Start with phonics. Children should learn letter sounds and how to blend them first, because phonics gives them a strategy to work out almost any word on their own. Sight words are taught alongside — a small set of very common words that do not follow regular spelling rules and are learned by memory. The two methods work together, but phonics leads.
Phonics teaches the link between sounds and letters. A child learns that s says “sss” and a says “aah”, then blends those sounds together to read words like sat and cap. Because most English words can be sounded out, phonics gives children a tool to decode words they have never seen before — the key to reading independently.
Sight words (sometimes called high-frequency words) are common words that appear again and again in text — like the, was, said and you. Many of them do not sound out neatly using normal phonics rules, so children learn to recognise them instantly, by sight. Because they are so common, knowing them helps a child read sentences smoothly.
Phonics first. If a child learns to rely on memorising whole words too early, they get stuck the moment they meet a word they have not memorised — and there are far too many words to memorise them all. Phonics gives them a way through. Once your child can blend a few sounds, you introduce a handful of sight words at the same time, so they can start reading real sentences. So it is not phonics or sight words — it is phonics first, sight words alongside.
Imagine your child meets the sentence “The cat sat on the mat.” They sound out cat, sat and mat using phonics, and read the and on instantly as sight words. Together, the two skills let them read the whole sentence with confidence. That blend of decoding plus instant recognition is exactly what fluent reading looks like.
You do not have to plan the sequence yourself. Saving Grace Learn to Read is a CAPS-aligned online reading programme for South African children in Grades R–6 that teaches phonics and sight words in the right order, with read-aloud support and progress you can follow. The first two lessons of every grade are free, no card needed.
