Mentava
Is my child ready?

How it works

Learning to read has two steps:

  1. 1

    Blend letter sounds into words

    mat→mat

    This is the hardest part. Mentava teaches it in the first five levels.

  2. 2

    Learn the rest of the sounds

    English has 44 sounds but only 26 letters. Most sounds are written with more than 1 letter. Students learn single letters first, then letter pairs, then irregular words. Here is the whole list.

LettersLevels 1–20

  1. a
  2. m
  3. s
  4. t
  5. review
  6. f
  7. d
  8. g
  9. i
  10. n
  11. p
  12. h
  13. b
  14. l
  15. j
  16. c
  17. v
  18. w
  19. r
  20. k

Letter pairsLevels 21–50

  1. ck
  2. sh
  3. ch
  4. th
  5. the
  6. o
  7. nd
  8. -s
  9. mp
  10. ft
  11. st
  12. sn
  13. sw
  14. fl
  15. is
  16. fr
  17. ng
  18. nk
  19. u
  20. sk
  21. st
  22. sp
  23. sk
  24. e
  25. they
  26. bl
  27. cl
  28. pl
  29. br, tr
  30. cr, dr

Vowel teams, silent-eLevels 51–71

  1. ie
  2. i‑e
  3. oe
  4. o‑e
  5. ae
  6. a‑e
  7. ue
  8. u‑e
  9. ee
  10. e‑e
  11. review
  12. ar
  13. are
  14. or
  15. er
  16. ir
  17. ur
  18. review
  19. review
  20. I, want
  21. to, do

InconsistenciesLevels 72–103

  1. ay
  2. ai
  3. review
  4. ea
  5. oa
  6. ow
  7. review
  8. review
  9. ou
  10. oi
  11. oy
  12. review
  13. -e
  14. -o
  15. review
  16. y
  17. you
  18. said
  19. qu
  20. x
  21. z
  22. aw
  23. -all
  24. -y
  25. wh
  26. what
  27. where
  28. there, here, of
  29. th
  30. could, would, should
  31. any, many
  32. oo

Common wordsLevels 104–120

  1. house, mouse
  2. -ed
  3. ow
  4. igh
  5. -le
  6. tomorrow, today, father
  7. bye, your, friend
  8. ew
  9. again, were
  10. some, horse, hooray
  11. kn, wr
  12. our, eyes, air
  13. -y
  14. oh, have, put, away
  15. one, whole, worth, able
  16. -ie
  17. soft g

Levels 104-120 transition kids to physical books, like Green Eggs and Ham and the Elephant and Piggie series. Full scope and sequence (PDF) →

Mentava has about 2500 activities, divided into 120 levels.

15–30 mina day, sitting together
1 level a dayabout four months
1 level every 2 daysabout eight months

The sequence is designed to prepare students for Green Eggs and Ham after level 104 and Hop on Pop after level 109. Level 112 prepares students for Today I Will Fly from the Elephant and Piggie series; later milestones include The Eye Book at level 115, Are You My Mother? at level 117, and Waiting Is Not Easy! at level 120.

Why letter sounds come first

Written words are hints, not perfect representations.

Even “simple” words like dogs, can, and stop aren’t pronounced the way they’re spelled. The s in dogs sounds like z, the a in can is nasalized, and the t in stop lacks the puff of air in top. They’re imperfect hints, but good enough that most readers never notice.

Phonics is like a hint that helps you go from a word’s imperfect written representation to its spoken form. Early readers start with words like hop and pop, where the hint is very good, then learn less obvious ones like my, fly, rough, and tough.

There are no English words where the hint is terrible. It’s not like we pronounce cut as “purple.”

A strong phonics foundation makes it much easier for kids to connect those irregular spellings to words they already know by ear.

Vince, a parent and teacher, says he is impressed by Mentava’s explicit, engaging, colorful and fun instruction after their first session.

Can your child understand that 🐶🐟 is different from 🐟🐶?

“Understanding that order matters” is a necessary developmental milestone, and it’s what the two-minute readiness check looks for.

$500/mo · free 14-day trial after the check

Take the readiness check