iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 22/01/2026

Looking forward to it! I picked up that book recently and have been enjoying it so far.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 12/01/2026

For example, if you want to start with 's', 'a', 't', 'p', 'i', 'n'. By the time you get to 'n' you'll get 32 new words and have 63 words total.

Graph showing words learned by teaching the letter sounds s, a, t, p, i, and n. A student would have 63 words total and 32 new words when learning the 'n' letter.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 12/01/2026

We built a new toy. You can make any letter sequence you want and see what words you learn at each step. Come try it out! Show us your best (and worst) sequences for teaching letter sounds. phonicsandstuff.com/letter-seque...

Letter Sequence Graphs - Phonics & Stuff

See what words students can read as you build a letter sequence. Enter a curriculum sequence, or make your own, to see how many and which words your students should be able to read.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 12/01/2026

Join us for a virtual event hosted by LearnUp Centers and Phonics & Stuff! I'll be talking about how to use the Phonics & Stuff tools to teach reading. I've broken down 30,000 words so you don't have to! Come learn how this fuels our free games and teaching tools. www.eventbrite.com/e/learnup-sp...

LearnUp Speaker Series - What an analysis of 30,000 words tells us about how to teach reading.
Join us for a free webinar with Julia Shayto, who will be sharing insights on how to teach readign based on extensive analysis of phonics and spelling patterns.
Wednesday, February 4th 2026.
6 - 7 PM PST
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/learnup-speaker-series-with-julia-shayto-creator-of-phonicsstuff-tickets-1979748963443

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 04/12/2025

Is this just examining the existing growth mindset that the students have when they come to school, or does it look at the effect of teachers spending class time on activities meant to build growth mindset?

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 04/12/2025

A few years ago there was a story about using captions to improve literacy levels in rural India. They found the practice to be helpful, but it took longer than 6 weeks. www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/hi... www.planetread.org/images/pdf/r...

thenationalnews.com

Hindi film subtitles translate into successful literacy project for India | The National

With the simple addition of subtitles to Bollywood films, barely literate Indians are instinctively attempting to read as they watch their favourite movies on television.

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 29/11/2025

Explore interconnected morphemes as webs! Similar to a morpheme matrix, a morpheme web shows the variety of words that can be built with a morpheme base. We offer a handful of free ones, while members get access to over 5,000 morphemes! phonicsandstuff.com/morpheme-webs

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 11/11/2025

I've had a great time the past several years. Looking forward to it again!

Emily Hanford @ehanford.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Reposted by Julia Shayto

Sold a Story fans - we've got something new! www.youtube.com/shorts/a94It...

youtube.com

New Sold a Story discussion guides for Episodes 11-14

YouTube video by APM Reports

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 02/11/2025

We have a new daily puzzle! It's a fun way to learn different morphemes, but really it's just an excuse to have another word puzzle for me to play. phonicsandstuff.com/puzzles/morp...

Morpheme Mix - Phonics & Stuff

Play a daily puzzle where you mix morphemes to make words!

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 07/10/2025

It's been a few years, but we finally have a real home page. Plus, a new mascot. Say hello to Nibbles!

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 01/07/2025

We have something new I hope you guys will like! It's a daily morphology puzzle we're calling Morpheme Mix. Every day you'll get a collection of morphemes that you combine in different ways to make words. Let us know what you think! phonicsandstuff.com/puzzles/morp...

Morpheme Mix - Phonics & Stuff

Play a daily puzzle where you mix morphemes to make words!

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 01/06/2025

Please consider using a program other than BTC. There isn't evidence that it improves students' mathematical achievement. All the author looks at is what he calls "student engagement." pershmail.substack.com/p/the-eviden...

pershmail.substack.com

The Evidence for Building Thinking Classrooms is Weak

What does it mean to be research-based?

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 28/05/2025

Great article! "Effective math instruction is THE best intervention for math anxiety."

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 18/04/2025

The subtraction worksheet is available now too! Create subtraction facts worksheets from 0 to 10 for students. phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 18/04/2025

Addition Worksheet Creator Create addition facts worksheets from 0 to 10. Why does a phonics website have math worksheets? Because we do phonics AND stuff. The stuff includes math! phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/m...

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 11/04/2025

This was such a great talk! I'm excited that the recording is available now so I can share it with friends and colleagues who weren't able to go with me.

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 02/03/2025

We finished re-formatting another Core Knowledge decodable. We love the high quality story and images, but think they work better when you put the stories and images on a single page. Enjoy! phonicsandstuff.com/decodables#r...

Decodable Readers - Phonics & Stuff

Phonics & Stuff Decodable Readers are free to use! They are labeled with the phonics elements in each one, so you can pick the correct level for your reader.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 28/02/2025

I just bought my ticket! Can't wait!

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 28/02/2025

But this is just a simple analysis looking at letter location. When we account for 'ie' and 'ei' (and eigh) as digraphs (meaning that those letters together make a sound), the analysis changes a bit. The 'ie' digraph only has twice as many words as 'ei' (325 vs 167).

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 27/02/2025

A lower number means a word is more common. For example, you actually encounter the word 'their' much more frequently than the word 'believe'. So, since the top words with 'e before i' are just more common, it probably seems like the 'i before e' rule fails more often.

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 27/02/2025

How often does the rule 'i before e' actually apply? In our database of 30k+ words, 'i before e' occurs 902 times compared to 'e before i', which occurs 226 times. However, if you look at weighted word frequencies (how often a word actually occurs in English), it's a more interesting story.

Word frequencies.
word freq word freq
believe 240 their 68
friend 262 being 158
friends 331 either 407
die 432 received 487
married 547 neither 653
cried 554 seeing 729
tried 567 receive 847
replied 593 eight 864
quiet 665 foreign 1333
chief 692 weight 1475
view 701 seized 1935
lie 752 height 1945
piece 756 receiving 2193
ladies 795 weird 2213

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 14/02/2025

Can't wait for more of this!

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 14/02/2025

Correct! Not a software engineer at all. @ryan.phonicsandstuff.com and I just dabble in technology. I love making spreadsheets, while he turns them into databases and the website.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 11/02/2025

We have a new worksheet! Create 'Fill In Vowels' worksheets with customized settings. phonicsandstuff.com/worksheets/p...

Options for creating a 'Fill In Vowels' worksheet.
Number of Words
Number of Sounds
Add Instructions
Add Word Box
Missing Vowels - a e i o u

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 10/02/2025

Thanks! We're glad you like our stuff!

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 02/02/2025

We just made a new fun tool! Teaching students how to write letters correctly is critical, so we made some simple animations for use in classrooms or at home. Come try it out and let us know what you think! phonicsandstuff.com/handwriting

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Reposted by Julia Shayto

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

'Niece' and 'nephew' aren't the original English words. They were borrowed from French and supplanted native 'nift' and 'neve', direct cognates of German 'Nichte' and 'Neffe'. The French words have the same Proto-Indo-European ancestors so they're cognates too, but very distant ones. Here's more:

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 21/01/2025

I started teaching letter sounds at 2 years old for my kids. It worked great. You'll have to work more slowly than if you started at 5 or 6, but there's no reason to wait.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 18/01/2025

On our site you can use Google to sign in now, so you don't have to remember another password. If you previously made an account, you can login with Google and it'll still have all your data. We also added a reminder for which you used to login, because I forget all the time on other sites.

Login page for phonicsandstuff.com with a reminder showing if you logged in with Google or email.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 05/01/2025

Reposted by Julia Shayto

Cleopatra lived closer in time to 'yeet' being in the dictionary than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 04/01/2025

Thanks for hosting this! I would also like to see more in-person events this year. I love hanging out with people at the annual conference, and it would be great to do that more throughout the year.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 30/12/2024

Solstice! Completely missed posting this last week.

Morpheme mapping for solstice
sol = sun
st = stand, make firm
ice1 = person, quality of being, action

Word mapping for solstice
Graphemes: s o l s t i ce
Phonemes: /s/ /ō/ /l/ /s/ /t/ /ĭ/ /s/

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Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 29/12/2024

Very much so! Our main goal with subscriptions is to cover server costs. It's why we do ad-free games and have mostly free content.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 29/12/2024

Nope! It's just a passion project my husband and I do in our spare time.

Julia Shayto @phonicsandstuff.com · 28/12/2024

Here's a delightful discussion I had about our site and ways to make it better. I really like the community that's developing on Bluesky.

Yes, it just kept growing... It started with just the word list builder, but then we realized it could power a lot of features.

Yes, there's the new and review sections of a lesson. Technically, you could end the lesson after just practicing the new cards. Sometimes I run out of time with students before getting to review, so that's why we built it. But that probably would streamline the process.

Ah yes, we're working on adding more pictures to cards. Some words like 'at', don't have good images to show it. So, we're brainstorming ideas.

You need to rate if it was easy, medium, or hard. If the student/child can read it without sounding out the word, it's easy. If they sound it out slowly, it's medium. If they get it wrong or don't know it, mark it hard.

Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Reposted by Julia Shayto

After a cosy Christmas fire, there are cinders in the fireplace, as well as ashes, which in French are called cendres. 'Cinder' and 'cendre' may look alike but they aren't etymologically related: they come from two unrelated words. However, 'cendre' did influence the spelling of 'cinder'. More:

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