Watch your child s homework to see what she brings home. This can tell you which sounds she is learning. Next, children learn that if we put some combinations of two consonants together, their sounds blend. But next your child must learn that some consonants sometimes have another sound and vowels often have another sound. When your child tries to sound out a word that has this second sound, remind him that the letter has two sounds and try the other if it does not sound out with the first sound.
C sounds like c in cat but also like s in slice.
When a word ends with a silent e, the first vowel is usually long. When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking and it usually says its name. The second vowel is silent. Parents, I hope you have enjoyed this brief recap of the first basic principles of phonics. If my memory serves me well, I believe I once learned that 80 percent of our words follow these phonetic principles.