Phonics: Helping Children Connect Sounds to Letters in Everyday Life

If you’ve ever watched a child sound out their very first word, you know how magical it is. But that little moment doesn’t happen all at once—it’s the result of a slow, steady process that begins long before the ABCs are memorized.

The first step in early literacy is phonemic awareness—hearing and playing with the sounds inside words. Children learn to notice rhymes, clap syllables, and stretch out words like /sss/…/uuun/ = sun. Once their ears are tuned into those sounds, they’re ready for the next step: phonics.

Phonics is where children start connecting the sounds they hear with the letters they see. Suddenly, m makes the /mmm/ sound in milk, and c-a-t can be sounded out as cat. This connection is what bridges spoken language with written print. The Illinois Early Learning Standards encourage children in preschool to begin noticing these patterns in simple, playful ways—through everyday life, not flashcards or drills.

Think about what this looks like at home. A child helping you unpack groceries notices that “banana” starts with the same sound as “ball”, and then at lunch, points out the letter b when you sing the alphabet while pointing to each letter on a placemat. Bedtime might include reading an alphabet book like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, where letters come alive in a story. Even scribbling their own “signs” for a pretend shop or zoo is part of the process—they’re experimenting with letters as symbols that carry sound and meaning.

The beautiful thing about phonics is that it doesn’t need to feel like teaching. It happens in the rhythm of daily life—snuggled up with a book, cooking side by side in the kitchen, or playing with magnetic letters on the fridge while dinner simmers. The key is weaving it in naturally, so your child sees that letters and sounds are part of the world they already love exploring.

If you’d like a few tools to get started, there are some wonderful book series written especially for young children beginning to connect letters and sounds:

• Bob Books – Gentle, progressive stories that start with simple three-letter words.

• Oxford Reading Tree: Floppy’s Phonics & Songbirds Phonics – Story-based phonics with engaging characters.

• I Can Read! Phonics Series – Fun, familiar characters and simple phonics-based readers.

  
  

Phonics is not about rushing children to read early. It’s about giving them joyful, meaningful experiences that help them connect the sounds they already know with the letters they see in print. With time, play, and plenty of encouragement, those small everyday moments will add up to something big—the confidence to unlock words and stories on their own.