Short vowel: add ing to a short vowel word

Ask your child to print each vowel and tell you its name: a, e, i, o, u, y.

Each vowel has two sounds, a long sound and a short sound.

Determining whether the vowel in a word is long or short is important before adding ing.

When a vowel is long, you can hear it say its letter name: game, nose, rain, flea, tie.

When a vowel does not say its name, it is called short. With your child, say and listen to: fan, Jan, man, Nan, pan, plan, ran, scan, Stan, span, tan.  

Did your child hear vowel a say its name in ran? (No - it would have been rain.) Did your child hear a say its name in pan? (No - it would have been pain.) Do we hear a say its name in fan?  (No - it would have been fain.) 

Say: We always protect the short vowel when we add ing to a word like fan. 

What should your child do to protect the short vowel? Double the last letter, the consonant, of the word: fan > fanning

Look: fan > fanning    plan > planning    // tap > tapping     flip > flipping   stop > stopping

The baby puppy was too hot, so the boy was fanning his puppy with a piece of cardboard.

Why do you have to double the final consonant of a soft vowel word, like fan or sad or stop? 

Answer: ing starts with a vowel, so does ed, able, er.  Adding s is easy because s or ly or ful do not start with a vowel: fans, panful of soup, sadly.  Look: sad > sadder.

Long vowel rule: If there is only one consonant between two vowels, the 1st vowel will be long - say its letter name: hope > hoping > hoped > hopes > hopefully. 

Endings ing, ed, er, able start with vowels so just trade one vowel for another vowel > scare > scaring > scared > scary. If an ending does not start with a vowel, just add it > scares.

I have created several books to make reading and letter skills - like vowels - easy for your child. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All my books include my contact info; email or call for help. 

All of my books also cover the tricky phonics and a special comprehension method.
Thank you for visiting my blog. Have a great day reading with your child! Mary Maisner