Teaching Phonics
Teaching phonics is an essential part of a child’s education. When schools and homeschools in America ditched phonics, literacy declined among Americans. I’d like to encourage homeschooling parents to teach their children with phonics. This article covers reasons for teaching with phonics, and some ideas for how to do that with a Biblical Classical Education.
Restoration Era on the History of Liberty Timeline
Providential History
My mother taught my brother and me with Little Patriots phonics (see more on this topic further down in this article). I’m thankful for the wisdom she exercised in that decision. Since I learned with phonics, it seemed natural for me to teach our children with it.
A Basic Case for Teaching with Phonics
Phonics is a logical and systematic way of learning. It gives individuals the ability to decode words because of phonetic groupings and blending sounds. It aids in literacy—the ability to read and comprehend what we read. It’s a tried and proven way of teaching and learning how to spell, read, and write.
In the video below, John Stossel addresses the important topic of phonics for reading. Parents need to be aware that degradation in education isn’t just happening in the school system. Some curricula catered toward homeschoolers use modern or “progressive” methods as well. But also note that we parents can be a part of restoring education to biblical methods by teaching our children with phonics.
My Journey With Phonics Curricula
I started teaching our oldest two children with Little Patriots. However, Mom only had Part 1, and there came a point in time when the reader books for Little Patriots needed replacing. I couldn’t find that curriculum on the market though! Several years later, I learned that Little Patriots is under a different branding. Apparently Pilgrim Institute has rebranded it as the American Language Series. We likely would have continued with it if I had learned about it sooner.
At the start of our Biblical Classical journey, I learned about the Writing Road to Reading curriculum. We decided to give that a try because FACE highly recommends it in their curriculum lesson guides. However, I quickly learned that its design didn’t suit me. Eventually I learned of Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri—who helped Romalda Spalding with the development of Writing Road to Reading.
I find Spell to Write and Read much more intuitive for me to use than Writing Road to Reading. Additionally, I appreciate the way Sanseri has us mark the spelling words to help visually remember the phonetic spelling rules. An added bonus is that it has a “Development of the English Language Timeline” (p. 174)—which aligns with the Biblical Classical Approach.
Teaching Phonics with Biblical Classical Education
It’s great that some curricula use biblical theology, like the The New England Primer by Noah Webster does. He offered alphabetical rhymes such as, “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” We need to teach these truths for certain! However, there is more for us to teach.
A Biblical Classical Education teaches the principles of phonics. But it also has students reasoning from Scripture about language. Below, I’m sharing a lesson plan with you that I created:
Sample Lesson
The Foundation
Biblical Presupposition: God created mankind in His image.
Biblical Premise: As God’s image bearers, He created us with the ability to communicate. Some communication is verbal, phonetics made in proper order to communicate ideas. Phonics gives us the ability to systematically teach and learn spelling, writing, and reading—and with order.
Biblical Principles: Genesis 1:3, “And God said . . . ” and God’s Principle of Individuality.
Providential History Timeline: Creation Link. Genesis 1:3 establishes that communication is one of God’s attributes.
Develop a Biblical Worldview Vocabulary to Master the Subject
Word Study: Define the word communicate in Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828, using Entry 1. Then, define the Key Word knowledge. As your child’s parent, you’ll be able to best simplify the biblical worldview definitions for your child to understand.
After teaching the foundational biblical truths to your child, you can introduce the concept of learning the three sounds the letter ‘A’ makes, and why we learn them in an ordinal way. Then, work on the three sounds of that letter.
Help Your Student Form Biblical Convictions and Reasoning Abilities
Reflection and Reason Questions can be along the lines of:
- Why are we able to communicate with words?
- How did God create us differently than animals?
- Why is it loving and kind for God to give us the ability to communicate?
- Why is it important to learn all three sounds of the letter ‘A’ in their proper order?
- How do we see God’s Principle of Individuality in the letter ‘A’?
Teaching in this way pours absolute truths into our children’s hearts and minds. Some examples of that are:
- Language and the ability to communicate comes from God (He is the cause, source, origin of the idea of language/communication).
- God provides a way for us to communicate with Him and others.
- He gives us the ability to systematically teach and learn spelling, reading, and writing.
- We see God’s Principle of Individuality in the unique shapes and sounds of letters.
Teaching spelling, writing, and reading with phonics is essential. Teaching in this way gives our children the ability to read the Bible—the most important reason for reading. Additionally, it gives them the ability to read, internalize, write, and teach the absolute truths of God’s Word to a hurting world. Furthermore, it helps them develop a character that sustains and promotes liberty.
Phonics Teaching Instruction for Parents
For parents who are uncertain about how to teach with phonics, Biblical Classical Community has a self-paced online course, Good Foundations: Preschool and Kindergarten Reading. JanetSue Whetzel teaches this course and she offers it on a donation-basis.
