I think we started with books that happened to have words that were easy to decode. After that point, we admitted that the English language is actually quite a mess. And once the kids got some momentum, then they began figuring things out for themselves, or asking. We continued reading to them, and would occasionally stop to ask them if they knew a particular word.
To be fair, we did not use "phonics" as a formal procedure, but simply a loose term for taking advantage of the limited clues built into the written language.
And it doesn't help if you can pronounce a word but don't know what it means. My kids learned by rote words such as "allegiance," "republic," and "god," without anybody explaining the meaning of those words to them.
To be fair, we did not use "phonics" as a formal procedure, but simply a loose term for taking advantage of the limited clues built into the written language.
And it doesn't help if you can pronounce a word but don't know what it means. My kids learned by rote words such as "allegiance," "republic," and "god," without anybody explaining the meaning of those words to them.