Vowels and Consonants

Vowels and Consonants.
Because we are going to start your child reading right away, we will need to introduce all of the vowels. Vowels are very difficult to master when learned separately; some sound so much alike, that they really need to be learned alongside their similar sounding partner.

Here's how it's done:
"A" says (say short a sound) as in a a a apple. A says a a a.
"E" says (say short e sound) as in
Be very careful here not to use "elephant" or "elk" or any other word that might give the child the impression that the word starts with the "L" sound. The same principal applies for "envelope" or "ember", or any word that makes the "N" (en) or "M" (em)
sound.
We are teaching short vowel sounds at first. This is because your child will be primarily reading short words with the short vowel sound.

Please note, though, we will only be comparing two at any given lesson.

These two vowels are good ones to start with. In the days to come, your child will be forming words.

The Alphabet

Naturally, before your child can learn to read, the alphabet must be mastered.
It is not necessary to teach all the letters of the alphabet prior to introducing word; however, your child simply must know the sounds thoroughly of all of the letters in each word you introduce.

Shall we begin?

In my method, I don't teach the alphabet straight through from a to z. Well, actually, I could, but this would be quite boring.
Imagine a five year old having to learn (by sight, sound, and name) 26 characters that he/she had never before seen. Now, imagine
that many of those characters look one way when hand written, and another way when typed, as in a book (a and g are 2 examples.)
Also, let's not forget that certain letters, like b, p, d, q, and p....well, you see the difficulty.
The bottom line is, it takes an awfully long time to get the letters right.
The simple truth is, your son or daughter is going to differentiate b and d alot easier one at a time, emphasized with "The Tale of the Boy and the Dog" then they are learning these letters simultaneously alongside 24 others.

Let's continue with our first lesson.

Welcome to my Teaching Blog

Hi. My name is Sue, and I welcome you to my teaching blog. Here, I cover the basics on beginning read, and move into the advanced levels.
As this blog evolves, I move from level to level. I can only invest so much time daily, so check back if your level hasn't been blogged yet.
Enjoy.