How to teach your child to read at home, step by step

Your reading-at-home checklist

• Read aloud together every day, and talk about the story as you go.
• Play a sound game daily: rhymes, clapping syllables, first sounds.
• Practice blending (c-a-t to cat) and stretching words into sounds.
• Teach two or three new letter sounds a week, and review old ones every day.
• Say pure sounds: "mmm," not "muh."
• Build and write short words, then change one letter to make a new word.
• Give your child decodable books that match the letters they know.
• Reread favorite books to build smooth, confident reading.
• When they're stuck, point to the letters first, then the picture.
• Keep sessions to 10–15 minutes and stop while it's still fun.
• Ask the teacher or pediatrician early if something worries you.

Try this today

1. Robot talk at dinner. Speak like a robot and break short words into sounds: "Pass the c-u-p." Your child blends the sounds and answers. Then swap roles so they break words for you to blend. It builds the two sound skills most closely tied to reading.
2. First-sound treasure hunt. Choose a sound, such as /b/, and give your child two minutes to collect things that start with it: a ball, a banana, a book. Say each word slowly together and check the first sound. For a challenge, hunt for things that end with the sound.
3. Fridge-letter words. With magnetic letters or paper squares, put out a plus three or four consonants your child knows. Build a word together, read it, then change one letter: cat becomes hat, then hit, then hip. Each change is a tiny reading lesson.