reading

I can’t tell you why a “c” sounds like an “s” in the word certain. Without Googling, I can’t tell you why certain patterns of letters make a specific sound. Ask our daughter. She has an understanding of alphabetics, phonemic awareness and she understands the particular rules that make letters and letter combinations make certain sounds. She can tell you why. The Phoenicians Can Tell You Why & I Can Tell You a Little The alphabet and connecting sounds to letters have been around a long, long time. The Phoenicians were the first to start breaking down sound into letters. The earliest evidence of their work dates back to 1000 B.C.! The Phoenicians may not have written a structured literacy approach to reading, but it seems like they were moving in that direction. The Phoenicians invented the alphabet, and they can tell you why. I learned to read easily and naturally. Over the years, as I’ve discovered more and more about how all of us should learn to read, I’ve rediscovered the joy of the English language. I’ve learned to tackle long, confusing words that I would generally skip or try to figure out in context. I break the words apart or look for the meaning in the parts. I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you a… | Read More »Why Learning About “Why” Helps Us All to Read