Even if your 3-year-old can recite their ABCs like a pro, they'll need to learn that spoken words are made up of individual sounds to succeed at reading. Hands-on activities that build this kind of phonemic awareness — and reinforce the connection between letter sounds and letter shapes — are the best way to teach them what they need to know.

As with all kinds of hands-on learning, Montessori is a great place to start! Did you know that in Montessori classrooms, children learn to spell before they learn to read? Word building with the moveable alphabet is at the heart of this process. In this first episode in the Montessori series, My New Life Host Jessica Rolph is joined by Laura Saylor, co-author of Powerful Literacy in the Montessori Classroom.

Takeaways:

1. The reading journey starts with building your child's phonemic awareness. In other words, playing with sounds. Begin recognizing initial sounds, and then move to the sounds at the end and middle of words. "I spy with my little eye something that ends with the sound dd."

1. Rather than memorizing the ABCs, Montessori teachers will often start with letter sounds. Once the sounds are mastered, they will move to the names of the letters.

1. In the Montessori world, children learn to spell before they learn to read. Word building with the moveable alphabet is at the heart of this process. Try focusing on one sound at a time, creating a variety of 3-letter words with the short U, for example: sun, gum, bun. Lovevery has a moveable alphabet game that capitalizes on a 4 year old's enthusiasm for little objects by rewarding them with a tiny object representing the word they spell.

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