A Step at a Time

Welcome to A Step at a Time, the home of phonics information, materials, resources and games.

This website has been designed to provide you with information, tips and links to answer your phonics and general literacy questions. Just a few of the things you will find information on are:

How to help your preschooler learn to read.

The different types of phonics that can be used.

The methods used to teach literacy.

The sounds of the English language.

Letter formation guides.

Links to reading and spelling tests.

Getting help for a struggling student.

Literacy curriculums for homeschoolers.

We are continuously adding more information, links and resources that we think might be of use to you. Do get in contact with us if you have any unanswered questions, you have feedback that you would like to give or you need support. We welcome contact from you.

What our customers say about us:

Katharine Beaumont - Teacher and Resource Writer (Step Up Resources)

I own and operate several Kip McGrath Education Centres and am always on the lookout for good quality resources that aid our learning programmes. I purchased a few of Kelly's resources at the beginning of the year thinking that I would use these with some of my younger students needing some help with spelling and alphabet. So impressed with these ones, I went on to purchase the Full Curriculum set and use it with several of the students. So amazed with the results (in many cases immediate) I went on to purchase the entire A Step at a Time Curriculum and activity sets for each of my Education Centres. Over the year, we have found that the children working on this programme alongside our own programmes make significant progress and the bonus is that they really enjoy learning to read and spell in this way. Thanks to Kelly I have been challenged in my thinking on the teaching of reading and I am now sold on the synthetic phonics approach to teach the foundations of literacy to kiwi kids.

Karen Lancaster - Parent

I have an eight year old boy who is dyslexic, he was over 18 months behind his reading age at school. I have been home-schooling him for ten months now and have been using A Step at a Time. I have recently assessed his reading age and he is now four months ahead of his age.

I cannot put into words the look on his face when he learnt the results of his last reading test, he grew four feet taller in just a few seconds. Our dear little boy feels good about himself again, he has learnt the rules and tricks to decode words, he can read and we haven't even finished Booklet Four yet! I sincerely recommend this programme to anyone willing to dedicate some of their time helping their child decode words - there's no guessing, they learn to read.

Rachel Evans, Auckland - Parent

I'm loving using the A Step at a Time resources with my preschooler (who is very keen to learn to read). I really enjoyed teaching him the letter sounds and we are now having lots of fun with games and very simple books. Kelly has great technical knowledge of learning phonics and has been a fabulous source of information, support and encouragement. Very highly recommended!

M Reekie, Christchurch - Parent

I fully recommend this way of teaching. We have only been doing this for 5 days but have noticed a vast improvement in our son's learning. We have managed to fill in many previously unnoticed gaps. Highly recommended.

K Stevens, Morrinsville - Parent

I've so enjoyed watching my four-year old daughter work her way through the booklets: learning has been fun for us both. I love the idea of setting the child up for success and A Step at a Time has enabled me to confidently be involved in the learning process. The instructions have been easy to follow and I've certainly learnt a lot about our quirky English language! I'd definitely recommend these booklets to anyone who has a pre-schooler eager to learn to read.

Phonics teaches children to connect spoken sounds with letters or groups of letters.

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