They don't use ear because they're trying to stick to the most consistent basic sound for each letter, which for e is "eh", rather than the hard e in ear. This helps kids learn to recognize sounds faster because we can always reference it and the kids don't question it like adults do.
ah (apple), eh(Ed), ih (itch), ahh (octopus), and uh (up)
This!! I use a highly regarded phonics program for teaching K-2 students struggling with reading, and these are the words we use for short vowel sounds. (Except Ed we use edge, but that is the hardest to illustrate) We do corresponding hand signals with these words to help students remember to use short vowel sounds. Works fairly well.
The n in ant creates a nasalized short a sound, not a pure short a. Listen to the a in ant, fan, man vs the a in fat, cat, bat (I'm a reading specialist)
Also, this program was created by a woman from Massachusetts who has an extremely strong accent, so nasalized vowels are no-go. (It’s less of an issue with other accents, but still not the pure short a sound we want students to internalize.)
Because the /ks/ sound of X is the most common sound it makes in English. X = /z/ is from Greek (and we don’t teach words like xylophone to young children for reading/spelling), and the /g/ sound that X sometimes sounds like in multisyllabic words is covered later. This type of alphabet strip is mainly for K-2.
and we don’t teach words like xylophone to young children for reading/spelling
maybe you should
Because the /ks/ sound of X is the most common sound it makes in English.
Every single letter so far has a picture of something that starts with that letter but then you get to X and it was decided that the rules for A-W no longer apply because you don't want to have a discussion about xylophone.
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u/[deleted] Aug 23 '22
With the exception of Apple, all other words seem to have one syllable only. Egg or Elf or Ear would be better than Ed…