English is stupid

I'm teaching the boy to read and spell. I don't want to push him too hard -- after all, he's only three -- so I just give him toys and books that do double-duty. He loves them and I can use them to teach him stuff.

One of the best toys he has consists of wooden tiles with pictures of objects on them. The name of the object is carved out next to it in "puzzle" form, and the set came with a bunch of wooden letters. So when we get out the "pig" tile, he sees P I G next to it, and he finds those letters and puts them in the correct places. We sound out the letters together, repeat them, and then try again.

So far, so good, right? Pig, dog, cat, hat, bus, etc have all gone well. He's a speller! (kinda)

Then along comes "boat." B says "buh." O says "oh." T says "tuh." But how do I explain that ridiculous "A"? I finally ended up telling him that this is just the way it is spelled and nobody knows why. Strangely enough, he accepted that. Coming soon are house and chair. Ugh.

Now I'm looking at numbers. One, or should I say "ohnee." Two, also known as "tuhwoh." This should be fun.

I guess I'm going to pick up some sort of phonics guide sometime this week.

Mamas of older kids: I wouldn't mind some advice!