Small Group Phonics Instruction: How to Make It Work
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…
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.
Many parents watch their children’s hard-won phonics skills fade during extended school holidays, but...
Your child watches snowflakes drift past the window, clutching a mug of warm apple...
The menorah glows on the kitchen counter. Your preschooler watches the first candle flicker...
New Year’s brings fresh starts, new goals, and celebrations around the world. You pull...
You open a picture book with your four-year-old. The words dance across the page...
Your child snuggles beside you on a cold December evening, eyes bright with anticipation...
The twinkling lights are up, cookies are baking, and your eager young reader wants...
Picture a seven-year-old who can explain the water cycle in stunning detail, design elaborate...
Rachel teaches first grade in a suburban elementary school. Last year, she watched five...
You open the package with equal parts excitement and dread. Inside sits your investment...
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…
Your child has been learning letter sounds for weeks. They can tell you that “s” says /s/ and “a” says /a/ and “t” says /t/. Then you hand them a…
Right now, you’re reading these words without thinking about how you’re doing it. Your brain is instantly converting letters into sounds and sounds into meaning, all in milliseconds. But there…
Most parents celebrate when their child can sound out words on a page. That’s a huge milestone. But here’s what often gets overlooked: decoding is not the finish line. A…
Before a child ever sees a letter on a page, their brain is already building the architecture for reading. It happens through thousands of hours of being spoken to, sung…
Your child passed the eye exam with flying colors, but they still mix up “b” and “d,” lose their place on the page, and get frustrated every time they sit…
Your family speaks Spanish at home, but your child is learning to read in English at school. Or perhaps your household runs on Mandarin, Arabic, or Somali, and your kindergartener…
Most people assume phonics and hearing loss don’t belong in the same sentence. After all, phonics is about sounds, and hearing loss means limited access to sound, right? It’s a…
