Cumulative Review in Phonics: The Strategy Most Programs Skip
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.…
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.
When four-year-old Emma visits Grandma Sarah, magic happens. They curl up in the old...
Between soccer practice, dinner prep, and bedtime routines, finding time for phonics practice can...
The last day of school arrives with excitement and relief, but lurking beneath the...
Your energetic six-year-old sits down for phonics practice, excited to learn new letter sounds....
When nine-year-old Marcus sits down with his fourth-grade chapter book, he looks confident and...
A classroom full of third graders opens their science textbooks, ready to learn about...
Your three-year-old walks up to you holding a book, points to the letter ‘M’,...
Your five-year-old was excitedly sounding out simple words just last month, proudly reading “cat”...
Did you know that before children can successfully crack the reading code, they must...
Your child sits at the kitchen table, pencil in hand, dutifully filling in letters...
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…
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…
