Quick Start Guide

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Alphabet practice

It isn't enough to just "know" the alphabet -- ideally, a child knows it so well that he/she has instant recognition of the shapes and sounds.  To help this along, we recommend practicing the alphabet EVERY DAY. 

1.   Print out the “Alphabet Review” pages for the book.  (For Beginner Phonics Book 1, the focus is on nine letters : c, a, t, s, m, r, h, n, d.)

2.   You can put the “letter pages” up on the wall, or use them like flash cards.

3.   At the start of each reading lesson, spend a couple of minutes reviewing the alphabet letters recommended by the Lesson Plan -- for example, tap the sheet for Letter "a" and say "'ah for apple."  Then have your children/students repeat that after you. 

4.  Then tap one of the pictures below the alphabet letter and read the caption (words) out loud.  For example, one day you may choose, “angry ant,” and another day you may choose, “animal alphabet.”  Then have your children/students repeat the words after you.

Word Wall (or flash cards)

You don't HAVE to do a "Word Wall" (or flash cards), but it does help, especially in larger classrooms where children aren't able to receive a lot of individual attention.

By practicing the words every day, in addition to the actual reading lesson, children get more "exposure" to the words, and this helps to increase retention and memory-recall speed.

• To practice the words, tap a word and sound it out.  For example, "kuh, ah, tuh, says CAT."  Then have your children/students repeat this after you. 
• The words can be up on the wall, or you can hold them in your hands.

Note: The Lesson Plans give suggestions on which words to practice on which days.

LARGE Words (for larger classrooms):

MEDIUM words (for smaller classrooms):

SMALL words (for individual or small-group use):

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Do it right the first time!

Don't teach bad habits!

Unlike some handwriting programs, our program doesn't teach bad habits and unnecessary pen strokes. We're not going to name any names here, but our program was developed with several things in mind:

Teach the right moves the FIRST time around...
We don't think it's right to teach children one way of writing, and then a few years later say, "No, no, no, that's not how you do it."  Our program is designed to teach the RIGHT way to form letters.  This way, a child has an easier time transitioning to "joined" handwriting styles (cursive, italics, etc.).  

Note:  In some countries, there are different ways of writing some letters, such as the lowercase letters "r" and "k."  Progressive Phonics stays with the "American" version of these letters because they resemble the PRINTED versions of these letters, which children see every day in their books and schoolpapers.  Children can learn the alternate versions of these letters when they learn their cursive or italic forms of handwriting.

No joined handwriting in school??!!!
If your child is one of the millions of children who will never learn joined-handwriting in school, then our handwriting program helps your child start out with good-enough handwriting.  What's good enough?  Quick, legible and not too "childish" in appearance.

Wait until they're ready!
We also believe it's important to wait until a child is READY to write.  Young children don't have the strength and dexterity to write properly, so they compensate with improper pen-grips, poor writing-posture and malformed letters... all of which have to be UNlearned later.

Come back later...
If your child is too young now, no problem.  You can come back to it later.  Our handwriting program is completely indepedent of our phonics program, so it can be taken at any time.

Is your child ready?

Reading and writing are different!

While some children are able to read at an earlier age, handwriting is different.  Most children do not have the motor-skills for handwriting until age five or six -- it's not a question of intelligence, it's a question of physical development. 

Our special Handwriting Test (see below) will help you decide if your child is ready or not.

A word about Pencil Grip