Christmas is a long stretch to go without practising any phonics. In the southern hemisphere, itās the long summer holidays and in the northern, children are off for nearly three weeks. Kids can lose nearly a whole term of learning over a long break. As a mummy to a 4-year-old, I know how important ā and sometimes tough ā it is to keep kidsā progress up when theyāre off school. Thatās why Iāll be sprinkling some fun phonics activities throughout my daughter Nieve’s Christmas holidays – hereās what we will be up to:
Keep it short and sweet. Iāll be sticking to practising blending in the morning, for 10-15 minutes maximum – and with a belly full of porridge first!
Write a Christmas list! Help your child sound out and either scribe or have them write their Christmas list. Shopping lists, gift tags, Christmas menus and thank you cards all provide lots of opportunities to practice spelling and handwriting.
Get your kids engaged while you cook or bake! Sprinkle flour on the table and have kids practice writing out letters or words.
Tricky words are words such as: ātheā, āwasā and āare.ā Frequently found in childrenās books and writing, they are harder to sound out. Day-to-day, have your child point out the tricky words; my daughter enjoys pointing them out in stories we read and circling them in our junk mail. Here is our list of tricky words.
As we play some of her favourite board games, I might substitute words for sounded out words, for example in the Shopping Gameā¦’Do you have b-ea-n-s?’
My daughter loves playing the teacher and writing words on the fridge. Using a whiteboard marker wonāt land them on Santaās naughty list!
Add a phonics twist to traditional car journey games. For example, āI spy with my little eye something beginning with: āsāā or using number plates to practice recognising capital letter sounds.
My daughter loves the grown-upness of doing a worksheet (itās something about filling in forms!). Weāve got a set you can purchase for home use here.
Decodable books use only the sounds a child knows and enable them to practice their blending. If your school teaches systematic phonics they should provide decodable books to you. You can also check your local library.
This is our new favourite activity: we jump on Google and Nieve tells me a picture to search for. Then, she has to sound it out or type it (using a keyboard is also a great tool for learning to associate the capital letters with the sounds.) She chooses her picture of a c-a-t and we pop it into her poster. Here is our latest phonics art:
While youāre out finishing Christmas shopping, looking for sounds in signs and advertisements is a great (educational) distraction for antsy little ones (āFirst one to find a sign with a “s” wins a point!ā).
Practising reading and spelling using Phonics Hero, to me, is guilt-free, screen time. Nieve always looks forward to the 10-15 minutes she gets to play Phonics Hero. Sign up here for your free 7-Day Trial.
The secret for parents engaging in some of the āteachingā is to keep it light and get creative with your phonics activities!
If your child hasnāt started to learn to read and you think they are ready, Iād suggest you read our blog post How to Teach a Child to Read With Phonics first. It will systematically take you through the steps you need to do to launch them into reading using phonics.
