Before letters comes listening. These playful, no-print activities build the ear for sounds that reading depends on.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and play with the individual sounds in spoken words — noticing that ‘sun’ starts with /s/, or that ‘cat’ and ‘hat’ rhyme. It is a listening skill, so preschoolers build it through talking and games, with no letters or print at all. Strong phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of easy reading later, which makes these simple activities time very well spent.
Reading is ultimately about matching sounds to letters. A child who can already hear that ‘mat’ is made of /m/ /a/ /t/ finds the letters much easier to attach later. Skipping this stage is a common reason blending is a struggle in Grade 1.
The wonderful news for busy South African families is that phonemic awareness needs no equipment, no screen and no electricity. You can do every activity below while cooking, walking to the taxi, or waiting out load-shedding.
Rhyme is often the first sound skill to bloom. Sing rhyming songs, read rhyming stories, and pause so your child can supply the rhyming word. Nal’ibali’s story resources are full of rhythm and rhyme that make this easy.
Play ‘silly rhymes’: pick a word and take turns making up rhyming words, real or nonsense — cat, hat, bat, zat, plat. The giggles matter as much as the learning; laughter keeps children playing longer.
Play ‘I spy with my ear’: ‘I spy something that starts with /b/.’ Notice starting sounds on names, food and objects around the house. Once first sounds are easy, try last sounds — ‘what sound do you hear at the end of dog?’
Keep saying pure sounds, not letter names — /b/ not ‘bee’, /s/ not ‘ess’. This trains your child’s ear for exactly the sounds they will later match to letters, and prevents confusion when print arrives.
Clap the syllables in names and words — ‘San-di-le’ is three claps, ‘Cape Town’ is two. This bigger-chunk skill comes before hearing individual sounds and builds a lovely sense of rhythm in words.
Then play oral blending and segmenting: you say the sounds slowly — ‘/d/ /o/ /g/’ — and your child says the word, or you say ‘dog’ and they break it into sounds. This is the exact skill blending will need, practised entirely by ear. Wordworks provides excellent parent activities along these lines.
Two or three minutes here and there is plenty for a preschooler. These are games, not lessons — sprinkle them through the day rather than sitting down for a ‘session’. A child who loves playing with sounds arrives at formal reading already halfway there.
When your child is ready to link sounds to letters, a gentle CAPS-aligned start such as SGEG’s early lessons builds naturally on this foundation. But the listening games above are the essential groundwork, and they cost nothing but your attention.
External sources open in a new tab. Saving Grace Education Group is not affiliated with these organisations.
Our CAPS-aligned programme turns these ideas into fun, interactive lessons. Try the first two lessons of every grade for free.
Help your child become a confident reader. Explore the CAPS-aligned Saving Grace Learn to Read programme — the first two lessons of every grade are free, no card needed.
