Phonics ConceptsSeedling
CVC words, explained
Consonant-vowel-consonant words like cat, sun, and top are the first real words children decode.
Why CVC first
Cat, sun, top, bed: three sounds, spelled exactly as they sound. CVC words are the gentlest possible on-ramp to blending — every letter does its plain job.
The progression
First oral blending (hearing c-a-t as cat), then reading CVC words with known sounds, then writing them. Each step reuses the same small set of sounds so nothing is new twice.
Common stumbles
Adding “uh” to consonants (cuh-ah-tuh) breaks blending — keep sounds pure. And short vowels are genuinely confusable at first; our short-vowel articles have listening games for each.