Consonant Vowel Combination

After learning the letter sounds, next step is to learn the sounds of consonant-vowel combinations.

When consonants are combined with vowels, their sounds combine to make one single sound as:

• b + a sounds ba as in bat
• b + e sounds be as in bet
• b + i sounds bi as in bit
• b + o sounds bo as in bob
• b + u sounds bu as in but

Use this technique to teach other consonant-vowel combinations beginning with d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, and z. For a thorough understanding, you may write them down on flash cards and ask the child to read these two letter combinations by flashing these cards at random.

Avoid teaching the combinations involving consonants c, g, q, x at this stage because different set of rules apply to these consonants. For example, when consonant c is followed by vowel a, it sounds ca as in cat, but when followed by vowel i, it sounds ci, as in cite. The sound of letter c changes from the sharp sound of /k/ to the soft sound of /s/. This can confuse a young mind and hence it's best to keep it simple in the beginning.

Next week, we will learn about vowel-consonant combinations. Have a nice weekend.