Teaching ABC, phonics and 'sight words'

If your kid's teacher has asked you to go through letters, sounds or words that they need to know but you have no idea how to do it then this post is for you!

It seems pretty common these days for schools to ask parents to do some work at home with their children on their letters, phonics and, more recently, sight words (or red words). Sight words are words that must be learned rather than read phonetically - such as 'the, 'we', 'your'. We currently have a list of over 60 that my (almost) five year old must learn.

How do you do it???!!!

I have made a video to show some basic ways that I have taught my children. Please take a look and let me know what you think!

https://vimeo.com/260269786

Make it fun!

If kids are having fun, they don't feel like its a chore and learning happens naturally. I will always start with a quick drill of what we are learning and drill the new word or phonic into them but then we will go onto a game. Recent games have been...

Create a place for your child to stand, spread the letters or words out onto the floor and find a beanbag. I actually didn't have a bean bag so I found a bag of aluminum stones used for baking flans (!). Get your kid to stand in the circle (or whatever you have used) and say a word/phonic/letter. Your child has to throw the beanbag onto the correct sheet of paper.

Make a scavenger hunt. Hide the letters/phonics/words all over the house. When your child finds one get them to tell you what it is. Its important to drill what they have learned as much as possible!

Create a 'washing line' and have your kid fetch the letter when you say it. Alternatively you could have them throw something at the letter or even shoot the letter with a nerf gun/silly string/water

Further ideas

Look around the house and see what you have:

Shaving foam? Get them to write letters or words out when they're in the bath!

Playdoh? Use alphabet cutters to practice! Though maybe do this at the end because it might be hard to stop the lesson just becoming play!

Have space to move around? Pin letters or words to four corners of the room or garden and have kids run to the right corner when you say the letter/word.

Play a memory game by hiding each of the cards or sheets of paper under something (you could even use soft toys). Say the sound or word and see if they can remember which toy it was under.

There is no end to what you can do. Check back for more ideas soon and good luck!!

#hometeaching #momskills #education #preschool #preschoolers #kindergarten