The first sounds

What the first lessons teach

Each early lesson adds one sound and puts it to work straight away. The sound comes first; the letter’s name and its uppercase form follow.

1. Lesson 1: m. A sound can be written. There is no word to read yet.
2. Lesson 2: a. Blending two sounds into a word: am.
3. Lesson 3: s. A sound added at the start: Sam.
4. Lesson 4: t. Three-sound words like mat and sat, and the first word built with letter tiles.
5. Lesson 5: a look back. Reading left to right, with spaces between words: Sam sat.

Then come i, n, p and f, and at Lesson 10 the first word learned whole, a. Say every sound on its own, with no added vowel: m is a hum with closed lips, never “muh.”

Who does what

Teach is the two of you. Each page gives you one instruction; the label at the top names the step. From Lesson 2 a lesson opens with a look back at the last one.

1. New sound. Press ▶ on your page to hear it, then say it together. Your child can tap the letter, or the dot under it, to hear it again.
2. Your turn. Point to the letter or word. Your child says it with no help from the page: nothing on it plays. Wait before you help. If they say the letter’s name, that is its name; its sound is the one you practiced.
3. Turn the page when the step is done.

Practice is your child’s. A voice says what to do, such as “Listen. Tap the sound you hear.” Your child taps; ▶ on their page plays the question again. A wrong answer gets help and another try, and nothing is scored. In Lesson 1 it is just two questions. Your page shows a row of dots for what is left.

Read is side by side, from Lesson 2. Your child reads each word; tapping a letter plays its sound, but a word has no speaker of its own, so the blending is theirs. If they stall, point to the letter and say its sound.

How long, and when to stop

Teach is about five minutes, Read two to five. That is a guide, not a timer, and you never have to finish a lesson in one sitting: the book reopens at the page you left, and an unfinished Practice picks up where it stopped.

• If blending is hard, drop back to two sounds or a word they have read before. Say each sound, then the word, and return to the word they were trying.
• Don’t ask again and again after a miss. Show it, let them try once more, and move on. Earlier sounds come back in later lessons.
• Repeat a lesson any time from Contents. The next lesson waits for you; nothing unlocks on a clock.

Three lines to have ready

Your page never gives you lines to say. If you like having words ready, these fit the first lessons.

“Mmm. Lips together, like a hum.”

“Em is its name. Its sound is mmm.”

“Take your time. I’ll wait.”