The Natural Phonics Primer is a one-stop, comprehensive phonics method for beginning and remedial reading students featuring 72 powerful, sequential, progressive exercises for building decoding fluency (accuracy + speed), enhanced with 439 decodable sentences representing 3,123 words in running text. There are three versions:

     1. Natural Phonics Primer 6 x 9 Hardback. $20.00

     2. Natural Phonics Primer 6 x 9 Paperback. $15.00

     3. Natural Phonics Primer: Expanded Edition. 8.25 x 11 Hardback. $25.00. (Includes Teacher’s Guide). 

The central feature of the program that allows it to be a “Universal Safety Net for Literacy” is the introduction of a minimum calibrated speed for EVERY grade from kindergarten through 8th grade. This will provide four important functions:

     1. It will provide an excellent beginning phonics based reading method. 

     2. It will provide universal screening for reading difficulties at the decoding level for all ages. 

     3. It will provide an effective tool for remediating reading difficulties of all types, including dyslexia. 

     4. It will provide good readers with the opportunity to further improve their decoding and spelling skills. 

Here is the Teacher’s Guide for teaching the Natural Primer with Blend Phonics. I. A. Beck calls Blend Phonics "Sequential Phonics” or  "Cumulative Phonics" because of the way it promotes accurate left to right decoding (ba-t versus b-at). Below are links to 50 instructional videos plus an introductory video that will be helpful to both teachers and students. The 22 Review Exercises are not videoed since they introduce no new spelling patterns. This Teacher’s Guide is incorporated into the Expanded Edition that was published on November 13, 2023. 

Here are some free  literacy assessments. It is important to know how a student is reading and spelling before you can know how to remediate any reading problems, and a post test is the only way to know if the teaching has been effective. I especially recommend the Miller Word Identification Assessment, the Gentry Grade-Level Spelling Test and The 1987 Riverside Quick Recognition Word List for Grade Level Placement. Kottmeyer's Diagnostic Spelling Test. The following two links are to the complete 1987 Riverside Informal Reading Inventory: (1) Student Booklet, (2) Record Forms. 

Here is my Shortcut to Manuscript video and the the Supporting Printed Material. Handwriting is essential because student should be able to print the words they are learning to sound-out. Failure to teach handwriting is a major cause of today's reading problem. Here is a detailed explanation of the Zaner-Bloser Manuscript Handwrtiting Strokes. Here is a Model for Zaner-Bloser Manuscript. 

Here is my Shortcut to Cursive video with the Supporting Printed Material for the video. This highly effective approach teaches the cursive letters in ABC order and includes every physically possible connecting stroke. Here is the complete Shortcut to Cursive program. Here are my 258 Shortcut to Cursive Flashcards for building cursive decoding fluency. 

Check out Reading Boot Camp for a top flight program that features The Natural Phonics Primer. Their goal is to make strong readers, powerful thinkers, and informed decision makers. Here is an exciting article from 2000 about the Reading Boot Camp Founder, Kathy Alfke-Simpson. Here is Captain Kathy’s Review and Introduction for the Natural Phonics Primer. 

Natural Phonics Primer 3 x 5 Alphabet Cards. Here are Alphabet Strips. I teach students to READ with the LETTER SOUNDS and SPELL with the LETTER NAMES. 

Chart for Recording Video Viewing. Student use tally marks to record each time they watch a video. The videos prepare the students to do the timings. 

Here is a bird’s eye view of the entire program: Natural Phonics Primer Stages Chart.  Here is a less detailed Stages Chart. 

Natural Phonics Primer Flashcards: I teach sounding-out and rapid word identification in a fun game format. These flashcards have proven VERY VALUABLE in developing the underlying sounding-out skills that are necessary for starting the timed fluency building and building Brain Words. Cards are now available for every exercise. 

Natural Phonics Primer: Quick Screener. The Quick Screener is a fast test for determining decoding fluency for placement in the program. It also serves to fulfill the yearly timings for students who have been through the program once or twice. The Screener is basically timings on the 22 Review Exercises. It covers all the major spelling patterns in English and is a accurate indication of true mastery (accuracy + fluency). 

Here is an excellent Count Down/Up Timer. 

Here is my training video on the Sound-to-Symbol Associations. Here are the Supporting Power Point Slides. Here are the Natural Phonics Primer Sound-to-Symbol Flashcards. Explanation of the use of my Alphabet Chart and the Phonovisual Phonics Charts. 

Students who have finished the Natural Phonics Primer can go to the next level with my Beyond Basic Phonics: English Morphology Made Easy.  Videos for Beyond Basic Phonics. Here is Beyond Basic Phonics in column format without illustrative sentences. I am planning to publish this in paperback in the near future. Note my earlier effort in helping kids mastering advanced English: Beyond Blend Phonics: English Morphology Madre Easy. Here is a video explaing English Etymology and Morphology. 

Here is a link to all the Natural Phonics Primer Instructional Videos for those who would prefer to download them to a hard drive so they can be accessed offline. 

“If You Really Want to Read,” A poem by Mr. Potter for the Natural Phonics Primer. 

      Here is Mahaya, one of my fifth grade students, reciting my poem, "If You Really Want to Read," and introducing the progarm. 

Here is a video advertisement by two of my students: Mahaya and Rosie. 

Here is a pdf of the original Natural Phonics Primer when I taught it in the 3-colored folderes' format with the vowel spellings in red. Here are labels for the covers of the color coded folders.