Phonics plays a very crucial role in helping a child build his literacy skills. Phonics teaching is very important because it teaches a child the links between the sounds of speech and the letters, and letter groups which are code for those sounds. Systematic and incidental phonics learning help equip a child with alphabetic code knowledge and forms the basis for the technical skills needed for reading, spelling and writing.

Here at the Kao household, besides getting their phonics instruction through the lessons in their kindergarten, the older kids also learn from watching educational programmes like Word World and LeapFrog. I don’t exactly know how to deliver phonics instructions, and so I usually outsource this part to the experts.

Last month, the folks at Julia Gabriel Education very kindly sent us their very own book and CD set titled An Alphabet Zoo Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear. In true Julia Gabriel style, this book was created by her to teach children aged 3 to 4 the most common sounds of each letter in the Alphabet and to give them a start to phonemic awareness and decoding letters into sounds with lots of songs and story telling.

An Alphabet Zoo Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear

The CD is voiced by actors and teachers representing characters in the book who use Standard English, and is a good resource to play even on its own, like in the car. It has catchy tunes and familiar refrains with carefully distinguished sounds pronounced clearly and proficiently.

The book can be read with the CD or without the CD, and Julia Gabriel herself provides a guide at the beginning of the book to help parents use the book and CD set with suggested activities and prompts. Each page in the book is like a huge hide-and-seek activity, with captivating  illustrations by Kathy Creamer of animals and things related to each letter in the Alphabet.

Captivating illustrations of things starting with the letter F

The older kids love the book, especially for the fascinating pictures which allow them to find and identify. They talk about each page with me and between themselves when we read it together, which also allows them to develop their language proficiency.

Lots of things to look for for each letter!

Check out the letter S with Santa and a woman in sari!

An Alphabet Zoo Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear is a great book that takes the little ones on a lively journey through the Alphabet Zoo and making the letters of the Alphabet come alive for young minds that are ready to get acquainted with phonics.

*And we’re hosting a GIVEAWAY on the blog!*

Julia Gabriel Education is giving away THREE sets of An Alphabet Zoo Phonemic Adventure with Rainbow Bear book + CD set to three of Motherkao’s readers, so you and your child can journey through the Alphabet Zoo too!

To stand a chance for the randomised draw, simply leave me a comment here telling me who you’d like to win it for, with your name and email address. Giveaway closes on 16 December 2013. It’ll be a neat Christmas gift for your little one, that’s for sure!

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Thank you everyone, for participating! Congrats to the winners! You’ll hear from the folks at JGE soon!

Disclosure: We received the book and CD set from Julia Gabriel Education for the purpose of this review. Motherkao received no monetary compensation for reviewing this and all opinions here are my own.