It's hard to beat flashcards for visual connections and practice with the various word sounds. These cards go one step further and encourage a tactile finger-tracing experience. These are colorful, quality cards with many nice features. The sixty 4"x 5 5/8" cards are double-sided with rounded corners.
The front side shows the letter or letters that comprise a sound. These 1 ½" letters are lower-case with print letters. This side also shows an associative word. One nice (and unusual) feature of these letters is the embedded dot that shows where to start letter formation. That makes these cards perfect for finger-tracing practice.
The back side of each card provides an illustration of the associative word. Included also on this side are dots that designate the sounds heard in that word. For instance, the sound /ng/ has “ring" as the associative word. The picture side shows three dots for the three sounds of the word - /r/ /i/ /ng/.
A small booklet that accompanies the flashcard set gives brief instructions for learning the sounds, writing the letters, listening for the sounds, and blending the sounds together. The 43 letter sounds are covered first; then the alternative spellings for each sound.
This is a quality set of cards and a nice complement to the Jolly Phonics program material. My only quibble with them is the lack of a card number printed directly on the card. There are numbers associated with each card, but your only way to identify them is through a chart in the booklet. I would be tempted to write those numbers in as discretely as possible on each card.
