How to Teach Phonics to Kids: Easy Ways for Parents

As a child did you ever struggle with spelling and reading? Was it a task for you to remember spellings and you often got confused?

Do not be embarrassed if your answer is a yes. Most of us struggled and the main reason behind this was the way we were taught spellings. It was about just learning and this often affected writing skills as well.

I also struggled and much later in life I figured out that the answer to this problem is to use phonics.

As we were not taught like this and are new to the concept, we often struggle with how to teach phonics to kids. And as we find it a little difficult we go back to the conventional way. This is not right and thus, in this post, I will try and help you with the problem of how to teach phonic step by step.

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What are Phonics?

Let us start with the basics first as many of us might be new to this concept. What are phonics?

Phonics is a way to teach kids how to read and write. It works on the concept of hearing, identifying and using different sounds to help differentiate between words in the English language.

The basic thing about phonics is that it helps the child read by recognizing individual sounds of a word and blending them together to read it. Thus, phonics teaches children to decode letters into their respective sounds and makes reading and writing easy for them.

When my daughter started school last year, for many parents it was an unfamiliar method and most parents would ask how to teach phonics to kids.

Why is Teaching Phonics Essential

Phonics is important as it helps children learn to read and write simply without putting any kind of pressure on the child. It has been proved, that if a child is forced or pressurized to learn at a young age, it can have an adverse impact and can often lead to disinterest.

The first few years of school are the foundation years, and instilling the concepts and making it easy for them at this stage should be the primary responsibility of teachers and parents. Phonics is one such way.

English as a language uses letters in the alphabets to signify a sound. This makes it imperative for a child to learn the relationship between the letter and the sound. With this concept in their head, they will be able to turn the words in the sound when they see them and thus, learn to read.

Many studies have been conducted and they prove that the method of teaching kids by using phonics is better than other approach. Rote learning does not equip the child with the ability to read a new word. Instead, if they learn using phonics, they can apply sounds and read more complex words.

When Should You Introduce Phonics to Your Child

It is a proven fact that teaching phonics to your child is a much better way to introduce reading. Before you focus on how to teach phonics to kids, the question should be when should you introduce phonics to your child.

Kids between the age of 3 and 4 start recognizing the alphabets and this is the right time to introduce phonics to your child. When the child knows the letter, they will be more comfortable understanding the basic concept of phonics.

English has 44 syllable sounds and thus, it is at this age the kids become aware of these sounds and can easily apply the concept. By application, I mean they can separate words based on their sounds.

My daughter started school when she was nearly 4. In the last year, she has learnt most of the alphabets and their sounds and now tries breaking the sounds and reading.

Remember the Basics if you want to know How to Teach Phonics to Kids

A very important aspect of introducing phonics to your child is to ensure that they are familiar with the concept of reading. There are many benefits of reading to your child and when they hear the parents reading, they learn the sounds and the words and also recognize the letters.

For a child, there are many concepts that are new and important. We as parents do not realize that a child has to be taught this. For example, I remember I never realized that Little Miss A has to be told to read left to right. I somehow took it for granted.

It is always advisable to start phonics with your child at the right age and as early as possible so that they grasp the concepts and start reading easily and in a fast way.

How to Teach Phonics To Kids

Understanding the importance of phonics is essential but there is no doubt why this should not be the preferred way to teach kids versus the conventional way of rote learning.

Once you are convinced, the bigger and the more important thing is how to teach phonics to kids. Kids need to understand the relationship between the sounds and the letters and this is what equips them to read.

Thus for the right way to how to teach phonic step by step, you must follow the three basic steps:

• Recognise the letter
• Recognise the sound
• Associate the two

There are many fun activities which can be done with the child for this.

If you want to know how to teach phonics to kids, you must work as per the following three steps:

Sounds

You must start by teaching your child to see the letter so that they recognise it and then say the sound. Often in phonic programmes, the child is taught S, A, T, P, I and N first. Kids also must learn the formation.

To get them to write or not varies from school to school and from programme to programme depending on the age of the child. For example, my daughter at 4 has not been asked to write but just trace using fingers on different materials.

Youtube has many videos for the sounds and these are helpful.

Blending

For anyone working on how to teach phonics to kids, the next step they follow is blending of sounds. The first combination is of consonant, vowel and consonant. In this the child joins and blends the sounds and starts reading three letter words like, mat, pan, tap, cat etc.

The next they do is consonant, consonant, vowel and consonant (CCVC) like play and then CVCC like fast.

Digraphs

Once the child is conformable with blending, they are introduced to the concept of digraphs. The child here first learns on two consonant digraphs like sh, ch etc. and then moves to vowel digraphs like oo, ea etc.

After this, they move to read words by sounding them out like boon, fair etc.

Tricky Words

With the digraphs or after it, the child is introduced to common exception words or tricky words. These essentially are the words that do not follow the rules of phonics.

The Next Steps

The above are the beginning steps and once the above are done, the child works on graphemes which means how a sound can be represented in two ways like ai in main and ay in may.

At this stage, the child will be able to read most words phonetically if not correct and then a recognition of unfamiliar words will make them more fluent.

Example to Introduce A Sound

This is something I have learnt from Miss A’s school and it is undoubtedly a great and effective way to teach a sound to a child. As a parent I wanted to know how to teach phonic step by step and this approach works well.

I will give an example and this should give you a fair idea on how to teach phonics to kids at the beginner level.

Let me give the example of sound s,

Step 1: Show the card with the formation

Step 2: Tell the sound. Use videos for explaining if needed. For example, for the sound ‘s’, this Olive and Rhyme Rescue Crew is great.

Step 3: Brainstorm and find objects with the sound. You can make it fun by asking them to draw as many kids learn better with visuals. Words like sun, sand, sip, soil, sit etc can be said aloud with emphasis on the sound.

Step 4: Tell a story with the sound s to see the usage. For s, this is an example.

The best way is to spend a week and do various activities for the kids to understand and apply.

Fun Ways to Teach Phonics to Your Child

If you are interested in phonics and want to know on how to teach phonics to kids, the above basic steps should help. If you are new to it as well, taking help is better.

The following fun ways can help you to teach phonic step by step:

Flash Cards

Flash cards are one of my favourite ways to introduce concepts to Little Miss A. I have extensively used flash cards since a baby and this is also a great tool for right brain activities.

(If you want to know more about right brain development, the post, Know Why Right Brain Activities are Important for Your Child is helpful)

Coming back to phonics, making, printing or buying flash cards really helps. The first step should be to make a set of 26 letters. You can write either upper case, lower case or both. As Miss A’s school focuses on lower case to start with and also in a particular pattern, we have made them accordingly.

If you want to buy, the Jolly Phonics Cards are a great choice. You can buy the by clicking here.

Magnetic Letters

Magnetic letters help kids recognise letters and then learn to blend and make words. These can be put next to the refrigerator or a board, and the child can be not only kept busy but also learn phonics.

Reading

Reading is the most effective way to introduce the child to phonics and help them practice. For a parent, reading is the best way to spend quality time and also there are innumerable benefits.

There is no right age to start reading to your child, earlier the better.

If you want to know when to start reading, read the post, What is the Right Age to Start Reading to Babies?

Level 1 of reading books are ideal to introduce them to blend the sounds. Books like The Fat Cat Sat on a Mat and similar books are fun to read with kids.

Activity Books

Besides reading, there are activity books that can be used to learn and practice. These use different activities to introduce sounds and help the child blend them.

Some good books for the same are:

Jolly Kids My First Book of Phonics Words

Peppa Pig Sticker Activity Book

Collins Phonics Bumper Book

Suggestions

To know more fun activities you should check this list of 14 Phenomenal Phonics Activities for Preschoolers.

You can also follow the page Earlyscape by Simrit Chawla, to read more about phonics and activities.

How to Teach Phonics

Phonics is an interesting and very helpful way to teach your child to spell and read. The rote learning just creates issues with kids and what lacks is an understanding and application of concepts.

With phonics, the child works on reading as a concept and not by force. If you want to teach your child phonics and do not know how to teach phonic step by step, then taking a professional help is a great idea. Certified teachers make the whole learning process fun.

If you have basic knowledge, there are many resources available for parents who want to know how to teach phonics to kids.

Teaching phonics is not tough. All you need is an understanding and a systematic approach and you will soon see your little one reading with no difficulty.