The Phonics Handbook: A Handbook for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling (Jolly Phonics)

It contains black and white line drawings for each letter sound (42 in total) which can be photocopied and coloured in. On each page it gives an action for the sound and space to practice writing the letters.

Children have great fun doing the actions for each letter.

I have made posters from the pictures which I have put up on the wall to remind my son of what he has learnt and to encourage my younger daughter's interest.

A year later my son can now read and write many words and phrases.

This is a must for schools and parents and a great way for you to encourage your child to learn (and you can always have some fun with colouring and doing the actions too).


If only every Reception class used this!   November 27, 2002
93 out of 96 found this review helpful

It works. That's all you really need know. It really works. Children learn the phonic sounds effortlessly in a way that allows them to actually USE what they have learned in reading and writing. And it progressively teaches them strategies first for getting things down on paper, and then moving towards a more regularised way of writing. I am a Year 1 teacher, and my class have learned incredibly quickly what they didn't manage to learn in the Reception class, who are beginning to use it now as well, thank goodness! It is fun, effective, and I truly believe that all Reception classes should be using this.


Review for The Phonics Handbook   May 28, 2006
L. Blades (Taunton, Somerset)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

I started using this book at home with my daughter when she was about 3 years old. We both loved working our way through it although it didn't seem like work, it was fun! She is now five years old and is a very confident and fluent reader. When she comes across words she has not seen before is able to sound them out phonically thanks to the techniques in this book. This book is excellent and very simple for parents and children to work through together with games and exercises. Worth every penny!! You can use it at your own speed when you are working with your own children at home and the younger they are the easier it is. Together with lots and lots of story reading at home you can't fail. I can't recommend this highly enough!


great for home education   May 19, 2008
Z. D. Izzidien (London UK)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

I bought this book for my son who was very interested in letters and reading but was not really learning to read in nursery - i must say it's really really good. Great advice about how to approach teaching, lots of printables, colouring pages, things to stick in workbooks, tricky words - we had great fun, and very straight forward for people who're not professional teachers. This book has more than enough material that you won't need to buy anything else, but we liked it so much we bought the workbooks too.

I now use it with my second child and i'm looking to move up to the grammer handbook for my eldest.