Read at Home: Phonic Flashcards - Alphabet Games

My son (3) was given some of the Oxford Reading Tree "Read at Home" series, which he enjoys as bedtime stories (alongside more 'classic' younger children's books), without any pressure to "learn" to read. As such, he is famliar with the characters of Kipper, Chip, Floppy, etc. He was delighted to be given the cards as he knows the characters and style of illustration. He is at a stage where he recognises most of the letters in the alphabet, and knows most of their sound correspondences.

On one side these cards depict all the consonants, vowels, as well as (what I think are) digraphs such as wh-, ch-, sh-; on their reverse there are examples of words which begin with these letters and the most common sound these letters have (e.g. a hard /k/ sound, as at the start of cat, for the letter C, rather than the sibilant /s/ that is found at the beginning of cinema). There are also examples of long and short vowel sounds. Consonants such as "x" with the /ks/ pronunciation, which is more commonly found at the end of words, are illustrated by means of words such as 'fox' and 'six'.

Various games are suggested, the simplest of which is "I spy with my little eye..." where some of the cards are placed illustrations up, and you simply take it in turns to identify words that start with a given sound. You can work your way up to more complicated activities, such as spelling out simple CVC words, sorting games etc. as your child grows. I would imagine that the simple fact of focusing on a group of 60 or so common and simple words, would over time, help a child recognise them.

For less than £4 this box of cards offers educational value, as well as lots of potential for interesting card games. The cards themselves are of decent quality, attractive and colourful.

i received these cards in very good time and in good condition. my dad has recently had an head injury and cant speak, so i thought these would be a good idea to reteach and so far they are helping.

So had to write a review on how great these cards are...

My 3 and a half year daughter absolutly loves these and they are played with every day! and even though she know's her letters and alphabet, these have helped us to sound out the phonics for the letters, which she now knows off by heart!

These are also a great working along side the read at home books with the main characters all have a card each.

A must for anyone who is collecting the books!