Victoria,

Its great to hear from you. You have some good questions. Blend Phonics and Word Mastery are separate programs. They are both great. Blend Phonics can be used single students, small groups, and large classes. Word Mastery is good for individual students I start where the student is. All students need to know the letter names and sounds so I teach both. Loring taught them together, but not in ABC order. I teach the alphabet tapping exercise in conjunction with alphabet flashcards, teaching straight through the alphabet a to z. I also like them to learn to write the alphabet from memory from a to z quickly, in print, cursive, or both. Personally I teach the alphabet letter names and sounds from the start, but in separate sessions – often within the same tutoring hour. As the students work through Blend Phonics, I have them spell the words with letter names. Written spelling from dictation is good but oral spelling with letter names is much faster. Thanks for purchasing my books. I believe in the programs and use them everyday in my private tutoring, One year I taught Blend Phonics to a first grader who came to our school one month before school was out unable to read. She was on grade level in one month flat! She finished third grade last year the top of her class. Kindergartners who finished the program in kindergarten were reading on a solid second semester first grade level and improved another grade level over summer. I have reems of such stories from my personal experience. As lot depends on the age of the students. I really emphasize fun play with the tapping expercise, alphabet cards, Phonovisual Charts, and Phonovisual cards. Be sure and check out my YouTube training videos

After reading over your websites for the past couple weeks I have purchased both blend phonics and word mastery! You have mentioned to use them both, do you meant to complete one before the other or at the same time? If at the same time, does it matter that the blend phonics units and word mastery order don’t line up exactly?

Also, you stress for students to know the alphabet and sounds before starting blend phonics, is this the same for word mastery? or can a student that doesn’t know all the letters and sounds start word mastery since it goes over one letter at a time in the beginning?

And when using your alphabet tapping exercise and phonovisual charts, does the student need to know the letter names before starting the sounds on the chart or teach them simultaneously?

Thank you for all your hard work and passion in your reseach to make all this available for free or at a very low cost!

I teach cursive and Blend Phonics together. The program can be taught successfully with either manuscript or cursive.

Thanks again!