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When C and H Team Up: Why "Chip" Breaks, and the Circle That Fixes It

By the Parent Desk Editor, Parent Tips TV · Published October 26, 2026 · Last reviewed October 26, 2026

Picture this: homework is almost done, dinner is in the oven, and your child hits the word "ship" in a story about pirates. Out comes "s-hip." They say it with total confidence. You correct it, they try again, and out comes "s-hip" a second time — because your child is not being careless. They are following the rule you taught them, in the one place English quietly changes it. This post hands you the new rule and a two-second test your child can feel in their own mouth.

The video above teaches both teams word by word, shows the circling move on paper, and gives your child the mouth check — a test that tells ch and sh apart by feel, since both teams end in the letter h. It ends with a ten-minute card game and a team hunt you can run in any picture book this week. If you read nothing else, take the mouth check in the section below. It is the part children remember.

Why does my child read "ship" as "s-hip"?

Because we taught them that every letter says its own sound, and that rule worked — right up until it did not. The c in cat says "kuh." The h in hat says "huh." Put faithful rule-following on the word "chip" and you get "kuh-huh-ih-puh," a word that does not exist. Your child did the math we taught them. English changed the problem.

A digraph is the name for the change: two letters that give up their own sounds and make one new sound together. The word itself tells the story — di means two, graph means letters. Two letters, one sound. Digraphs sit right after three-letter CVC words in the order reading teachers use, which is why this wall tends to appear just when reading was starting to feel easy. Your child is not going backward. They have reached the next step, and the next step has teams.

How do I teach the ch team?

Start with chip. Say it slowly together: "ch, ih, puh." Three sounds, because the team counts as one. Then chin: "ch, ih, nuh." Then chop: "ch, aw, puh." Then chat: "ch, ah, tuh." Four words, one new sound.

The move that makes it stick is embarrassingly simple: when you write these words, draw one circle around the c and the h together. One circle, every time. The circle tells your child's eyes that these two travel together and must not be split up. Splitting the team is the whole error. The circle is most of the fix. Parents expect the fix to be a program or a purchase. It is a pencil circle, done the same way every night for a week.

How do I teach the sh team, and how is it different?

Same shape, quieter sound. In ship, the s and h together say "sh" — the hush every parent makes in a hallway at bedtime. Ship: "sh, ih, puh." Shop: "sh, aw, puh." Shell: "sh, eh, lll." Shed: "sh, eh, duh." Four more words for one more sound.

Now the real problem, stated plainly: both teams end in h. A child looking at two letters ending in h has a coin flip unless they have a test. Here is the test, and it uses no paper at all. Say "ch" and feel your mouth. It is a quick punch — tongue up, a small burst of air, finished. You cannot hold a ch. Now say "sh." It is a smooth hush you can hold as long as your breath lasts. Punch versus hush. Teach your child to whisper both sounds before reading the word, and their own mouth tells them which team is on the page. First the letter in front helps too — c means the ch team, s means the sh team — but the mouth check is the one a tired child at 7 p.m. can actually run.

One honesty note, because children smell a bluff: not every pair of letters is a team. In "stop," the s and t are a blend — you can still hear both sounds, slid together fast. A blend keeps both sounds. A digraph makes one new sound. Teaching that difference out loud is why children trust the team rule when it counts.

What does tonight look like, minute by minute?

Minutes one to three: the ch set — chip, chin, chop, chat — circle the team, whisper the mouth check, read. Minutes four to seven: the sh set — ship, shop, shell, shed — same circle, same whisper. Minutes eight to ten: shuffle all eight cards face down, deal them like a game, and let your child flip, whisper "punch" or "hush," then read. Naming the team earns the point. The word is the victory lap.

This week, run the team hunt in a real book: every time your child spots ch or sh at the start of a word, they tap the page twice and read the team as one sound. For fresh practice dealt in this order — ch words, sh words, then mixed — the free Word Court starter activities on findaturor.online circle the teams the way you just learned. The tool is free to use, and it saves you from handwriting word cards at midnight.