R-controlled vowels are one of the trickier phonics patterns. Your child might be reading simple words with short vowels but get stumped on a word like car or bird. In this guide, we’ll walk through what R-controlled vowels are and how you can help your child practice them at home with simple activities and word lists.

Phonemic awareness is one of the most important building blocks of learning to read, but it’s often confused with phonological awareness and phonics. In this guide, we’ll break down the three P’s of learning to read so you can understand how these skills build on each other to support strong readers.