23/09/2026
Teaching your child the ABCs doesn’t necessarily give them a head start at school…
I know — you’ve probably sung the ABC song with your child a hundred times! 🎶 And knowing their letter names is absolutely useful… but when it comes to learning to read, we need something else first.
👉 The sounds the letters make.
If your child sees the word ‘cat’, we don’t read it by saying:
❌ “See, ay, tee’’that’s C, A, T.”
We teach them to recognise the sounds:
🔤 c = /c/
🔤 a = /a/
🔤 t = /t/
Then we blend those sounds together:
c-a-t → cat 🐱
That’s the magic of phonics! ✨
Knowing that a letter is called ‘B’ is different from knowing that it represents the sound /b/.
And this is why, when your child starts school, you’ll hear teachers talking about phonics, sounds and blending rather than simply learning the alphabet.
So by all means, keep singing the ABC song! 💕
But alongside it, help your child learn:
✨ the sound each letter represents
✨ how to recognise that sound quickly
✨ how to blend sounds together to read words
Because knowing the alphabet helps your child know their letters… but knowing their sounds helps them read. 📚❤️
And that’s the skill we want to build from the very beginning.
Save this post if your little one is getting ready for school! 👇
