Free Phonics Stuff (Phree Fonics Stuph?)

A mother is doing her marketing with her 5-year-old in tow. She stops by the magazine rack and sees some children's workbooks aimed at teaching phonics. She pages through one of them and drops it into the grocery cart.

  This kind of scene plays out daily across America. Mothers want their kids to do well in school, and in grade 1 being able to read is "doing well." (It is no accident that so many grocery stores, drug stores, etc. sell such workbooks.)

  Such materials help kids to see the match between letters and sounds and a lot of kids like "playing school." I'd be hard pressed to say that those workbooks teach reading, but they do help give kids some purchase on letters and sounds.

  And then there are ABC refrigerator magnets, letter blocks, posters, Sesame Street, and these days, various electronic games and activities -- the best equipped preschoolers wouldn't be caught dead without their PDA, Blackberry, or I-Phone these days.

  Some of my colleagues discourage parents from buying such materials. I don't. Kids often find them to be kind of fun, and I don't think they do any harm. In fact, I think they help kids to learn some things that need to learn if they are going to be readers and the more opportunities kids get to learn these things the better.

  Which brings me to some new digital materials that parents can use in helping their children to learn to decode--that is to sound out words. The site is called Reading Bear and it is free to anyone who wants to use it.

  It has some pretty good features. Probably the best is that it sounds words out for the children, showing them graphically how the sounds match the letters (try to do that with a workbook). There are lots of electronic flashcards, activities, and quizzes, and the particular exercises change items a lot which can help keep kids interested.

  While I don't think this program will teach your child to read, I think it could help.

  http://www.readingbear.org