BJU Press Blog

pre-reading skills

3 Go-To Activities for Homeschooling Phonics

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homeschooling phonics letters
Last week my four-year-old and my nine-year-old were arguing over the ownership of a toy. Unlike many toys in our house, this one was clearly labeled with the owner’s name. But my four-year-old can’t read yet. She is, however, learning to recognize letters, so I decided that this was a good time to introduce her to letter-sound associations. Our conversation went like this:

Mom: (pointing to the first letter of the owner’s name) What letter is this?

Four-year-old: E.

Mom: Do you remember some words that start with E?

Four-year-old: Eggs, elephant, elbow.

Mom: That’s right! E makes the /ĕ/ sound like in elephant. Does your name start with the /ĕ/ sound?

Four-year-old: (shakes her head)

Mom: Do you know someone in our family whose name starts with the /ĕ/ sound?

At this point, my daughter knew who the toy belonged to. And she had used phonics to figure it out. Our impromptu lesson was a success!

Phonics is a term that refers to the association between the printed letter and the sound that letter represents. Most reading curricula include phonics instruction—without phonics, we would have difficulty reading unfamiliar words. But phonics instruction can get really complicated; the English language has only 26 letters, but they represent 44 distinct sounds. That’s why most phonics programs (including the one from BJU Press) begin by teaching children the names of the letters and then the sounds that the letters make at the beginning of words. Later they will listen for sounds at the end and sounds in the middle of the word.

How can you as a homeschool mom help your pre-reader learn those beginning sounds and get a good foundation for future phonics learning? Here are a few ideas.

Read to Your Child

The importance of reading to your child cannot be overemphasized. Every time you read to your child, you’re helping him or her develop several key pre-reading skills, including phonemic awareness, print awareness, vocabulary development, and more. Reading alphabet books such as the following may specifically help with letter-sound associations.

  • I Spy Letters (by Jean Marzollo)
  • Seuss’s Alphabet Book
  • The Alphabet Book (P. D. Eastman)

Play Letter Games

Games can make learning fun. Here are a few phonics games that all my children (even the older ones) enjoy.

  • Alphabet Bingo: Years ago, when one of my daughters was having difficulty with phonics, I picked up an inexpensive alphabet bingo game similar to the one on The Measured Mom. My kids still enjoy playing it!
  • Give your child several alphabet flash cards (a few at a time) and name an object that starts with one of the letters. See if your child can identify what letter the word for that object starts with.
  • Play a letter-sound matching game with this free printable from Totschooling and letter magnets or puzzle pieces.

Consider a Pre-Kindergarten Curriculum for Homeschooling Phonics

If your child is four (or close to it), you may also want to check out the Footsteps for Fours program from BJU Press to teach your child pre-reading and math skills as a preparation for kindergarten. We’re using it for the first time with our four-year-old daughter, and she loves it. She enjoys doing “school” like the older girls, and she’s learning a lot of foundational skills that will prepare her well for a future of learning.

4 Tips for Developing Phonemic Awareness

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eye cream ice cream phonemic awareness
Have you ever found yourself correcting your toddler or preschooler’s diction? “No, Abby. It’s not eye cream; it’s ice cream. Ice sounds like nice.” Then you start hissing like a snake to emphasize the /s/ sound in ice. It’s in those moments (ignoring the snickers of the adults around you) that you’re beginning to develop your child’s phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness happens when a child becomes mindful of the distinctive sounds that make up our language and can manipulate them. It’s an important skill for communication, but it’s also important as a pre-reading skill. In fact, many reading experts cite phonemic awareness as one of the best predictors of how successful a child will be in learning to read.

So how can you, as a homeschool mom, help your young child develop phonemic awareness? Here are a few ideas.

1. Read books (or poems) with a strong rhyme.

Teachers that specialize in early childhood education have good reason to love Dr. Seuss books. Just think of how many rhyming words are in the opening few pages of his book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (which many a mom has memorized). Since many of his rhyming words are not really words at all, they’re great for helping children focus on how the words sound. Other books you might want to check out include these:

  • Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw
  • I Spy A to Z: A Book of Picture Riddles or I Spy: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo
  • Huck Runs Amuck by Sean Taylor
  • Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr.

2. Play sound games.

Here are a few games that you can play with pre-readers to help them develop phonemic awareness.

  1. Choose a sound (such as /at/) and challenge your child to think of words that end with that sound.
  2. Choose a sound (such as /sh/) and challenge your child to think of words that begin with that sound.
  3. Make up silly sentences that have all the words starting with the same sound (like “Freddie Frog flipped flapjacks for Friday’s fellowship” or “Sandy Seahorse sorted six seashells.”)

3. Practice breaking words into syllables.

Sounding out words by syllables is also a good way to help children distinguish individual sounds. Encourage your kids to clap, jump, or stomp when saying each syllable so that they can get a sense of the word’s rhythm.

4. Consider a pre-kindergarten curriculum focusing on phonemic awareness.

If your child is four (or close to it), you may also want to consider using the K4 Foundations Distance Learning homeschool program from BJU Press to prepare your child for kindergarten. We’re using it for the first time with our four-year-old daughter, and she loves it. As a mom, I’ve been impressed with how well it holds her attention. And I love how she’s learning a lot of pre-reading skills, including phonemic awareness.  You can also check out the Footsteps for Fours curriculum (not available on Distance Learning)—my older two daughters used this program, and it’s also wonderful for developing phonemic awareness and other pre-reading skills.