How To Teach Yourchild Toread: A Quick Guide For Parents
How To Teach Yourchild Toread: A Quick Guide For Parents
YOURCHILD
TO R E A D
a quick guide for parents
2nd Edition
How to Teach Your Child to Read: A Quick Guide for Parents, 2nd Edition
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Introduction … 4
Chapter 1: The Big Picture … 5
Chapter 2: Pre-Reading Skills … 6
Chapter 3: All About Phonics … 11
Chapter 4: What about Sight Words? … 15
Chapter 5: Comprehension is the Goal! … 18
Chapter 6: Building Fluency … 20
Chapter 7: Be a Reading Coach … 26
Chapter 8: Putting it All Together … 23
Conclusion … 24
I get emails from parents every week. They want to teach their children to read, but they don’t
know where to start. They’ve heard about phonics, sight words, and comprehension. But how do
the pieces fit together? Where do they begin?
I want to remind you that people go to college for years to learn to teach kids how to read. Then
they go to graduate school to learn even more. And they keep learning, over decades of teaching.
All of that information cannot be compressed into a single ebook. My goal with this ebook is not
to tell you everything there is to know about teaching kids to read. Instead, my goal is to clear the
fog and help you see both the big picture and where to begin.
Primary teachers know that there are essential components of effective reading instruction. They
include the following:
Let’s break those down – and I promise I’ll finish describing them before we get to to the next
page!
PHONICS has to to do with letters and the sounds they make, either alone or in combination with
other letters to form words.
FLUENCY refers to children reading accurately, at a good pace, and with good expression.
Many parents try to teach their kids to sound out words, only to be met with frustration. This may
be because the child is too young or not developmentally ready. That’s why this chapter is so
important.
Even though I know you want to jump to the good stuff, please don’t skip this chapter. I’ll try to
make it quick – promise!
Let’s break it down into five things your kids need before you should dive into teaching reading.
Most kids will learn concepts of print naturally as their parents or caregivers read to them. They
will learn things like how to hold a book, how to turn the page, and that print begins on the left
and goes to the right.
You can develop concepts of print by asking your child to open the book before you read aloud.
You’ll see if s/he can identify the cover and turn the pages in the proper way. This is pretty easy
for most kids.
What gets trickier is the concept of word – which basically means saying one word for each word
in print. Did you know you can actually teach this before kids recognize words in isolation?
There are a few simple ways to teach the concept of word at home. One thing you can do is buy a
pocket chart. Then you can write repetitive sentences or rhymes on long strips of paper, put them
in the pocket chart, and help your child practice “reading” them using a simple pointer. I have a lot
of free pocket chart sentences you can print and use. Grab them here:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/tag/pocket-chart-sentences/
We’ll talk about three things in this section: rhyming, syllables, and phonemic awareness.
Rhyming
I can almost guarantee that if your child can’t rhyme, learning to read is going to be hard. If your
learner struggles with producing or identifying rhyming words, read lots of rhyming books aloud.
Then have him/her fill in missing rhyming words when s/he is familiar with the book.
If you need more ways to practice rhyming, check out this post on my blog:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/activities-for-learning-rhyming-words/
Syllables
This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. We’re not talking about kids dividing words into syllables on
paper – just clapping the syllables of a word. Start with your child’s name. Show him/her how to clap
the syllables. If your child can’t do it, try some of the simple syllable activities from this post:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/6-syllable-activities/
Phonemic awareness
Phonemic awareness is somewhat challenging to teach, but extremely important. I want to break
down exactly what it is and give you some places to start.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to play with sounds in words. It does NOT have to do with
connecting letter names to the sounds they make. So … if your child can tell you that “sun” starts
with /s/, he or she is doing great. And by the way, those brackets around the “s” (as in /s/) mean that
I am referring to the sound ssssss, not the letter “s.” It’s an important distinction.
The games pictured above worked great for my younger daughter, but you don’t have to use a
printable to teach phonemic awareness. It can be done through completely oral activities.
As I learn more about the science of reading (the body of research that explains how we learn to
read), I’ve learned that daily phonemic awareness activities are extremely helpful – even
essential for some children. The good news is building phonemic awareness is easy to do, and
doesn’t take much time at all.
Classroom teachers love Heggerty, which is fantastic if you have the budget for it.
https://heggerty.org/shop/
If you have some time, you can save money and print a free curriculum at Reading Done Right.
https://www.readingdoneright.org/programs-by-grade
I also recommend adding playful phonemic awareness games into your day. See the following
page for a list of ideas.
How to Teach Your Child to Read, © Anna Geiger, M.Ed. – themeasuredmom.com - 8
Quick games to build phonemic awareness
“I have a mystery word. See if you can put the two parts together to figure it out. Here we go… /f/
/ish/. That’s right, the word is fish! Let’s try another one. /b/ /all/. You got it – ball!”
2 – I Spy
“I spy something on our table that starts with /p/. What do you think it is?”
3 – Stretch It
“What do you think it would sound like if snakes could talk? I think they would say their words
veeerrryyyy ssssllooooowwwwlllyyy. Let’s try to talk like a snake. Say the word cat like a snake
would. Caaaaaaat. Let’s try another one – man. Mmmmmmaaaaannnnnnn.”
4 – Break it apart
“I’m going to say a word. I want you to break it apart. Say the first sound, and then the rest of the
word. Let me show you what I mean. Let’s do horse. /h/, /orse/. Now you try one – pig. That’s
right, /p/, /ig/.”
“I’m going to say a word. Tell me what sound you hear at the beginning. The word is pen. Yes, the
beginning sound is /p/. What sound do you hear at the end? Yes, the sound is /n/.”
Also see this helpful video about teaching phonological and phonemic awareness:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/5-things-about-phonological-and-phonemic-awareness/
Can you guess how these develop? Yup – through you reading aloud to your child A LOT. When
you read (and discuss) books with your child regularly, encourage him or her to:
Definitely read this post with more details about how to make the most of your read aloud time:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/get-ready-for-kindergarten-with-interactive-read-alouds/
Now, let me say that kids do not necessarily need to know all their letters and sounds before they
learn to read. For example, one method of teaching phonics includes teaching a few letters and
sounds each week. Then kids put just those letters together to read words. So for example … with
the letters m, t, p, and a, kids can read mat, tap, and pan.
If you are teaching a kindergartner who still doesn’t know all the letters and sounds, it may be best
to teach a few new letters each week as you also teach him/her to sound out words (as described
above). However, if your child is still in preschool, learning to read will be much easier if you nail
down those letters and sounds first.
If you’re looking for ideas and inspiration for teaching the alphabet, check out this page on my
blog: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/learning/
If you’re attempting to teach your child to sound out words and one or both of you are
consistently frustrated, it will not end well. It may be that your child simply isn’t ready for this skill
(see pre-reading skills #1-4), or it may be that it’s not on his/her list of priorities. If children are
If your child doesn’t enjoy books yet, don’t give up! Reduce screen time, and read aloud as often as
your child will listen. You can check out our favorite books here:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/the-best-book-lists-for-early-childhood/
Okay, I kept the chapter about pre-reading skills to under ten pages. Not bad, right? Let’s move on to a
biggie … phonics.
I will be up front here and let you know that my view on phonics has changed over the years. I have
always believed that teaching phonics in necessary, but I did not always believe that phonics should
be the primary focus when teaching children to solve words. Nor did I think that beginning readers
should read all decodable text based solely on phonics patterns they’ve learned.
However, after studying the science of reading and the current research about how we learn to read,
I’ve concluded that sounding out words is more important (and takes a more central role) than I’d
previously surmised.
In the past I believed (as I learned in graduate school) that children should be taught to use three
different cues as they solve words. I thought that children could sound out the word, use the
picture, or use context to figure out the word. I believed that as they learned more phonics, they
would start to sound out more words.
However – without getting too technical on you – I want to explain how the brain learns to read. We
don’t have a special part of the brain hardwired for reading. We have to train the brain to read. We
are basically helping a part in the back left of the brain (that recognizes pictures) to connect to the
part in front left of the brain (that recognizes sounds). In other words, we need to teach the brain to
connect the sounds to the letters.
So let’s teach good habits right from the start … by teaching kids to sound out words rather than
guess at them (even if those are good guesses which use the pictures and context). This will help
the circuits fire where they’re supposed to. (Forgive me for that very unscientific statement. I think
you know what I mean!)
For a fantastic guidebook about teaching phonics – including word lists and more - I recommend
Wiley Blevins’ book, Phonics From A to Z.
I just gave you the list of phonics skills – in order. Now let’s talk about how to get started.
One method includes teaching a few letters and sounds each week and then putting them
together to form words. In that case, this may be a helpful sequence for teaching letters along
with their sounds: m, a, s, p, t, n, i, d, r, c, f, b, o, h, g, e, l, k, w, u, j, x, v, y, q, z
Another method – and the one I’ve used with some of my own children – is to teach all the
letters and sounds first, and then teach beginning phonics using short vowel word families. For
example, if your child knows all the letters and sounds, you can teach him/her to read the “at”
word family: cat, rat, bat, hat, sat, mat, and vat.
If you want to use the word family method, here are some common short vowel word families:
Here’s a link with a free printable list of CVC words that you can print and use as you design your
phonics activities with CVC words:
https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-printable-cvc-word-list/
I created these word family mats when I was teaching my own children to read. While older
versions are available for free on my blog, I recommend the new and improved version from my
shop. You have a lot more printing options, the images are higher quality, AND the mats come
with no-prep games that aren’t part of the free version.
While I did teach some of my kids to read using word families, I revised my approach with my
youngest two kids. I taught them all their letters and sounds first. Then I taught them to sound out
words using successive blending … in which you sound out each word letter by letter. This can be
harder at first, but if you have laid a good phonemic awareness foundation, it may be more helpful in
the long run because it requires kids to pay attention to every single sound in order.
So – I gave you the sequence of phonics skills. And I gave you options for how to approach
CVC words. What about as you move farther down the list? What should your phonics lessons
look like? Try this:
2 – Next, explicitly teach the new phonics pattern. For example: “Today we’re going to learn about
the digraph sh. The letters “sh” make the sound /sh/.”
4 – Give your child magnetic letters or letter tiles. Name words with the featured pattern, and have
him/her build words.
5 – Give your child practice reading the new phonics pattern using decodable text. A lot of it! It
helps to have a big collection so that your child looks forward to reading and doesn’t dread it.
Believe it or not, there are quite a few options for you when it comes to quality decodable books.
6 - Do guided writing practice. Say words with the featured phonics pattern (and those you’ve
already taught), and have your learner spell them alone or in sentences.
Traditionally, when teachers say “sight words” they are referring to high frequency words that children
should know by sight. We often define sight words as words that kids can’t sound out – words like
the, for example.
However, reading researchers have a different definition of sight words. They define sight words as
words that students can read instantly – whether or not these words are irregular. Obviously, we want
our children to have a large bank of these words so that they can read more fluently and, thus,
comprehend what they are reading.
So should we get lists of sight words and get our kids to memorize them using flash cards?
Not so fast.
• First, know your goal. Your goal is NOT to teach loads of words as whole words, because kids need
to connect the sounds to the letters when reading. Instead, your goal is to integrate sight word
learning with phonics instruction.
• Name the new word, and have your learner repeat it.
• Name the individual phonemes (sounds) in the word. For example, in the word is there are two
phonemes: /i/ and /z/.
• Spell the sounds. Call attention to any unexpected spelling. In is, we spell /i/ with i and /z/ with s.
• If possible, have your learner read related words. Has and is are great words to read alongside is
because they are short vowel words with an s that represents the /z/ sound.
• Have your learner read connected text. Connected text can be decodable sentences or books.
I have a collection of 30 FREE high frequency word lessons with accompanying decodable texts on
the website. Find them here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-sight-word-books/
After you teach the words, you’ll want to find fun ways to review them. This doesn’t have to take
long, but it does need to be hands-on and engaging as often as possible. Here are some things to try:
1 – Concentration
Print each word on two index cards. Turn them upside down, and take turns drawing two cards,
reading them aloud, and trying to find a match.
Grab some alphabet stamps and an ink pad, and have your child stamp sight words.
Write one sight word each on the end of jumbo craft sticks. Color the end of one stick red.
Students take turns pulling the craft sticks and reading the words. If they get the red Zap it! stick,
they have to put all the sticks back. Whoever has the most sticks at the end of 10 minutes (or
however long you choose), wins the game.
4– Type the words into editable reading games … then print and have fun!
I’ve created a fun collection of editable reading games that work for any words. Simply type them
in, and print whatever game you’d like. Kids love the variety in this bundle, and so will you!
Being able to sound out words and read irregular words is important. If kids can’t can’t identify words, they
can’t read the words in a text. (Obviously.) But what happens when kids read the words in a text but don’t
understand? Are they really reading?
No. For kids to be actually reading a text, they need to understand it. You might be interested in The Simple
View of Reading, which is a formula (well supported by research). In the formula, reading comprehension is a
product of word recognition and language comprehension. We need both.
Even with very easy books, you want kids to be able to tell you what they learned (from a nonfiction
text) or about the beginning, middle, and end (of a fiction text).
Even if the text is more story-like, there’s not much an author can do with a limited set of phonetic
words. As a result, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for deep discussion after reading decodable
books.
I thought the answer was to have kids read leveled books, which include broader vocabulary that
kids can solve using pictures and context clues.
But you remember how the brain learns to read, right? If we use leveled books that require kids to
use pictures and context (because they haven’t learned the sound-spelling patterns yet), we aren’t
doing them any favors. We may actually be teaching them bad habits which will be hard to break
later on.
Before we dive in, let me quickly assert that quality decodable books will have text that makes
sense and a story line that kids can follow. We can and should talk about the story in decodable
text and make sure that kids understand what they read.
But for deeper vocabulary growth and comprehension, we turn to quality read alouds.
Reading aloud to your child has SO many benefits. Here are just a few!
• Reading aloud helps build a stronger relationship between parent and child.
• Listening to books can extend your child’s attention span.
• Certain books may provide a natural time for important (and sometimes difficult) conversations.
• Reading aloud to children instills a love of literature.
• Listening to books increases vocabulary and aids in language development – which means your
child will be a better speaker and writer.
Make your read alouds interactive by asking questions and starting conversations. Don’t go
overboard, of course, but use the questions below to get you started.
Encourage him/her to
After you are finished reading aloud, you can ask meaningful questions.
The truth is that you don’t need to worry about fluency at first. Brand new readers simply aren’t
ready to read fluently. But as your child starts to sound out words with ease, fluency will start
to come into play.
• Have your child follow (and read) along with audio books that s/he is ready (or almost ready)
to read independently.
How to Teach Your Child to Read, © Anna Geiger, M.Ed. – themeasuredmom.com - 20
• Do choral reading, in which you read a familiar text together.
• Do echo reading, in which you read aloud a line of text and have your child read the same line
after you’re finished. This works especially well with funny poetry.
• Have your child do repeated reading. Choose an engaging text no more than 100-200 words
in length. Have your child read through it several times. You might time him/her to see if
reading rate improves.
• Give your child lots of time to read on his/her own. While kids can and should be allowed
access to a variety of books in their free time, make sure your child is giving time each day
to practice reading his/her decodable texts. These reading times can be sprinkled
throughout the day. A total of 20 minutes of practice per day is a good goal.
As your child is reading decodable books, your job is to offer support as needed. Here are prompts
that you can use when your child needs help.
When your child reads a word incorrectly or stops because s/he doesn’t know a word, you might
say …
• I like the way you stopped when that didn’t make sense. Try the tricky word again.
• Sound out the word.
• Do you remember what sound ”th” (ee, sh, oo, etc.) represents?
• Try breaking the word into syllables.
• What sound does this vowel (or these letters) make?
• Cover up the ending and read the first part. Can you add the ending now?
• Move your finger under the word as you say all the sounds.
• Look all the way to the end of the word when you read.
• Cover the beginning/ending. Now what word you see? Put the parts together.
• This is a tricky word; I haven’t taught you how to sound it out yet. The word is _______.
When you are helping your child with new vocabulary, you might say …
When you are helping your child improve fluency, you might say …
Now you’re ready to put the pieces together! Here’s what I suggest.
Each day, plan a reading lesson. If you are teaching a preschooler, follow your child’s lead. 10-15
minutes may be plenty. If you’re teaching a kindergartner or first grader, your lesson may be 20-60
minutes, depending on how long you read to your child and how long h/she reads to you.
I hope this guide has given you the confidence to teach your child to read! Be sure to visit my blog for
many accompanying resources.
As a subscriber, get even more free printables: (the password is at the bottom of a recent newsletter):
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