Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers

Dominique Book Review, Parenting and Kids Phonics, Teaching Resources

Alpha Phonics Book Cover

Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers by Samuel L Blumenfeld is the phonics book that I have been using with both Doggie boy and Tiger girl for the past few months. We received the book together with the CD back in January and I have been working through the 128 lessons with the kids.

This book works through the different letters of the alphabet and phonetic sounds. The book is divided into two sections. It’s all contained in one spiral-bound book. The first half of the book contains the student reading lessons, and the second part of the book contains the Teacher’s Manual. The student pages are white, and the teacher pages are a creamy color so that you can easily find what you’re looking for. I found this really useful as it guides you on what to focus on while teaching the various letter sounds to the kids.

The CD-ROM attached in the book allows one to go through the lesson on the go or on the PC. I tried out both the CD-ROM and the book with the kids and we prefer the book as it was easier to read through then on the screen.

We use the book as an after dinner activity with the kids to get them ready for study time. Both Doggie boy and Tiger girl started off at lesson 1 and are at Lesson 69 and Lesson 35 respectively. I haven’t completed the book with either kid yet as we are still slowly making our way through the book. However based on the lessons that we have completed I have seen an improvement in their understanding of Phonics.

Tiger girl reading from the book

Tiger girl is now able to pronounce all the sounds of the alphabet letters and simple two vowel words. She is slowly learning to identify certain words by sight and increasing her vocabulary.

Doggie boy on the other hand I have seen an improvement in his vocabulary and pronunciation of the words phonetically. He is also able to identify more words and read more confidently after being on this program.

My thoughts

Even though reading and learning phonics through a book is not as interesting as using interactive Apps or using online games of DVDs I find this method more effective. My kids retain the information thought better and I can see an improvement in their understanding of phonics.

I certainly recommend that you consider using this book to teach your child phonics.

You can purchase this book from Amazon

Disclaimer: I received a copy of Alpha-phonics for review purposes. All opinions are 100% my own.

April 15, 2008

Teaching Phonics to toddlers

Dominique Recommendations Phonics, Toddlers

How to teach Phonics at home? This question has been raised by many parents of toddlers that I know.

Before you decide on the which phonics activity to start with do look at the Phonic Skills chart to assess the stage of readiness your child is at.

There are many ways- online and offline where you can assist your child in learning phonics.

Online

Starfall.com– is the best website I know that teaches children the phonetic pronouncation of the letters of the alphabets, there is also focus on consonant blending. There are also short stories for reading there.

Reading n Phonics- There is a shooting game where you shoot down the correct alphabet which is being ‘targeted’

Scholastic has a rhyming & matching word game which you can try with your child when they are able to identify the basic sounds of words.

Offline

Gigglepotz.com has printable/downloadable phonic cards. There are also PDF phonetic storybooks which you can print out and read with your child.

Here are some products which I have listed in my A*store which you can consider.