(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone.

It is a great day to learn something new.

And I am so excited to be with my son Tucker here today.

Hey Tucker, how are you doing?

- I'm doing amazing and I am ready to learn today.

- That is good to hear.

We have been playing this morning a lot and having a lot of fun.

We're playing with Legos.

We're changing some of these pieces, making them look different, changing some of our creations.

And today, I want us to play around with words the same way that we play with Legos.

I know.

So just like we can take those Lego pieces away, we can do the same things with words, with the sounds and syllables, okay?

- Okay.

- All right, so a syllable is a part of a word that contains sounds or phonemes of the word, and it usually has a vowel in it.

So to get warmed up, let's just start with sounds or what we call phonemes.

Do you want to try that?

- Oh yes.

- Okay.

So if I want to substitute the first sound, it's called the initial phoneme.

So I'm going to say the word sun.

Can you say sun?

- Sun.

- Very good.

- But I want you to change the ss to a ruh and tell me what that word would be.

- Run.

- Very good.

You could do the same thing if we change the ss to a f, what would it be?

- Fun.

Just like we're having right now.

- Just like we're having right now.

Very good.

Okay, let's try a few more of those.

Let's make the word pig.

Can you use these to make the word pig?

So do P. - [Both] I-G. - Very good.

Right here!

Awesome.

Okay.

So I want you to change the puh to a buh and tell me what you get.

- Big.

- Very good.

Nice, nice job.

Okay, let's try one more with these blocks.

All right, so I'm going to say the word hog.

Let's make the word hog.

There's your H-O-G.

Awesome.

Now I want you to change the huh to a L and tell me what you get.

- Log.

- I think you are pretty comfortable with that.

Okay, so let's move on to the last sound.

It's what we call the final phoneme.

When I say the word lap, let's just do one more with the last sound.

I say the word lap.

So A. P, very good.

Okay.

I want you to change that puh to a buh and tell me what we have.

- Lab.

- Outstanding.

Okay.

So if I say the word hip, I want you to change the puh to a tuh, what do you have?

- Hit.

- Hit.

Very good.

One more.

When I say the word fin, I want you to change the nn to a sh.

- Fish.

- Very good.

Like a fish has a fin, right?

Awesome, okay.

So it doesn't just have to be one letter.

That phoneme could be a blend or a diagraph like sh or ch as well.

Okay.

So now we've substituted the sounds, right?

All right, we're going to make things a little bit more difficult and we are going to take away a full syllable.

So if you remember, a syllable is a part of a word that contains sounds or phonemes of the word and it usually has the vowel in it.

So we are going to use compound words to practice this.

Are you ready?

- Got it.

- Okay.

Compound words are made up of two word parts, like the word cupcake.

- You love those.

- I absolutely love cupcakes.

So that's a great word to start with.

Like I said, cupcake is made up of two word parts.

So move those apart, awesome.

Okay, so let's look at this.

If we say the word cupcake.

- Cupcake.

- I want you to take away the word cup.

- Cake.

You love that too.

- We talked about that.

You talked about birthing in a birthday cake.

- Oh yeah.

- Okay.

Let's think of another compound word.

We just said this.

Birthday.

- Can you say.

- Birthday.

- Birthday, awesome.

- Birthday.

- Okay, now I want you to say birthday without the birth.

- Day.

- Outstanding.

You've got this.

Let's try one more.

Say football.

- Football.

- Now I want you to say football without the word foot.

- Ball.

- Very good.

All right, one last one.

Say catfish.

- Catfish.

- Okay.

Now I want you to say the word catfish without the word cat.

- Fish.

- Very good, fish is what's left.

You're doing a great job with this.

We can do the exact same thing though, taking away that last part of the word.

We can use the word catfish again.

Are you ready?

- Got it.

- Okay.

Say catfish.

- Catfish.

- Now take away the word fish.

- Cat.

- Exactly.

Say sailboat.

- Sailboat.

- Now take away the word boat.

- Sail.

- Very good.

Say grasshopper.

- Grasshopper.

- Now take away the hopper.

- Grass.

- You've got this.

One more.

Say railroad.

- Railroad.

- Okay.

Now say railroad without the road.

- Rail.

- All right.

Very good.

Did you have fun?

- Oh yes.

That was so fun.

- There's one more thing we can do.

- What?

- If you're up for a challenge.

- I am definitely up for a challenge.

- I like that.

The first thing we did was substitute phonemes or sounds in a word.

I want us to use that exact same skill, but substitute a full syllable.

If we go back to that word that I love so much.

Do you remember it?

- Cupcake.

- Okay, I'm going to say the word cupcake.

I want you to say it.

- Cupcake.

- Okay, now I want you to change the word cup to pan.

- Pancake.

- Very good.

Now say the word campsite.

- Campsite.

- Okay, but I want you to say campsite, but change site to fire.

- Campfire.

- Very good.

Say the word airport.

- Airport.

- All right.

Now say airport, but change port to plane.

- Airplane.

- All right.

Don't get confused.

One last one.

Say anywhere.

- Anywhere.

- Okay.

But change the, any to no.

- Nowhere.

- You've got this.

Just like we play with Legos, we can also play with words.

We can take away or add pieces.

We can have so much fun.

You can make it challenging by changing the beginning sound, the ending sound or even the middle.

I had a lot of fun with you today.

- Me too.

Wait, mom, we forgot something.

- What?

- I think we need to celebrate with cupcakes.

- We always need to celebrate with cupcakes.

- Thanks.

- You're welcome.

- Keep on learning.

Keep on having fun and keep on playing with words and toys this summer.