Phonics and Learning To Read Games, Make English Fun

Phonics and Learning To Read Games, Make English Fun by Victoria Welch

A phonics learning game can have many advantages to a traditional way of learning abc.The alphabet can be a hard concept for your preschool child to learn, and I have found that some children, if they have been over pushed, are reluctant to do any activity with the alphabet, even worse, I have known children to just say any answer, to get it over with.

There are many interactive phonics educational games, which are great fun for you and your child to play, here are some activities you could do.

A Sorting ABC Learning Game

Collect several objects that begin with the same sounds and make a card with this letter sound on it.

Make a second group of objects beginning with a different sound and a card to go with those.

Talk about the sounds of the letters on the two cards with your child.

Shuffle the objects.

Separate the cards on the floor and ask your child to put each object near the sound that it starts with. This activity can help your child to “hear” the first sound of a word.

Odd One Out Phonics Learning Game

Have a group of cards all with items on them beginning with the same sound except for one of the cards.

See if your child can pick out the odd one. Whilst games may appear to be an indirect approach, they do protect your child from the feelings of failure.

By ‘playing together’ both you and your child will be relaxed, while in a formal teaching situation, your preschooler could feel pressured.

Using a phonics learning game keeps these early reading experiences, happy and positive, which is extremely important and when the time comes for your child to develop their reading, the experience will be so much more enjoyable.

I found a fantastic phonic program, which works on the principle of using your memory with association, which children love.

This interactive Phonics Educational Game called LetterLand is a program based on the best of any ABC learning game, with characters carefully designed to explain the shapes, sounds, and the orientation of letters in a child-friendly way.

These Animated “Letter Characters” live in a delightful place called LetterLand, and their stories activate every learning channel, linking all the things that children love, social interaction, movement, art, craft, drama and rhyme.

The children can even sing about each “Letter Character” and the sound it makes.

I would greatly recommend LetterLand to any parent as a brilliant way for your child to learn the alphabet, and start to read and write.

As their skills develop start to play enjoyable as well as educational English learning games, which are not only about reading.

English can be split up into four sections speaking, listening, reading and writing. So we will look at different activities that you can do within each section.

Speaking Games

Children talk all the time so is there a need for any games?

Rhyming Games and Word Games will help them learn new words, they can use their fantastic imagination to create rhyming poems, and have fun.

We can then help build on this again by letting your child making up their own stories, and putting on a show using Learning Puppets or a Picture Book this will help strengthen their confidence, and let us listen to the way they speak, to make sure that they talk clearly.

Listening Games

Some children find it difficult to sit and listening to a story or a teacher’s instruction. By playing listening games children, learn to be quiet and still, to hear what the sound is.

Cock-a-Doodle-Moo: A Mixed Up Menagerie is great fun for kids and learning games like Outside Sounds Listening Lotto really grab their attention.

Learning To Read Games

Reading is a wonder full skill, which lets children’s imagination run wild.

Learning to read begins, with you reading to your child as a baby. With time your child understands that the content of a book never changes. Later on, after much sharing of books, children begin to play read and turn the pages of a favourite story while chanting parts of it aloud.

A Word Building Game and learning what new words mean will help grow your child’s mind. Using Rhyming Words Games is also great fun.

Writing Games

If your child has had the opportunity to use paint, crayons or small construction toys this would all help their fine motor skill, and consequently their writing skill.

Teach your child to hold a pencil correctly and guide them over letters of their name or through workbooks suitable for their age group, if they need you to, place your hand gently on top of theirs

Once your child knows how to trace letters shapes with your help, see if they can use their looking skills to make letter shapes by drawing over faint dots you’ve made.

From this stage of copying over, comes a stage of copying beneath.

Early writing will not necessarily be the correct way up or stay in a horizontal line. But do try and help your child correct this, so that it’s not an on going problem.

Give your child a positive start to reading and writing and most of all Make English Fun.

About the Author:

Children who experience structured play seem to develop strong bonds and feel loved and appreciated. Education-Games-For-Kids.com was set up to drive this message home and help parents choose Educational Toys for Babies and Toddlers and Learning Games for Older Kids