Bubs is starting to figure out phonics and putting different sounds together to create words. This has been a long time coming though! I realized that I was skipping several important steps in helping him do this thus delaying this process. Hopefully this post will help you as well!
I found the book Wow! I’m Reading!: Fun Activities to Make Reading Happen 
I realized that I have been skipping important steps in reading. When I started introducing “sounding out words”, I sounded out every sound. It was too much for Bubs. Hauser broke up the process into manageable steps [from easiest to most challenging]
1. Compound words: cow…boy [cowboy]
2. Syllables: pen…cil [pencil]
3. The first sound with all of the others: b…ag [bag]
4. All but the last sound plus the last sound: mea…t [meat]
5. Each sound separately: c..l..a..p [clap]
This process has been created into a computer game on the program Earobics. Using the fun of games, Bubs has now learned how to put sounds together to form words.
