Phonics has been around for over a hundred years so it has passed the test of time. The other approaches to teaching reading seem to come and go. The whole language approach was very popular a few years ago and all it managed to do was lower the literacy rate. But because of its colorful books and intelligent stories it will always be available.

To teach reading I start with phonics then move onto the beautiful colored books with the good stories. Even teaching phonics can get complicated as there are many approaches to teaching reading with phonics. Nowadays we have the computer and the internet with a number of very good computer based online phonics courses.

The online phonics approaches to teaching reading that I have used are very good. You leave your kid alone in front of the computer and the computer teaches your kids. But you have to bring in the whole language books to see how much your children have really learnt.

I prefer an offline program that has been teaching kids for over a 100 years. We are talking about the Montessori approach to teaching reading. Montessori uses a combination of sandpaper letters and phonics and it is very effective, but you the parent have to be involved. You have to be there to teach your kids or an older child who can already read can set up the words and phonic sounds.

There are many approaches to teaching reading but you have to find the approach your child likes as they are learning to read. I think Phonics is possible the best method for teaching, and it is now making a serious comeback after it has been decided that the whole language method is not it is all cracked up to be. This situation has happened before but we always return to phonics.

The main problem with trying to find out which reading method is the best is that the best students will learn to read no matter what method is used. So we have to look at the problem readers and find out what method is best suited to them. And phonics usually comes up on top because phonics are a roadmap to reading. It gives you a code to follow so you can say the written word the same way that it is spoken. Then after you hear yourself read the word correctly you know the sound of the word then you know the meaning.

That is the basics behind phonics, but it not that simple. Your child has to learn all 44 phonic sounds then the combinations. Problems do arise when one phonic sound is the same in many different words that are spelt differently. So writing becomes a problem. I prefer to use the Montessori approach to reading with phonics and sandpaper letters because when you child is tracing the sandpaper letters she is actually writing. Then you will suddenly find that your child will start to write by herself. How accurate her spelling is depends on how many sandpaper words she has mastered, so keep adding more and more sandpaper letters