Crazy A's Card Game

I've been a home schooling mom for 30+ years and I've taught many children to read - my own as well as other children I know. I am a firm believer that phonics is absolutely the best method for teaching a child to read. Whole language, IMO, has too many limitations so I start a child with strictly phonetic words initially.This card game has the simple, 3-letter words that are perfect for young learners. There are consonant-vowel-consonant words like red, cat, man, etc. There are 50 word cards - 10 each of a, e, i, o and u words. The remaining cards are action cards that skip a turn, draw a card, etc. Basically, this is a Crazy 8s card game.For a child who knows their letter sounds and is just being introduced to sounding out words, I recommend using just the word cards initially as a reinforcement tool. For example, focus one day on the "a" words and pull just those 10 cards from the deck. Use them as flash cards and run thru the ten cards at various times in the day. It only takes a few minutes, which is better for most children than longer sessions.In fact, the way I teach young learners to read is I make my own flash cards like this on index cards (being careful to only use words that follow the phonetic rules initially) and I encourage parents to do likewise, even if your child attends school and is learning there. I haven't met a kid yet who didn't love having their set of flash cards with a rubber band around them. Once they are even moderately competent, they delight in running through the cards with anyone who will take the time.You can find a good word list to make your own flash cards at montessorimom dot com. From the home page, search for phonetic word list. All you need is some blank index cards and a marker and that list.Work your way through all 5 vowel sets until your child is relatively comfortable sounding out all of them. At that point, you can begin playing the card game with the entire deck as further reinforcement. I think it is crucial that the child be very comfortable sounding out all of the word cards before playing the entire deck as a game.The game is best seen as kind of a reward for all their work learning to sound out the words. It can be used as an incentive when helping your child learn to sound out the word cards. ie: "I can't wait to play cards with you when we learn to sound these words out."If you try to play before the child is competent in sounding out words, it can feel like a big failure for your child, which you want to avoid at all costs. A child who feels successful is an eager learner.Understand that this game will not teach your child to read, but it can be a fun reinforcement tool and a pleasurable way to spend time with your child.

We have absolutely loved this game. My 5 year old son who is just learning to read, has picked up so many words with this game. It's just like uno, but uses three letters words in place of numbers on the cards. As the mom, I actually really enjoy playing this with him, and look forward to getting the next levels as he advances in his reading skills.

This has been the best game for my 5 year old to help with reading! He doesn't even realize that he is learning to read which is great for him because he gets really frustrated sometimes.

Fun game

Fun game for a center. The students love it!! Will purchase more.

Great product. I use it with my kindergarten students at school as they are learning short vowel sounds and how to read CVC words. They enjoy the game.

I teach English to French children and this is a wonderful game they love to play. I do think it helps them learn sounds and understand short vowel sounds.

This is a wonderful phonics based game! My kindergartner loves it, because he can play it himself. The rest of the family enjoys it, because it's fun! Now, if I could just get the other decks.