From Blocks To Books is a program devised by a parent to help infants and toddlers develop reading readiness and basic reading skills using wooden alphabet blocks and basic phonetic sounds.  I used the program to help my own child gain reading readiness skills from the time he was old enough to hold a block. He was a competent reader by the time he entered kindergarten. The program can also be used by speakers of almost any language, including Spanish, to help their children gain reading readiness skills. Information before beginning the program: Skills Needed: Because you can read, you already know or can figure out the sounds that each letter makes in order to make words. You should be able to say these sounds out loud to your child when either you or your child touches or handles a block. (For example if your child picks up a block with an M on it, you would say the sound "mmm".) Supplies Needed: One set of wooden alphabet blocks that are two inches large on each side or very close to two inches on each side to prevent the child being able to insert the block all the way into his or her mouth.  Smaller size blocks can be more of a hazard and more difficult to stack and build towers with due to their small size. For best price and proper size, I recommend the wooden alphabet block set that Walmart sells in their toy section. The set contains fifty larger sized blocks with all the letters of the alphabet.  (There are also some larger sized wooden alphabet block sets for sale on the internet. It's best to learn the actual size of the individual blocks before ordering any set of blocks.) Getting Started: Get out the blocks and allow your child to look at them and to touch them. Every block that your child touches or picks up, you say the phonetic sound that letter makes. You can also touch the block as you make the sound. (For example: say "mmm" when touching the M block.) Don’t say the name of the letter written on the block, say the sound the letter makes. Saying the letter could interfere with your child associating the sound the letter makes with that letter. If your child has the language skills, you can ask your child to repeat the sound after you do. However, children do not have to be old enough to talk to begin learning the sounds the letters make. If you consistently give them the sounds of the letters on the blocks they are touching and handling they will learn the sound and begin to be able to put sounds together naturally to make words when they see them in on a page. Telling them the name of the letter can be confusing because you want them to see the letter and think only of the sound it makes so they can use that sound for their reading readiness skills. Play with your child naturally with the blocks. Make towers or forts or other things out of the blocks. Make sure you are saying the sound that the letter on each block makes while you and your child are handling it. If the child can repeat the sound after you make it, that’s great, but even if they don’t, the information about the sound the letter makes will be getting into their brains for use later when they begin to read. They will eventually see the letter and think the sound and that will help them with their reading skills later on when they are learning to read and reading. Keep it fun and stop when you or your child tires of it. After some time using the program has gone by - maybe two to three weeks, while you are playing, try holding up a block and asking the child to tell you the sound the letter on the block makes. If they say it correctly, give them lots of praise and hand them the block and have them make the sound again while they are holding the block. If they don’t know what sound the letter makes, you say the sound the letter makes, hand them the block and then ask them to make the sound. You can then start putting small words together with the blocks such as cat, hat, mat, hit, fit, man, can, etc. Point to the letters and string them together for your child at first by saying the sound each letter makes in connection to the other sounds. For example: MAN - say; "mmm aaa nnn" and then the word man said normally. Then ask your child to repeat the sounds to see that those letters on the blocks put together to make the word man. Once the child is able to sound out short words, you can put blocks together to teach them new sounds letters make such as two letter o’s make the sound "oooo" and ce makes the sound "sss", etc. You can also teach them that some letters make more than one sound. However, it’s not important to be able to teach every sound and every phonetic rule. The important thing is that the child is learning that letters make sounds and that using those sounds is a way to read the words in books.