School Zone Beginning Sounds Workbook

This is 32-page workbook is a good choice for pre-schoolers who are familiar with the letters of the alphabet and are learning to distinguish the sounds different letters make. The last two pages have written letters that kids must circle (ie, does butterfly begin with B or V?) but the rest of the book focuses on images. No writing skills are necessary, however kids must have a relatively high vocabulary so they can identify each object. This is the forth or fifth "Get Ready!" workbook my daughter has completed. She has enjoyed all of them. Each page is filled with large, whimsical illustrations of animals and objects. For the most part, the book keeps to the basic sounds (short a, hard c, etc.) The one exception I noticed (and my daughter had a bit of difficulty with) was the letter I. Some of the pages feature images that include a particular letter in the middle or the end of a word, so that kids must not only be able to identify the right sound, but also the right place for that sound to occur. It is a simple, appropriate challenge. Every once in a while, my daughter would encounter an object she couldn't identify, or one that she uses another word for (eg, "airplane" versus "jet"). That's just another part of the learning experience.