PICTURE THIS: a family outing that’s great for all ages, affordable, and (shh!) educational too. Sound too good to be true? Not if you’ve got a digital camera and a sharp eye for letter shapes, as my family recently discovered they have. My 10-year-old, Ava, and 5-year-old, Harry, loved going on an I Spy […]
Letter X is a very unreliable letter that make the sounds:     /x/ as in x-ray     /ks/ as in six     /z/ as in xylophone 1. Present a capital and lower case X to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  This is a tricky […]
1. Present a capital and lower case U to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  Explain that U is one of the letters that can make different sounds. One sound it makes is the same as the name of the letter. Give examples of hard […]
The Letter Y is an unreliable letter that acts as both a consonant and a vowel. It makes a wide range of sounds including /y/ /e/ and /i/.  1. Present a capital and lower case Y to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sound it makes.  Explain […]
The Letter S is a very unreliable letter that often makes sounds other than the base /s/ sound:     /s/ as in snake     /z/ as in was     /sh/ as in sheep   1. Present a capital and lower case S to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and […]
The letter Q is an extremely reliable, but redundant, letter. It does not make its own unique sound — it makes the /kw/ sound as in queen. This makes it a difficult letter for children to sound out.  1. Present a capitol and lower case Q to your child. See if she knows the […]
1. Present a capitol and lower case O to your child. See if she knows the name of the letter and the sounds it makes. Explain that it’s a letter that sometimes makes the same sound as its name. Give examples of long o words such as ocean, only and oatmeal. See if she knows […]
The letter M is an extremely reliable letter. It only makes the mmmm sound as in mat. This makes it an easy letter to teach. The activities are organized from easiest to most difficult. Feel free to go only part way through the activities depending on the comfort level of the child!  1. Present […]
