Danish Phonics

This is the Sound House in big version in J's school

This is the Sound House J made out of milk cartons during class :-)

This is how the Danish school teaches the alphabet phonics.

First, they start by teaching the children to write the letters, without teaching the sounds yet.

Next, they teach the sounds of the letters by telling a story.

It is a mystical story about how the Danish language, the letters and its sounds come about - a story about the letters came down to earth and reside in a Danish cottage. The whole Danish phonics method is thus called the sound house (lydhuset). They even have the Sound House in big version that the kids can enter and jump around in J's school :-)

The story and method of teaching is invented by a very experienced teacher at Engelsborgskolen, and it has been used in many schools, including J's school.

Here is the website introducing this method and the creator of the method itself:

www.lydhuset

Here the creator of the story is telling the story. At 00:07:32-53, you can hear how he sings the vowels:

Here is how the mouth looks when pronouncing the Danish vowels:

Since I am a foreigner, and since I could not rely on Daddy FECS to do it (he could not produce the sounds - it sounded all the same to me!!!). I have requested J's teacher to record the sounds of the vowels for me. Here she has recorded the Danish vowels specially for me at my request. Isn't she sweet :-) She gave me permission to share with other parents.

The Lip Family Consonants (Læbefamilien)

The Front Tongue Family Consonants (Fortungefamilien)

The Back Tongue Family Consonants (Bagtungefamilien)

If only I am taught English phonics the way it is taught to children, I wouldn't have to fall asleep in class, and struggled so much to learn English, when I was in primary school in Singapore!!!

References:

http://www.lydhuset.dk/

19 November 2015 (6Y7M14D): Completion of the Danish phonics Sound House project and learning. The whole class posing with the Sound House (Lydhuset). The whole class were given a test in order to "graduate" (which is very unusual to have test at Primary 0 in Denmark). While I am still struggling mastering the Danish phonics, all the kids did very well :-)