Twelve weeks from sounds to reading her first words. One Ms Rachel episode a week — a real teacher, real children, real objects — then the work she does with her hands, which is the part that actually teaches her.
Liv is verbally advanced and already knows what the letters look like, so this term does not teach her the alphabet. It teaches her to hear inside words — syllables, then rhyme, then single sounds — which is the part she almost certainly cannot do yet, and the part that reading actually depends on. Blending comes only when she is ready for it, not on a date. Practical life and movement run through every single week rather than waiting until the end.
The video is optional. It is a warm-up and a shared pleasure, not the curriculum — every week works with the screen switched off. If a week is busy, drop the episode and keep the table work.
She already recognises letters, so do not assume a blank slate. This takes ten minutes on the floor and tells you which weeks to skip. Do it as a game, never as a test.
Most children this age get syllables, sometimes rhyme, and almost never oral blending. If that is Liv, start at week 1. If she blends already, skip to week 6 and use weeks 1–5 as filler games.
| Theme | Episode | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Syllables — the big pieces of words The first level of hearing inside a word, and by far the easiest. Words break into chunks you can feel in your jaw. | Preschool Videos — Circle Time, Songs, Reading, Movement and More 74:37 |
| 2 | Rhyme Hearing that two different words end the same way. Harder than syllables, and often does not land until four — so play, do not push. | Preschool for Littles — Circle Time, Songs, Movement, Preschool Prep 66:41 |
| 3 | First sounds — the bridge from letters she knows She already recognises the letters. This is the week that connects each shape she knows to the sound it makes, which is a genuinely different piece of knowledge. | Learn The Alphabet, Letters, Phonics Song — Letter Sounds 60:18 |
| 4 | Sounds s · a · t · p · i · n + oral blending The six sounds that unlock the most words, and the robot game that turns separate sounds into a word — by ear only, no letters yet. | Learn with Ms Rachel — Phonics Song, Learn to Read 36:32 |
| 5 | Sounds m · d · g · o Ten sounds banked, and the robot game gets harder words. Still by ear. | Preschool for Littles — Letter B Part 2, Ms Rachel Visits the Beach 68:02 |
| 6 | Building words with the moveable alphabet The hinge of the term. She hears a word, breaks it into sounds, and lays the letters out — spelling before writing, which is the correct order. | Preschool Videos — Circle Time, Phonics, Colors, Numbers (Dinosaur Class) 79:35 |
| 7 | Sounds c · u — and the first words she reads Two more sounds that open up cat, cup, mug, sun, cot. Then the real test: reading a word she has never been shown. | Ms Rachel visits the Play Street Museum 30:42 |
| 8 | How many — quantity to ten She can probably recite to ten already. The real skill is knowing that six IS six without counting, and that the numeral, the word and the pile are one fact. | Learn Numbers, Colors, Counting and Shapes with Ms Rachel 60:04 |
| 9 | Living, not living, and where things live Her first real classification. Sorting the world into categories is where biology starts, and she has the language to argue about the awkward cases. | Toddler Learning with Ms Rachel — Learn Zoo Animals 85:44 |
| 10 | Where food comes from Tracing real things back to their source. Concrete geography, which beats a map at not-yet-three. | Learn Colors, Fruits and Vegetables with Ms Rachel 60:15 |
| 11 | Predict, then find out Committing to a guess out loud and discovering you were wrong. Being wrong on purpose is a skill, and it is far easier to learn at three than at thirty. | Sink or Float for Kids and More Preschool Songs 64:05 |
| 12 | Doing it herself, and getting along The culmination, not the afterthought. Independence and the actual sentences she needs with other children — which, with a baby brother in the house, is the most useful thing in the whole term. | Learn with Ms Rachel — Friendship & Social Skills 61:17 |