By the time your child is comfortable with the Sound Game, the Alphabet Picture Cards and especially, the Phonetic Word Cards, he is ready to read his own book.

Stringing simple words together into a sentence and then connecting those sentences into a plot is the beginning of reading comprehension. Everything before this stage laid the groundwork for reading, but it was isolated work compared to the joy of a story. Even a short story can have humor or suspense. It can relate to a child's everyday experiences in life or speak to a small adventure yet to take shape. Miss Rhonda's Readers are just such books.

The most important feature of this stage of reading development? Let your child read the book TO YOU!

As you support your child's efforts through her first books, you may point out words like the, they, are, or a. Explaining these are "puzzle" words that we cannot sound out, we just have to know them.

Phonograms
When your child has become comfortable with the basic phonetic sounds and is reading Set ONE and Set TWO of Miss Rhonda's Readers, it is time to introduce the long vowel sounds and consonant blends. As your child naturally starts to read the words around him, it can get very confusing. Point out why the sound is different like " when a and i are together they say A" as in train or "when s and h are together they say shhhh" as in shell.

We currently offer one product to support the child in learning the phonogram sounds:

Phonogram Word Cards
This 350 word set of cards has over 40 phonograms included. This set is primarily intended for teachers or children who need extrahelp or who just love to read word cards.

Available in 2011 - Set THREE
Set THREE of Miss Rhonda's Readers will introduce the long vowel sounds one at a time in an eight book set. A page in each book will list the new words.