Learning to read is meant to be a fun experience, one that each child enjoys so that they can really treasure the stories that come out of written text. I can remember many stories that were read to me as a child, but none were more special than the ones I read to myself. It gave me an opportunity to let my own imagination bring the adventure written on the pages to life. I am so looking forward to watching and being a part of my children going on their learning journey.
But before anyone can read a word, let alone a sentence, they need to be familiar with the building blocks of our written language - the sounds that each letter makes. It is important to know the names of letters, but to be able to string them together to make a word it takes a familiarity of the sounds they make when we read them, the “phonics”. This is something you will be hearing a lot of as your little ones start school.
The easiest way to do this is to start with the sound words begin with. In this My Busy Bots bag called “Something beginning with...” little ones are introduced to amusing characters and images. An essential way to keep the learning and discovery light hearted. Each card has pictures that start with the same sound and as they say the names of the pictures out aloud they will be able to identify what that sound is and match it up with the right plastic letter.
My friend’s daughter loved doing this activity sitting on the floor in front of my fridge. Each letter is also a magnet, so as she identified the sound on each card and found the matching letter she was able to place them up on the fridge and to her delight they did not fall off!