Written specifically for grade school teachers, teachers-in-training, and interested parents, this book provides a stand-alone resource for using phonics as a method for teaching children to read. This type of phonics, known as Synthetic Phonics, doesn't rely on sight words or guessing strategies. Instead, it focuses on teaching the letter-sound relationships of the alphabetic code at the start of instruction, and then using that knowledge to both encode (spell) and decode (read) individual words.It's a method that relies on logic, reason, and the child's need to understand what he or she is asked to do. Taught explicitly and systematically, Synthetic Phonics takes only 2 years to complete. Given that 2 out of 3 grade school students never attain the level of "proficient" reader, isn't it time for a different approach?