-grade parents describe with the same kind of wonder,...
There is a well-documented shift that occurs around third grade, which literacy researchers have...
Among kindergarten teachers, word sorting holds a quiet kind of reverence. It asks for nothing more than a small pile of word cards and a child willing to look closely,…
Most parents and teachers think of reading and writing as separate skills taught at different times of day. Reading comes first, the thinking goes, and writing follows once a child…
Walk into any kindergarten classroom, and you will see two very different books being handed to children learning to read. One says, “Sam can tap. Sam can nap.” The other…
When a child learns the short /a/ sound on Monday, blends CVC words on Tuesday, tackles digraphs on Wednesday, and then never returns to short /a/ again, something strange happens.…
Imagine handing a child a jigsaw puzzle with no picture on the box and no guidance about where to begin. A few kids might figure it out eventually, but most…
Here’s something that might surprise you: the order of a phonics lesson matters almost as much as the content inside it. A child who sits down for 20 minutes of…
Most parents only hear about reading problems when it’s already late in the game. A vague comment at a parent-teacher conference, a worrying score on a state test, a teacher…
Walk into any effective elementary classroom during literacy time, and you’ll likely see something that looks a bit like organized chaos. A teacher works intently with four students at a…
If your child’s school sent home a note about an upcoming “phonics screener,” you might have felt a flash of worry. Is it a test? Will my child pass or…
Here’s something most parents don’t realize: Two five-year-olds sitting side by side in the same kindergarten classroom can be months apart in their reading readiness, and both can be perfectly…
