1. An instructional system for teaching of phonics and reading, comprising a set of instructional alphabetic letters, three-letter words or a combination thereof, at least a first subset of between 14 and 70 three-letter words having the structure consonant-vowel-consonant wherein the vowel has the short-vowel sound, optionally, a second subset consisting of the different letters of the alphabet, wherein the total of separate letters and words in the set is fewer than 100.