sh ell ch ild wh en th is
sh y ch air wh y th ese
sh ore ch ill wh ere th ose
sh ine ch erry wh ich th ere
sh ow ch ildren th en th eir
sh e ch urch th ey th ey
sh all ch ase
sh ould ch est



III. _Teach the Short Vowels._

Since more than 60 per cent of the vowels are short, and since short
vowels outnumber long vowels by about four to one, they are taught
first. Teach one vowel at a time by combining with the known consonants.
And what fun it is, when short "a" is introduced, to blend it with the
consonants and listen to discover "word sounds." Henceforth the children
will take delight in "unlocking" new words, without the teacher's help.
She will see to it, of course, that the words are simple and purely
phonetic at first; as:

c-a-n, can h-a-d, had
c-a-p, cap m-a-t, mat
c-a-t, cat m-a-n, man
r-a-t, rat f-a-n, fan
h-a-t, hat s-a-t, sat

Whole "families" are discovered by placing the vowel with the initial or
the final consonants, thus: