Teach the names and sounds of the consonant letters. Insist on fast recall of the letter sounds.
Teach the short vowel sounds first. Then move on to blends such as "tr," "br," "st," and so on. Teach the blends as the child encounters them in text.
Digraphs are two letters that make one sound such as "sh," "ch," "th" and wh. These digraphs generally begin to appear in books that have more text than the simple beginner books.
Long vowels are more difficult to learn than short vowels because the rules are not always consistent. Do not rush this skill; it will take time. Simple explanations are better than complicated phonics rules. When encountering a long vowel, tell the child, "This letter says its name."
Introduce the tricky double vowel words as the child encounters them in text. Combinations such as "oo," "ou," "ow" and "oi" will need special attention. The Bossy R combinations are "ir", "ar", "or", "er" and "ur."