Preschoolers should spend most of their time playing, developing their speaking, listening, imaginations, motor and social skills and so on. The most important thing adults can do to help them get literacy-ready is read them lots of stories, play with them and have lots of relaxed conversations (avoid barraging them with questions! Anxious parents sometimes do this, and it can make kids clam up).
However, many preschoolers are already pestering adults to teach them to read and write. The first thing they need to know is that spoken words are made of sounds, and letters are how we write them. You can help them develop their awareness of sounds in words if you say words slowly and help them to separate out the sounds (first sound is easiest, then last sound, and middle sounds are hardest), or telling them two or three sounds and helping them blend them together into words e.g. “u-p = up”, “d-a-d = dad”, “sh-o-p = shop”.
There is a great, free, online Udemy course called “Help your child to read and write” for parents of 4-6 year olds, which follows the Sounds~Write approach I also use in clinic. It makes the task of helping kids hear the sounds in words and represent them with letters straightforward and logical. Sign up for it here.
You can download my free First Phonics Picture Book from this website to help you show a young child how written words are made from letters that represent sounds. Each sound is represented by just one spelling, repeated multiple times, and each word is illustrated by a photo. Click here for a blog post explaining more about this book and giving sample pages, or here to go straight to the shop and download it.
Children need to learn to hold a pencil correctly and control it, and once they can do that in drawing and colouring they can start practising correct letter formation and writing between lines e.g. by tracing letters you write. If you want handwriting practice books, try the ones from Phonic Books, Get Reading Right or the book Milo’s Birthday Surprise from Little Learners Love Literacy.
Many preschoolers are also spending some time using alphabet/literacy apps on phones and tablet computers, and of course there are many simple storybooks and other printed resources that they can use to learn the basics about sounds and letters. Here are some activities that might help rather than confuse them about literacy:
- Blobble Write (UK, for iPad)
- Bob Books (US, apps available for iPad and Android), and the paper books are here.
- Dandelion Launchers iBooks, paper books and workbooks are designed for 3-6 year olds. Australian suppliers are here.
- Dinosaur Letters Lite (free, US and UK accent options, for iPhone or iPad, also for Android, which also has a full, paid version).
- Fantastic Phonics (US, free beginners’ video books)
- Flyleaf Books to Remember Emergent Reader series (UK) now available via an online portal.
- Graphogame (computer game from European reading scientists, in several languages)
- Hooked on Phonics program, (US, also there is an iPad and Android app)
- InitiaLit Readers (Aus)
- Jolly Phonics Activity Book 1 (UK). Available from SPELD SA
- Jolly Phonics Games Bundle (UK, iPad, iPod and iPhone apps, in Australian store here)
- Jolly Phonics Letter Sounds (UK, iPad, iPod and iPhone app, in Australian store here)
- Jolly Stories Board Book and Finger Phonics Board Books (UK)
- Little Learners Love Literacy (Aus books and resources for young children, a video I’ve made about them can be watched here, or watch their much more professional video here).
- Oz Phonics (Aus and NZ)
- Phonics Bingo (US, for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, free)
- Phonics Fun On Farm (US, iPad and iPhone app)
- Phonics Hero (UK/Aus computer game and iPad/iPhone app, with a free, 7-day trial period.
- Pocket Rockets (Aus, a video I’ve made about them is here, and they’re now also available in book size)
- Pre-Lit (Australian program for preschoolers)
- Preschool University (US iPad apps and other resources, many of them free)
- Reading Bear (US, free computer activities)
- Reading Raven (US, iPad and iPhone apps, in Australian store here)
- Pocketphonics and Pocketphonics Stories (UK, iPhone and iPad apps)
- Pocket Rockets (Aus, beginners’ decodable books)
- Sounds~Write Initial Sounds (UK iPad app, in Australian store here)
- PLD Spellstar 1a (Aus, for iPad, iPhone, Android and Chrome).
- Spooky letters (UK or US iPad and iPhone app, with a free lite version)
- Starfall Learn To Read (US, free online activities, iPad/iPhone or Android app)
- Teach Your Monster To Read (free online game, iPad app)
Hi
I enjoy your site and recommend it to fellow homeschoolers. I just wanted to let you know about three other phonics resources that are popular with Australian homeschoolers – I used two of the phonics programmes extensively during my homeschooling and tutoring years.
The names of the phonics programmes are –
LEM phonics (Light Educational Ministries) developed in Australia also suitable for ESL students
ACE phonics – Accelerated Christian Education (American but used by many Australian homeschoolers and in some Australian Christian schools (programme is great for kids who are struggling to learn to read)
Abeka Phonics programme for Christian schools (distributed in Australia by LEM).
Here are the links to the various programmes
https://lem.com.au/?mode=site&page=aboutlemphonics
https://www.aceministries.com/reading-development
https://www.abeka.com/
Your readers might also like to know that there are several homeschool facebook pages in Australia where homeschoolers often sell or give away their phonics programmes . You might also want to promote your spelfabet resources on the above mentioned homeschooling facebook pages. All the best, Lindy
Thanks for the lovely feedback, Lindy, and for recommending my site to others, I really appreciate it. I already have LEM Phonics on my lists of phonics resources in a couple of places, and I purchased a few of their resources but then didn’t use them as I found some errors in them (perhaps these have now been fixed, I should find them again and email the company to point them out). I didn’t know about the other two sites but I haven’t made a big effort to include all the programs written for American English on this website because I wouldn’t buy any of them for use in Australia, the accent is too different and most materials require too much modification to be useful here. The Reading League is doing a great job of promoting things that are relevant to their accent in the US, so I’m keeping my focus on my own accent, as it’s very easy for Aussies to spend a lot of money on things that aren’t really suitable if they aren’t aware of how different vowels are in different accents. Hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a great 2019. All the very best, Alison.
Hi Alison,
Thank you for the wealth of information and resources you provide.
I am currently looking at preschool and schooling options for my daughter, and one school that I am interested in uses Letterland in their preschool years (I’m not sure yet whether/how much it is used for school age students). I noticed that you haven’t referenced this program in the articles that I have read, and I’m wondering what the pros/cons would be if I sent my child to this early learning centre and school?
Thanks,
Jenny
Hi Jenny, I am by no means an expert on it, but I think Letterland is Ok for preschoolers, they use a type of embedded picture mnemonic which certainly has good evidence of effectiveness, but my understanding is that it’s more of an initial “sounds-of-letters” approach, whereas synthetic phonics works from sounds to letters, and right through the word, not focussed on word beginnings. Can you ask them if they also use Fix-It phonics as that looks more like a systematic, explicit approach that works in tandem with Letterland? http://www.letterland.com.au/Teachers/Fix-It-Phonics. Hope that helps, Alison
HealthWISE has an online training program for Early Childhood Educators called Sounds good to me that is available on subscription for ECE and parents:
https://soundsgoodtome.com.au/
It has been based on research and has Aussie specific resources. It uses the Gillon assessment as a per/post test to show efficacy.
(Disclosure – I was a co-author of the program in its early iterations – much improved and expanded since then).