Vowels (Photo credit: chrisinplymouth)
Once they’ve mastered the alphabet, learning about vowels is an important step in your child’s learning process. It will help nurture their reading and writing abilities and set them on a strong path for education at school. Here’s how you can use phonics (the way letters sound) and educational resources to teach your children about vowels.
The Vowels Themselves
Before you try explaining to your child the difference between vowels and consonants, it’s important they understand which letters the vowels are. That is, A, E, I, O and U. A good way of teaching them the vowels can be through songs, flashcards or even through literacy games.
Teach your child to memorise the vowel letters and the sounds they make. A good way of doing this can be to use visual aids or words that conjure up visual images. E.g. The ‘e’ sound in ‘elephant’ or the ‘u’ sound in ‘umbrella.’
Short Vowels
Short vowels are vowels that simply create short sounds. They are usually found at the start of a word or in between two consonants. For example:
While it’s not important that a child understands these are ‘short vowels,’ you can use short vowels to help a child understand what a vowel is:
- Ask them to read/identify a simple word
- Ask them to identify the which letter in the word in a vowel
- Ask them what sounds the vowel makes when the word is spoken
Through practicing sounds, a child will gain a much deeper understanding of vowels and how they fit into the English language.
Long Vowels
A good way of remembering long vowels is that they are vowels that ‘say their own name.’ Most of the time, they are either combined with a Silent E or they are featured at the end of word to create a ‘long’ sound. Examples of vowels with a Silent E include:
Examples of words with a long vowel at the end of a word can be:
These rules won’t apply to all words, of course, but it will apply to many basic words that your child is learning. Again, your child doesn’t have to know that this is a ‘long’ vowel. Rather, it’s important that they understand the difference in pronunciation. Ask them to keep an eye out for the Silent E, which is used to create long sounds or for the vowels at the end of a short word.
Two Vowels
In most words, when two vowels are located together, the first vowel is usually a long vowel and the second vowel is silent. This is the case in words like:
A good way of teaching your child to remember this is by using the mnemonic: “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking – and the second one stays quiet.”
Fun Learning
Remember, teaching your children vowels should be fun and exciting for them – not technical and boring. Focus on phonics (sounds) to help your child with vowels and find fun ways to do this. You can invent games, rhymes or songs to help them or you may be able to find exciting activities or worksheets they can complete to help them with vowels.
