A fun word-building game for 2.5 - 3 yr olds

In my previous post I have written about making your own flashcards. Once you have your first set of flashcards, you can start building words. Start off saying," This is aa (phonetically-remember we don’t call it by the alphabet name, the first rule is to call the word by its phonetic sound). And this is tuh(for T). So when we put the two together (do that), aa and tuh, it is at. Now we keep 'at' constant, and add different letters in front" .At this point you can build different words...bat, cat, sat, rat, fat. Make bat and say," We add buh to at and we get bat. Do this for all the other words too. 

This tells the child the logic behind building words. Play with this method. Now, keep the first 2 letters the same and change the last. bat, bad, ban, bag etc. Make this a game where, at first you build words together, once your child gets the hang of this, you build words and help him read them out. Later, let the child build the words, however nonsensical they are, you read them phonetically. At this point we are trying to teach the child the logic of reading. Children love this. 

Now that you and your child have got the hang of it, make similar set of flashcards for other vowels too. 

I know I tend to repeat this, but let this be, a game and enjoyable. You will cause more harm than good, if you do not stop when your child is done. Children have a small attention span. Slowly build on it. But take cues from them. Do not bore them, they will not learn.


In the next post we will talk about introducing sight words and vowel pairs. Sight words and phonics go hand in hand for overall easy reading. The words that bind, phonetic words together to form sentences are sight words, e.g. the, and, so etc. Learning some sight words simultaneously will help the kids read easy sentences.

Post comments down, if you have any doubts.

Making you own flashcards to teach phonics

In my previous blog, I had written about ways to introduce reading to your kids. In this part I talk about making your own flashcards to supplement your teaching effort.

Flashcards should be plain. So, the attractive colours and graphics don't distract the child. Normal font (Arial), in large size (18) and in colour red. Create a table in Microsoft word and put one letter per cell (partition). Take a colour print-out and then cut the letters out to separate them. You can stick each of them on same size card board or get each of them laminated separately, the way I do. For home use sticking on cardboard is good enough.

Flashcards can be used to associate sounds with the alphabet and also for a words building game. You can create flashcards of all the alphabets to teach them phonetically, but I suggest making flashcards in sets. For each set, take one vowel (a,e,i,o,u) and a set of consonants(b.c.d.f.g or non-vowels), to build three letter (CVC-consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

For example, first you choose the vowel, 'a'. Think of a list of words that you would like to build with 'a' in the middle. A few that I selected are: Bat, cat, sat, rat, fat, bat, bad, ban, bag. Now create a list of all the alphabets that you will require, and create flashcards of those. For the above words you will need: a, t, b, d, r, f, n, g.

Comment below if there are any doubts. Check my next post about flashcards for word building game.

Easy reading by phonics.

Easy reading by phonics.

What is a good age for kids to start reading? Isn't it too early to pressurise my kids into reading? As a mother of 2 young kids, I was in a quest for good ways for child developement. Attended several different workshops and courses and realised...No, it is never too early. And no again, you never pressurise them.

Have you observed that, kids love to learn. Yes, they do. Give them the right information, in the right way, at the right time and they will be all ears. Give them the same toy everyday and they loose interest. But, if you give them a new toy everyday...you know what I mean. Once they have learned everything there is to learn, about a toy, they move on. This shows, they love to learn, more than they love to play.

The right approach to reading is play way. But what way? You don't wake up one day and say, oh my son is 1 1/2 yr old, I have to start teaching him alphabets. You introduce alphabets to him everyday, naturally. It is not natural to look at an alphabet and say this is D. Start with the phonics first, e.g while talking about a dog you say D-OG. D-OG starts with D (duh). This develops the understanding of phonics. Do this all the time with words. But never overdo it. Stop before you child is bored.

After you do this for a good 6 mo., you move on to introducing the alphabets. The letters preferably should be in the form of flashcards of lower-case alphabets. In most books that we read, letters are in the lowercase. The sentence starts with an upper-case, and the rest of it is in lowercase letters. Therefore, as a natural progression the child needs to be introduced to lowercase letters and their sounds(phonics), first. e.g. b says buh, c says kuh. The vowels sound like they do, in three letter words. For more information on phonics and interactive site for young kids http://www.starfall.com/. This is my favourite site and my kids have learnt a lot here, independently.

Once your child is fairly comfortable with phonics the next step is to use alphabet flashcards to have a game of building 3 letter words. Use plain flashcards, and not the ones with flashy colors and graphics. Plain words, in normal font(Arial), in large size(18), in color red. Choose one vowel,e.g. a says aa as in apple and t says tuh. Now keep 'at' constant, and add different letters in the first position, to build different words...bat, cat, sat, rat, fat. This tells the child the logic behind building words. Play with this method. Now, keep the first 2 letters the same and change the last. bat, bad, ban, bag etc. Your child will love this. See the twinkle in his eyes when he sees how it is actually done and feels the control over reading. More information about making your own flashcards on my next blog. Before, you move to this step, look for signs that your child is ready for it. Never go ahead of your child's capacity, he will simply loose interest and never want to do it.

I used this method with my son, and he was reading phonetic words by 3 yrs. and he could spell most long phonetic words too. Do it when your child and you are in a good mood. Do not approach this as teaching your child. Just enjoy sharing what you know, with him.

Let me know if you find this information helpul. If you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it, I will share more of my experiences. I will be updating new blogs from time-to-time. See you later...

How I got interested in methods to teach reading

We lived in the US and my daughter went to school there. I saw different methods of teaching, reading to kids. The one that I especially liked, was the one followed by the Montessori school that she attended there.

She was reading earlier than the peers and I credit that to the natural and systematic approach to reading and phonics. I moved back to India and totally forgot about it. Till one day when I remembered how my daughter was reading at a young age. So I developed my own method as an extension to the Montessori method. I taught this to my son and I saw results. He was not only reading earlier but now he finds it enjoyable. He is far ahead of his peers and has developed the main thing, that confidence. He attends Jr. Kg. but reads better than the Sr. Kg. kids.

Later, I started a library for young kids and educated the mothers about this. All those who followed it saw good results and I am encouraged to share it with a wider audience.

My next post talks about how you start off with your kid.