Get these flashcards!
Many people start teaching their children to read by teaching them their alphabet. Yes! The alphabet is an important building block to reading. BUT, what is really important, is that your child is able to link the symbol (letter) to the sound (phoneme). I LOVE teaching Fundations by Wilson Language because they are all around amazing at systematic phonics instruction. You don’t need to be a teacher to buy their flashcards! Here is what is so great about the Foundation flash cards:
The cards include capital and lowercase letters on the same card so your child associates the symbols together
The cards include a picture that begins with the most common sound for that letter. For example Gg “game” /g/. (one exception is /x/ which they pair with “fox” because there are no words in English that begin with /x/ (sounds like “ks”)
What to watch out for when purchasing ABC cards or books:
Capital letters only
Key words that do not match the most common sound for that letter. Example Gg-Giraffe. The soft g is not the sound we want student primarily linking with the symbol Gg. Another common example Ii-Ice Cream. We want students to learn the short vowel sound first.
When you practice:
Say the letter name
Say the key word
Say the sound
Example: “A”-apple-/a/
Practice every day and your child will have their ABCs down before you know it.
