I have written 5 children’s books aimed at 3-5 year olds with the purpose of guiding parents on how to help their children at home with literacy learning.  In particular I have written these short stories, to be read aloud to children and for them to read along with mum and dad, Nana and Pa, relatives and friends.

When I first started researching and writing it was apparent right from the start that there were no storybooks in the market focusing on developing Phonological Awareness skills in preschoolers.  There are so many websites, apps and books on Phonics but storybooks with a Phonological Awareness focus need to come first.

The great news is that it is easy to teach, children learn quickly and it is fun.  Playing with sounds is something all children do right from babies all over the world, gooing and gaaing for their parents.  Children love to have fun with spoken words, with rhyme, alliteration, tongue twisters and games like “I Spy with my little Eye something beginning with……”   They love to sing songs and enjoy nursery rhymes.  The rhythms and beats of language are fun for children no matter what language they are speaking.

I hope you find the books and guides easy and fun to use.

If you would like to learn more about Phonological Awareness, go to the link.

Learn more about Phonological Awareness.docx

As a quick guide, here is a checklist of Phonological Awareness skills that children need.

CHECKLIST FOR PARENTS

1.     COUNTING WORDS IN A SENTENCE

a.    Can your child point to words in a book and count the words?

b.    Can your child count the spaces between the words in a book?

2.    COUNTING SYLLABLES IN WORDS

Can your child clap syllables in words?

a.    1 syllable words (For example: boy/ mum/ dog/ house/ food/ school)

b.    2 syllable words (For example: but/ter, pup/py, teach/er, sal/ad)

c.    3 syllable words (For example: el/e/phant, bi/cy/cle, fam/i/ly)

d.    4 syllable words (For example: cat/er/pill/ar,  hel/i/cop/ter,)

3.    HEARING BEGINNING SOUNDS IN 2 WORDS

Can your child hear that the words ‘fat’ and ‘fun’ START with the same sound and say that starting sound back to you? (‘f’)

4.    HEARING FINAL SOUNDS IN 2 WORDS

 Can your child hear that the words ‘dog’ and ‘rug’ END with the same sound and say that ending sound back to you (‘g’)?

5.    IDENTIFYING 2 WORDS THAT RHYME

Can your child recognize that the words ‘man’ and ‘fan’ are words that rhyme?

6.    CREATING NEW RHYMING WORDS

Can your child say the words ‘man/fan’ and make a new rhyming word to match (any word that ends in ‘an’ is fine: ‘ran, plan, span’)?

7.    IDENTIFYING 2 WORDS THAT DO NOT RHYME

Can your child hear that the words ‘long’ and ‘fan’ do NOT rhyme?

8.    HEARING SINGLE INITIAL SOUNDS IN WORDS

Can your child hear that when you say the word ‘dad’ that it starts with the sound ‘d’?  Ask them to say the first sound in these words:

mum ‘m’      sun ‘s’      apple ‘a’      toe ‘t’      girl ‘g’      run ‘r’      horse ‘h’

Here are the downloadable parent guides for each book with ideas and activities page by page to do with your child.  I hope you find the books and guides easy and fun to use.