Every letter in the alphabet represents at least one sound; many letters can represent different sounds, depending on what words they are in. The letter b, for example, has only one sound, but the letter c has two sounds, as in cat and center.

By the time your child finishes kindergarten, he or she should know the names of all the letters, and the most common sound made by each letter. Knowing how written letters represent sounds is called phonics.

Research indicates that learning the names of letters leads to more rapid and accurate learning of phonics. This is reflected in the earlier levels of ABCmouse.com curriculum through many activities that support learning the names of uppercase and lowercase letters. Activities in Levels 3 through 6 are designed to support the learning of basic phonics, as well as word families, and blending of consonant-vowel-consonant words, such as b-i-g, or big.

Altogether, ABCmouse.com has hundreds of games, puzzles, books, and other activities to help your child become a phonics whiz.