The ABC's and All Their Tricks: The Complete Reference Book of Phonics and Spelling

If you are a language and pronunciation nerd, like I am, A Home-school parent or an English Teacher, you will appreciate this book. It is well thought-out, clearly written, and systematically arranged by an obvious light in her field. She tells you what "rules" of language to avoid, which rules you should teach to your kids, and how to deal with exceptions. It may not be true, but after reading this book, I feel that I could capably start to teach someone phonics. An excellent resource.

Research has proven time and again the efficacy of teaching phonics for reading. Children who learn to decode words are equipped to decode the meanings of sentences which the words form. Thus they have fewer reading comprehension problems than their whole language method peers. Unfortunately, phonics is usually not taught in it's entirety, progressively where one rule is built upon another, and spelling is not taught along the way--so that children learn to spell the words that adhere to the specific phonics rules as they are being taught. ABCs and All Their Tricks does an excellent job of summarizing the importance of phonics, how it should be taught, and why it's effective. It accurately and in easily understood explanation states one phonics rule and then lists most of the words that follow the rule. The listings are in order for easy reference and understanding. It addresses typical anti-phonics arguements--such as it doesn't work, spelling issues, and exceptions to rules (generally the exceptions are really different rules, and ABCs explains the reasons behind all of this). Perhaps most important in countering anti-phonics arguments, ABCs notes a study of the English language conducted in the early 1970s that evaluated over 19,000 words and determined how many of those words followed phonetic rules and how many were exceptions. Most of the exceptions have reasons why they don't follow said rule--usually a cognate from another language, and where possible, ABCs notes the cognate and offers explanation. This book can be used as a reference guide for the reading/spelling/phonics teacher, for a person who learned to read phonetically, but has forgotten the specific rules, or as an independent, inexpensive phonics textbook. Regardless of your attitude toward reading methods, I highly recommend that any reading teacher or homeschool parent read this book and keep it on the reference shelf. The explanations are interesting, enlightening, and sensible. They bring understanding to our language and it's nature, as well as the rules we follow just being able to read (whether phonics was the method used to teach reading or not)and communicate in English.

My only word of caution about this book is that it is intended for teachers. Don't let your child study independently from it (unless they are high-school age), or they may become confused. The reason is not because it is faulty in its presentation, but because it is so comprehensive that students may become frustrated with it. Having said that upfront, I will also add that this is a magnificent phonics and spelling reference. The title uses the word "encyclopedia" and I believe that is the most appropriate description of its contents, and how to effectively use it with your child. The heart of the book is arranged alphabetically covering all the known rules for each letter and letter combinations. You will find introductory notes on each letter, an explanation of all the sounds that letter makes in the English language, and, if applicable, how that particular letter teams with others to make a new sound. You will also notice cross-references so you can easily find comparative sounds and notes. There is also a listing of words (beginning, intermediate and advanced) which work with each sound, exceptions,(if any), a total for the number of words in the English language that use that sound, and any spelling/phonetic rules which cover that sound. Like I said, this is an exhaustive reference tool that leaves no stone unturned.Do yourself, and your student(s) a favor...BUY THIS BOOK! To do without it means hours of preparation and research on your end (not to mention potential learning gaps) that can be spent applying what is given to you here.

This is the only book you will ever need to teach spelling to your child. It is set up in such a way that you could easily teach different levels at the same time. Words that cover a specific spelling rule are divided into easy and more difficult word lists. Although it is meant as a reference, I use it as a source for spelling words and then add to it, any words that we are encountering in our reading material that follow the same rule we are learning or reviewing from the reference book. If you are familiar with the Spalding method but are turned off by the dry, uninspired approach, use this book as your word list as most of the words in Spalding are found on this list, and if not, they can be derived from words on this list. (I actually went through Spalding and the Wise Guide to see if this book would cover the words from those lists and it does. As I said, some words on the other lists are derivitives of words in this book. You simply take the root word and add prefixes, or suffixes to form a lot of other words. I find this book much easier to adapt to my other curriculum, as I can create my own lists and still cover the spellng rules.) The book does not insist on using the short i sound for y at the end of words like Spalding, and discusses in detail how stress changes the sound of vowels in certain words. The book is not phobic about using the terms long and short vowels, so you won't have to throw away any previous notions your child has about these to teach the vowel sounds as you do in Spalding. I can't rate this book highly enough.

This is my most valuable homeschool reference tool. As a naturally poor speller, I have learned a great deal. This book has helped me explain why a word is spelled the way it is, and to build spelling rules that students can really rely on.