phase 03
When Letters Team Up
This is the biggest conceptual jump in the whole system, and the design is built to make it feel gentle. A digraph is two letters that make a single sound: s and h together saying /sh/, not /s/ then /h/.
It is much easier to feel than to explain, which is exactly why the bolt does the explaining. The thing to hold onto is that the sounds expand, not the system. Same bolt, same rotations, same five to ten minutes a day.
The phase introduces thirty-two new flash cards, grouped by color according to the job each sound does, and every color matches the nut it will become, so the visual language your child already trusts keeps working. You do not start from scratch, either. Your child already met four vowel teams back in the Starter Set, and those serve as the bridge into the full set.
The available guide gives you a suggested order to introduce the groups, which combinations to save for last, and a heads-up on the trickier sounds, like the letter endings that look heavy but still land as one tidy sound. None of it needs to be taught as a rule. The cards introduce each sound, and the bolt makes it automatic.
