The delightful adventure of teaching your child to read is
a 3-step process.
In this video, let's focus on step 2.
This is the step when it is time to start putting letters and sounds together to build
words.
Our kit, Words I Can Build, is full of multi-sensory games and activities that you can use to guide
your child into the exciting world of reading words.
To use this Level 2 kit, your child should already know the letters and their sounds.
If he doesn't, you'll want to start with the Level 1 kit, Playing with Letters and Sounds.
If your child knows the letters and the main sounds they make, he may be ready for Level
2.
Some children are ready to move on right away; others do better with some time to process
what they have learned before they move on.
Watch for a couple of things to help you know when your child may be ready for word-building.
Identify letters around him
Ask "What does that say?"
If that describes your child, the next step of your adventure may be beginning.
It might be time to "knock on the door" and see if it's ready to open.
Here's how you do that.
Start with the word "at."
Sometime while your child is playing, take two of his letters and put them together to
form the word "at."
Tell your child, "This is the word 'at.'
We use it when we say, 'We are at home' or 'We are at the park.'
" That's all.
Just that little touch.
Then maybe the next day, put those two letters together again and see if the child remembers
what the word is.
If he does, it's time to knock on the door.
Grab the C and ask, "Do you remember what the C says?
That's right, kuh.
Let's put kuh in front of at: kuh-at.
What have we now?"
And just see if he is ready to start putting letters and sounds together to form words.
If he looks at you like you have two heads, you'll know that he's not ready yet.
That's fine.
Go back to playing the games and activities in Kit 1 for a few more weeks.
Then knock on that door again and see if it's ready to open.
Above all, don't force the door open.
You will only frustrate your child and set up an aversion to reading.
Wait until your child is ready.
When he's ready, reading will happen and you can start building more words, still using
informal, multi-sensory games and activities to teach your child basic phonics guidelines.
The Words I Can Build kit contains these sturdy letter tiles, with uppercase letters on one
side and lowercase on the other, that you and your child can use to build hundreds of
words.
The Games and Activities Book will walk you through those basic phonics guidelines and
give you more then 90 wonderful games and activities that you and your child can do
together.
These activities encourage your child to listen, to speak, to handle objects, and to move as
he is learning.
6 decks of ready-to-use word cards are included, giving you more than 300 words to choose from
as you do the games and activities.
These little codes will tell you exactly which cards to use with which activities.
And I love how the cards will be easy to sort if they happen to get mixed together.
Just look for the beautiful pictures on the back.
At this level, you want to introduce words that mean something to your child.
Don't feel like you have to teach him every possible word that can be made with each letter
combination.
You might teach at, cat, bat, mat, rat; there is such a word as vat, but most likely your
child has no relation with that word.
So skip it for now.
He'll be able to read it later when he comes across it in context in a book, but for now,
let him learn word-building with those phonics guidelines using words that are his friends.
You will also find in the kit a special Words I Can Build book.
This will become a record of your child's special word friends.
Each time he plays with and learns how to build a different letter combination—whether
short vowel or long vowel or blends or whatever—he will have the opportunity to choose one of
the words he built and have you record it in his special book.
Notice I said that you will write the word.
The Words I Can Build kit is designed to require no handwriting from the child.
These colored dot stickers will help with some of the activities with no writing.
Many children are ready to read before their muscles are ready to write.
So no handwriting required.
Now, if your child is writing and loves to do it, you might allow him the privilege of
writing his chosen word into the book sometimes, but make it a special event.
The Words I Can Build book also gives your child the opportunity to see the words he
is learning in a variety of sizes and appearances: he builds them with the letter tiles, then
in the book he sees the words printed, with the letters closer together, and he sees them
hand-written.
With this Level 2 kit, Words I Can Build, your child will learn to build and read short-vowel
words, long-vowel words, vowels with -r and with -w, vowel diphthongs, words with blends
like -th and -sh and tr- and such.
As always, go at your child's pace.
Learning to read is not a race.
If your child needs to spend some time reviewing words he has learned before moving on, that's
perfectly fine.
He will learn to read when he is ready.
What he needs most right now is a loving adult who is confident that he will learn and who
allows him to grow as a respected individual.
So use these games and activities as a toolkit that you can pull from and use as your child
is ready for this step of the process.
Once he can read a couple of hundred words—short-vowel, long-vowel, and various blends and combinations—you
can help him make the exciting transition from words to books!
That's what the next kit is designed for.
You'll love Charlotte Mason's brilliant approach to teaching your child to read for himself.
Watch the video on Level 3, From Words to Books, next to see what those delightful reading
lessons look like.