What do you ACTUALLY need to teach the letter sounds?
Honestly?
A pen and the back of an old envelope
You don’t need 50 worksheets or a whiteboard with 5 different markers that dry up in 3 days, 'cause your kid lost all the lids.
Seriously though, you can 100% teach your child the letter sounds for free.
Write the sounds on bits of paper
Start with lower case as this is what they'll see more often when reading
Tell them the sound it makes
Teaching them the sound not the letter name. Again this is what they'll need when they start reading.
Cat is not sounded out see, ay, tee. Although that does sound fancy!
Repeat
Sorry, this is the essential (and sometimes boring) part. You need to go over it loads of times to help them remember. We want it so automatic that when they see that squiggle they know straight away it means s.
That’s literally it.
Now there ARE ways to make it more fun & memorable
Make up silly stories, pictures or actions
Giving your kiddo somthing to link the sound with the shape of the letter can really help them remember.
m - "Hey, it kind of looks like mountains. Let's make our hand go over the mountains"
u - "Let's pretend the lines are pointing up. Up, u, u.
h - "I can give this horse a head. Horses don't like loud noises so it says 'h' very quietly."
My students often make up their own little sound stories now or ask, "What's the story for this sound?"
Play games
We all know know kiddo can't sit still for long. Make it fun & active.
Sound Search
Write sounds on sticky notes and hide them around the house. Call out the sound (not the letter name) or a word that starts with that sound and send your kiddo to find it.
Sound Jumps
Write letter sounds on the conceret in chalk and jusp on them saying the sounds
Disappearing Sounds
With a clean (I can not emphasise this enough) paintbrush, dip in water and write a letter on the concrete. It will disappear as it dries.
Warning: only do this with kiddos who unbderstand that water is not paint.
Can you tell I taught 5 year olds. I needed ALL the tricks to stop them getting sick of me repeating the sounds over and over.
Spot letter sounds in the wild
Teach as you go. Start refferring to the letetrs by their sounds (yes you'll sound weird at first).
Theres a w. (not double you though, wwww)
Can you find 3 s sounds.
There's letters everywhere so keep pointing them out. Just like we talk about colours, talk about the letter sounds and numebrs.
And of course if you'd rather just print out some cards than make your own each time ('cause why not)
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