“What does a good early literacy program look like?”

That’s the question we asked ourselves over and over while designing the Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Program. Well, we knew it had to be all about phonemic awareness. That was the jump-off point.

What’s phonemic awareness?

It’s the ability to hear and manipulate phonemes, the smallest sounds we hear in words. We also knew it had to teach the alphabetic principle (associating sounds with their respective letters) and we knew it had to teach a few other skills we’ll talk about in future blogs (blending, alliteration, rhyming, etc.). But most of all, we were sure it had to be FUN.

I couldn’t help but think of those delicious chewable vitamins I used to take when I was a boy. I swear they tasted like candy, but they were good for me.

That’s what Learn to Read Pre-K had to be: fun that is good for you. It’s all about using animation, print, music, manipulatives, and online technology to help children build phonemic awareness (you already know what that means). And children have so much fun watching the HOP Kids hanging out and having fun that they’ll never notice they’re learning a lot! If you don’t believe me, see for yourself: