As I was writing a different post, I had this very vivid memory of doing Hooked on Phonics exercises with my parents as a young child. I remember sitting at my kitchen table in front of a plate of goldfish, arms wrapped around my knees, repeating words as my dad held up small flashcards. In hindsight, he must have spent countless hours patiently sitting there while I learned the nuances of the English language (bless him). Did anyone else do this???
So, if you guys don’t know what Hooked on Phonics is, it’s basically a company that provides parents with educational materials to teach their children how to read. Kits included flashcards, games, quizzes… things like that. What I remember most is the flashcards. They varied in difficulty, from basic sounds, to basic words, to compound words, to more complicated words like homophones. According to the Wikipedia page, this system was aggressively advertised in the 90’s.
They claim that parents are the first teachers, and that their program a fun way to help children with reading. I do think that it worked very well for me, but my brother absolutely loathed the Hooked on Phonics sessions with my dad.
I like how you noted how your brother wasn’t a fan of the Hooked on Phonics system. I too spent way too many hours with those flashcards, and I feel that it wasn’t necessarily a matter of perfecting a language, but rather I felt very familiar with reading in kindergarten. No matter how much I kicked and screamed, it definitely gave me an advantage over the rest of the class. While the rest of my classmates were stuck with a reading system matching color to skill level, I got to read “real people” books. I’m sure our dads would love to share agonizing stories about youngsters trying to sound out simple words.