Sound Anchor: Phonics Blending

Sound Anchor teaches exactly one thing well: blending individual letter sounds into whole words. It is the building-block skill at the heart of synthetic phonics, and the one children practise every day in Reception and Year 1. It is a short, calm daily drill, not a reading curriculum. If your child already knows some letter sounds and is learning to push them together (s, a, t… sat), this is the practice they need, and nothing else. HOW IT WORKS • Today's sound ladder: a fixed set of 5 to 10 words at your child's current step. Finish it and you're done. • Tap each sound: every letter tile says its sound in a clear recorded voice. • Blend them: hear the sounds joined smoothly into the word. • Pick the picture: match the word to one of three pictures. A miss simply replays the sounds. There are no wrong answers, no timers, no lives, no sad faces. • Meet Echo: a friendly whale who listens along and cheers every word. BUILT AROUND WHAT PARENTS ASKED FOR • Narration only. Never a music bed under the spoken sounds. • UK English voice by default; switch to US English once and it applies everywhere. • A session always ends at a proper checkpoint between words. Close the app mid-word and it reopens on that exact word, not the start. • No streak to break. Parents see a gentle "practised 3 of the last 7 days" read-out, never a counter that punishes a missed day. WHAT'S INCLUDED Phase 2 is free and complete: the first 23 letter-sounds (s a t p, i n m d, g o c k, ck e u r, h b f ff l ll ss) and 95 words to blend from them, in the widely used UK teaching order. The Phase 3 sounds pack is a single one-time purchase, with no subscription. It adds the next 26 letter-sounds (j v w x, y z zz qu, then sh ch th ng, ai ee igh oa oo, ar or ur ow oi, ear air ure er) and 124 more words. The Phase 4 blends pack is a second one-time purchase that follows Phase 3. It adds 46 longer words with consonants side by side (f-l-a-g, t-e-n-t, s-t-r-ee-t, b-a-ck-p-a-ck), built from the sounds your child already knows, with no new letter-sounds. The Phase 5 sounds pack is a third one-time purchase that follows Phase 4. It adds 13 new ways to spell sounds your child already knows (ay ou ie ea, oy ir ue aw, wh ph ew oe au) and 127 more words, like d-ay, c-l-ou-d, g-ir-l and s-ea-sh-e-ll. Packs can be bought in any order. The words always arrive in the teaching order, so a pack bought early waits its turn and Home says when it starts. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no adverts, no analytics, no internet needed. Progress is stored only on your device. Settings and purchases sit behind a simple grown-ups-only question. Sequencing follows the publicly documented Letters and Sounds phase order. Sound Anchor is independent and is not affiliated with any commercial phonics scheme.