Who lives in the house of "at?" Why, bat, hat, mat, rat, and cat, of course! When doing this lesson, the child puts all the "at" cards on the house first. Then she puts the beginning sounds in place, sounding out each letter combination as she goes. If she's a writer, she can make a book with the words she's built. The children can choose from several sets of cards... "an" {c, p, f, r, m} "ap" {c, m, n, s, t} "et" {j, n, p, s, w} "en" {d, h, m, p, t} "it" {s, f, m, h, p} "in" {b, f, p, t, w} "og" {b, d, h, j, l} "op" {b, h, m, p, t} "ug" {b, h, j, m, r} "ut" {c, g, h, n, r} I bet you can think of even more short vowel combos, too! The house part of the lesson is made from felt, and the cards are hand-written on squares of paper, then laminated. Someday, when I have a little more time and motivation, {oh, if only!} I'd love to post some tutorials on the felts we use for language lessons. Not only are they useful, they make the lessons so appealing to little hands!