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Whistling Whales & Knitting Knights: A playful introduction to phonics! {Book Review}

Sponsored post. 

How to teach phonics to your kids: be silly, giggle a lot, learn with them. It’s my recipe for success! And now there are two new books to make phonics a fun part of your day!

I’m an avid reader and former English teacher. Still, I felt a bundle of nerves when I started teaching my kids to read. I mean, what if I messed them up? What if I confused them? Or made them hate reading? Or hate homeschooling?

logic of english whistling whalesNone of those fears proved true though. I believe that’s because early on, I discovered and consistently used a logic-based phonics program. Now, Logic of English just released two new phonics picture books to follow the delightful Doodling Dragons phonics read-aloud! The addition of Whistling Whales and Knitting Knights creates a trio of books to add fun to learning phonics.

Doodling Dragons – A ABC Book of Sounds

Instead a tedious list of sounds to be drilled, the Logic of English curriculum turned those phonics sounds into an imaginative read-aloud in Doodling Dragons, used with the Foundations A level books. Kids and parents learn together that A makes three sounds: apple, snake, wash. And G makes two sounds: green and giants. And so on through the alphabet with entertaining characters like dragons (doodling, of course), minnows, and mice colorfully depicted on each page.

Every rhyme produces a giggle (for parents too!).

From the success of Doodling Dragons, two new books are born!

Whistling WhalesBeyond the sounds of ABClogic of english phonics booksLogic of English Knitting Knights

Single letter phonograms are not the only sounds of the English language. Forty-eight letter teams work together to make the rest of the sounds in our English words. But these letter teams are not commonly taught to children, so as they advance in reading, they may end up confused.

Whistling Whales and Knitting Knights introduce these multi-letter phonograms to children in the same entertaining format as Doodling Dragons.

Knowing all the single letter and multi-letter sounds builds stronger readers and spellers. With an awareness of the multi-letter phonemes, kids don’t have to rely on memorizing long lists of “sight words.”

Whistling Whales specifically builds on the single-letter phonograms introduced in the Doodling Dragons book to add twenty one more (multi-letter) sounds to their repertoire. Plus, it’s a fun read-aloud that kids will ask for again and again. Use this book with Foundations Level B to add a bit of fun to your learning.

My boys love to look at their favorite silly illustrations and repeat the rhyming phrases – with tons of giggles!

Knitting Knights – Beyond the Sounds of ABC

playful introduction to phonics
Knitting Knights
, used with Logic of English’s Foundations Level C, continues to build a child’s awareness of the sounds of English, and works perfectly with Foundations Level C.

Kids will learn :

  • CH makes three sounds: chimp, school, charades
  • IGH always says long I: bright, light, high

Even though I consider myself a good speller and reader, I was not intricately aware of the facts that certain letter combos ONLY make certain sounds, or can’t be used in certain instances. As a parent, I grew in my understanding of phonics while I taught it to my son. The more I learn as a homeschool mom, the more confident I am teaching my kids!

Read-alouds are always a great opportunity to introduce any learning topic. With Whistling Whales and Knitting Knights, I can break up our morning with some snuggles and silly rhymes, while still continuing our learning.

All three books are written by Denise Eide, who also wrote Uncovering the Logic of English, and illustrated by Ingrid Hess. If you’re just getting started with home preschool, or need a way to liven up your phonics lessons, I’d recommend this set of books as a great addition to your bookshelf!

Psst: Doodling Dragons is also available as a Kindle app AND an audio book, read by none other than Jim Weiss!!

playful introduction to phonics

This post is sponsored by Logic of English and I received products in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own. 

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