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Happy Hearts Happy Families

The 15 Step Learner Path

The ‘Happy Hearts Happy Families’ text allows us to follow a path of ‘15 Steps’ to teach children to read with understanding, fluency, and joy. This takes place within a vocabulary of 200 words. In the English language, there are 44 unique sounds or ‘phonemes’, which are combined to form syllables and words. The ‘15 Steps’ introduce where each phoneme is first presented in Happy Hearts Happy Families, and how phonemes are combined to form words and sentences. 

Step 1 (ABC Song, p.5)

  • Learn to read the 26 letters of the alphabet, and say their phonemes - starting with the short vowel sounds only. /a/, /b/, /k/, /d/, /e/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /ɪ/, /dʒ/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /ɒ/, /p/, /kw/, /r/, /s/, /t/, /ʌ/, /v/, /w/, /ks/, /j/, /z/.

  • Total: 23 phonemes (‘c’ = /k/ or /s/; 'q' = /kw/; 'x' = /ks/)

Step 2 (3-letters words, p.6)

  • Learn to read 3-letters words. Learn to blend /c/ + /a/ + /t/ = cat; and segment cat = c-a-t. 

  • Gain greater fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1. 

Step 3 (4-letters words, p.7)

  • Learn to read, blend and segment 4-letters words. 

  • Continue to blend and segment. 

  • Gain greater fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1.

Step 4 (Song 2: Mother and Me, p.8-9)

  • Learn to read the letters ‘m’, ‘l’, ‘h’, ‘s’, ‘w’, and say their phonemes /m/, /l/, /h/, /s/, /w/ 

  • Gain greater fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1. 

  • Learn to read the letter combination (digraph) ‘sh’ in initial position, and say its phoneme /ʃ/.

  • Total 24 phonemes

Step 5 (Song 3: Patient Under All Conditions, p.12-13)

  • Learn to read the letters ‘b’, ‘p’, ‘c’, ‘y’, ‘g’, ‘f’, and know their phonemes /b/, /p/, /k/, /j/, /g/, /f/, 

  • Gain further fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1. 

Step 6 (Song 4: Sharing is Caring, p.16-17)

  • Learn to recognize phonemes in different positions in words. 

  • Learn to read the letter ‘n’, and know its phoneme /n/ in middle position; read the letter ‘s’, and letter combinations (digraphs) ‘th’, ‘ng’ in final position, and know their phonemes /z/, /θ/, /ŋ/.

  • Gain further fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1.

  • Total 27 phonemes

Step 7 (Song 5: Show Responsibility, p.20-21)

  • Become aware that letters can be combined to form syllables, for example ‘bugs’ has one syllable, ‘horses’ has two syllables, and ‘responsibility’ has 6 syllables – ‘re/spon/si/bi/li/ty. 

  • Learn to read the letters ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘r’, ‘j’, and know their phonemes /t/, /k/, /r/, /dʒ/. 

  • Learn to read the letters ‘d’, ‘r’, v’ in middle position, 

  • Become aware that the letter combination (digraph) ‘th’ has a second phoneme. Read the digraph ‘th’, and say its phoneme /ð/.

  • Gain further fluency with the 23 phonemes of Step 1.

  • Total 28 phonemes

Step 8 (Song 6: I Love to Help at Home, p.24-25)

  • Become aware that there are short vowels and long vowels phonemes; and that long vowel sounds may sound the same in different words (rhyme), but be spelled differently, as in the example of the words ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘smile’, which have the common long vowel sound /aɪ/. 

  • Learn to read words with the short vowel phoneme /ʊ/, for example in the word ‘putting’. 

  • Learn to read words with the long vowel phonemes /i:/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /u:/, /əʊ/, /ɑ:/,  /ɔ:/, 

  • Total 37 phonemes

Step 9 (Song 7: I Listen, p.28-29)

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the 5 short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ with the phonemes /a/, /e/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ in Step 1. 

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the long vowel phonemes /i:/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /u:/, /əʊ/, /ɔ:/. 

  • Learn to read words with the new long vowel phonemes /eə/, /ɜ:/. 

  • Learn to read words with the new short phoneme /ə/, and digraph /tʃ/ spelled ‘ch’.  

  • Total 41 phonemes

Step 10 (Song 8: Animals and Me, p.32-33)

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the 5 short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ with the phonemes /a/, /e/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ in Step 1, as well as the short vowel phoneme /ʊ/. 

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the long vowel phonemes /i:/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /u:/, /əʊ/, /eə/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, and the short phoneme /ə/. 

Step 11 (Song 9: Come Along and Join Us, p.36-37)

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the 5 short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’ with the phonemes /a/, /e/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ in Step 1. 

  • Learn to read more words to reinforce and gain greater fluency with the long vowel phonemes /i:/, /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /ɔɪ/, /u:/, /ɔ:/, /ɜ:/, and the new long vowel phonemes /aʊ/, and /ʊə/. 

  • Total 43 phonemes

Step 12 (The treasure box activity)

  • Learn to read the last new phoneme /ʒ/ - ‘s’, in the word ‘treasure’ – the parent/teacher prepares a ‘treasure-box’ and will teach this word in this context. 

  • Total 44 phonemes

Step 13 (Songs 2-9 – Key words)

  • Learn to read with understanding, fluency and joy all of the ‘key words’ in Songs 2-9.

Step 14

  • Learn to read with understanding, fluency and joy all of the ‘key sentences’ in Songs 2-9.

Step 15

  • Learn to read with understanding, fluency and joy all of the ‘lyrics pages’ for Songs 1-9.