Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Where do the window pictures come from?

These pictures were taken by volunteers from 40L. The stained glass window is part of a beautiful large stained glass window in a church at Pepperdine University, CA. The view of the ocean out a window is from the inside of the walls of Mont St Michel, France.

When should you start to teach a child phonics?

The sooner the better. Studies have shown that children who learn to read early do better in school and in life than those who do not. A child as young as 18 months to 2 years can learn the names and sounds of the letters in the alphabet. If your child can say "a sheep says baa," they can say "the o says ah." At 3 or 4 years of age, a child can learn to spell simple words and then to sound out words that they have spelled. If they can't write all the letters well yet, use magnetic letters and a cookie sheet to spell out simple words. At 4 or 5 years of age, a child can begin with a structured phonics program such as "Phonics Pathways," Webster's Speller, or Blend Phonics.

Why do you have two websites?

40L's ministry began on this website, www.thephonicspage.org. 40L filed for incorporation as a nonprofit organization under the name of 40L. We kept the www.thephonicspage.org website to keep existing web links. The new website, www.40L.org, is under our new name. Having two websites makes it easier to separate programming and administrative functions of the websites.

Can my child draw a picture of a One-Room Schoolhouse for your website?

Certainly! We'd like to have a lot more pictures! If we run out of room on our established pages, we'll start a new page just dedicated to students' artwork. Have your child draw a picture of a One-Room Schoolhouse, e-mail it to us with their grade level and location, and we'll add it to our collection. Please submit pictures as a JPEG of 1mB or less in size.

I'm having a problem viewing the QuickTime movies with Internet Explorer. What should I do?

There have been a few people have problems with Internet Explorer and QuickTime. They were all running different versions of Windows. While we do not know the exact problem, we know how to fix it--use Firefox instead of Internet Explorer or try the m4v version of the movies, they are formatted for an iPod but can also be viewed on a computer. You can also check your security and pop-up blocker settings, they may interfere with QuickTime. You should also make sure you have the latest version of the free QuickTime viewer installed on your computer.

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