Synthetic phonics

Synthetic phonics is a way of learning to read and write that focuses on the sounds that make up words. Think of words like Lego blocks - each block (or sound) is important and needs to fit together just right to build the whole word.

With synthetic phonics, you start by learning the sounds that each letter makes, and then how these sounds can be put together to make different words. For example, the letter 'c' makes a 'k' sound in the word 'cat' and a 's' sound in the word 'cent'.

You also learn how to blend these sounds together to read words. For example, if you know the sounds for 'c', 'a' and 't', you can blend them together to read the word 'cat'.

This way of learning to read and write is helpful because it gives you the tools you need to decode (or break down) words you haven't seen before. You can use the sounds you know to figure out how to say the word.

It's kind of like a secret code that helps you unlock the mysteries of reading and writing!