Early Readers First Phonic Stories

If you have worked with me using my five secrets of child literacy, your child can now recognize every sound of the alphabet. You have played the games:

“Let’s see who can find ‘a’.”

“I wonder where ‘z’ is hiding.”

You have walked along alphabet roads, zoomed your sports car around Formula One alphabet circuits and taken ‘y’ and ‘p’ for a ride in the pram with teddy and a doll. Alphabet letters are fun, they are friends.

Now we approach the magic of those letters. They make words, which make stories.

Begin sounding out the words of your alphabet chart.: ‘a’ (slither) ‘n’ (slither) ‘t’ then say the word ant. Then in the same way, b..e..d, c.a..t, d..o..g, e..l..f, f..r..o..g, g..i..f..t, h..a..t, i..n..k, j..u..g, k..i..d, l..o..g, m..u..m, n..e..s..t, o..x, p..i..g, qu..i..l..t, r..e..d, s..a..d, t..o..p, u..p, v..a..n, w..a..g..o..n, f..o..x, y..a..k, z..e..b..r..a.

If your new reader finds it difficult to slither across a word, set the letters out (written on postcards in red) on the floor, then slither across together, taking care nobody falls!

Now try:

j..i..g, n..o..t, s..i..t, c..a..b, h..o..t, s..a..t, f..a..t, r..a..t, f..l..a..p, c..o..l..d, f..l..a..g, c..r..a..m, s..t..e..p, t..r..a..p , and any others you can think up. At this stage the words should not have ‘e’ on the end as in page or line and nor should they have a final ‘y’ as in happy, silly, funny. These words come soon.

Slithering is especially important, it is the way your child will read for the rest of his life. Start the habit young and he will do it automatically and won’t ever be tempted to guess.

The complementary skill of comprehension.

If you want to hand your child the very golden gift of comprehension (understanding what he reads) as well as the skill of reading, simply laugh at the silly stories. Joke about the hen running fast, the frog hopping, the ten frogs in a van. Bring the stories to life, and by doing this your little reader will understand that a collection of words has a meaning, it tells you something. Above all, encourage your child to draw the pictures of these funny stories.

You will bless these early comprehension exercises when your son or daughter is doing final Secondary School exams or is working through the challenging test questions of a degree.

Remember, reading must be a game.

“You read one word I’ll read the next.”

“Let’s sit in the garden and read to each other.”

Write the words on cards as suggested above, and walk along a word road to the beach or the fairground or to some shopping. This way, not only will you be teaching your child reading and comprehension, you will also be developing his imagination ready for the stories he will have to dream up at school by age seven.

I have mentioned previously that you are your child’s finest mentor, but only if you keep it simple, non demanding and happy. As you progress you will not only achieve the objective of teaching your child to read, comprehend and imagine, but your relationship with that child will develop, grow and deepen as you laugh together and enjoy this time.

As this closeness is established you will identify and evaluate the manner in which your child learns, this awareness will stand you both in good stead throughout his education. Children learn differently, even within a family. There is the fast learner, the slow, deep thinker, the sideways learner ( our little lateral thinker), the average plodder, the prodigy and combinations of two or all. There is no right or wrong way, no good learner or poor learner, they are simply different. They must never be compared or labelled. Every child must be allowed to learn and develop in the way his brain has been programmed and so, in order to maximize your child’s potential, he must be permitted to learn in his own way.

The following ‘stories’ are straight from my series of books ‘Alonah Reading Cambridge.’ They have been used for many years and are excellent beginners.

Story One

C-a-n a f-r-o-g j-u-m-p u-p?

Y-e-s a f-r-o-g c-a-n j-u-m-p u-p.

P-i-g-s a-n-d c-a-t-s c-a-n l-e-t u-s p-a-t a-n-d p-e-t.

Hens can run fast and jump on logs.

Frogs can hop, hop, hop and hip, hip, hip.

Pigs and cats can sit on red mats and folded rugs.

Story Three

Len is a pink pig.

Len has a Mum pig.

Len sits on an old qu-i-l-t.

Len can sit and hop and run and jump.

Len’s best pal is Dig a golden dog.

Len’s next pal is Cam, a crab.

Len has a red hat and Dig has a pink hat, Cam has a box of old tins.

Len and Cam and Dig had a bun and a drink of milk.

Story Five

Stan has a van and Gus has a bus.

Stan’s van is red and Gus’s bus is pink.

Stan can t-r-a-v-e-l fast in his red van.

Gus’s bus is old and can not travel fast.

Stan went fast in his van and went plop in a pond.

Gus did not travel fast in his bus and Gus’s bus did not plop in a pond.

(travel is read t-r-a-v = trav e-l = el. Put them together and we have trav -el)

Story Six

Ben is a piglet.

Ben can sit and run and bend and twist.

Ben can clap hands and stand in a tub.

Ben can hop fast on his Mum’s c-r-i-m-s-o-n rug.

Ben and his dog Pip can stomp on a log and trap sun on a mat.

Ben and Pip put rags, pegs, hats, figs, mugs, maps and specs in a big bag and jump on it.

I have been using this method for over forty years, it works brilliantly, the exercises cannot fail as long as you follow closely and never force or ‘teach’ your child. Children are full of fun and that’s how they learn, so keep your reading lessons full of happiness and laughing. If you set out to enjoy yourself your child will be only too eager to come along. Lastly, if your reader sketches the stories he reads, he will be getting ten times the benefit from the exercises. He will be learning to look for a meaning in everything he reads. He will be learning comprehension.

In my next article I shall be giving you a handful of sight words, like you, the and little, which can be included in the next set of stories extending your child’s reading to the next stage.