Teach Your Child to Read with these EASY Steps
Each of us teaches our child to read differently. Some of us learn along the way what works for our child while others have a specific methodology. I must admit that at the beginning, I was intimidated by the idea of being responsible for teaching my child to read. Learning to read is… well, SUPER IMPORTANT TO THEIR FUTURE AS LEARNERS. It sounds simple and yet so incredibly complex at the same time. English is often called the hardest language to learn for a reason. I think I was afraid I would mess up and in turn, my children would suffer. Hopefully, the steps below will help you to teach your child to read too!
As a Christian Book and Amazon affiliate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support. As always, we only recommend items that we truly feel will benefit your homeschooling experience. We appreciate it.
Steps to Teach Your Child to Read
Once I sat down and thought about the steps we take to learn how to read, it really isn’t that hard to follow. For the record, these steps will overlap each other. We start these steps during the preschool years and continue to follow them through 1st grade and beyond. Let me clarify, I am not a reading specialist. I am just a mom who found a way to teach her kids to read. Hope it helps you find your way.
Step 1: Letters & Sounds
Learn the alphabet and all of the letter sounds. Check out free resources for teaching these in our Letters & Sounds section. As you know, there is ample resources available for you to try.
Step 2: Blends & Digraphs
Begin putting letter sounds together. We introduce digraphs (gh, gn, ph) and blends (bl, st, gr) using Preschool Prep videos, flashcards, and through the use of the Abeka K5 Letters and Sounds workbook and then the Abeka Letters & Sounds 1 / Language 1 workbook.
Step 3: Word Families
While we work through the Abeka workbooks, I introduce word families. Word families help to build your child’s confidence in reading. It is much easier for a child to learn five words quickly when they are all a part of the same word family. For example, that, bat, rat, mat, and sat are much easier to learn than the, look, said, they, and got. Check out our FREE WORD FAMILY ACTIVITIES here!
Step 4: Sight Words
Alright, next is the introduction of sight words. The words your child can not sound out are called sight words. An example of a sight word is said. Phonetically it sounds like, “sed.” So, your child needs to add that word along with many others that need to be memorized for quick reading. You don’t want them to get stump trying to sound out a word that they can’t sound out. How frustrating that is! Sight words make up a huge volume of our language, so to ensure your child is a successful reader, help them learn their sight words. Find out how we incorporate SIGHT WORDS into our learning here!
Step 5: BOB Books
Now it is time to put all that learning of phonetically sounding out words and memorizing sight words to the test. We always start with these free printable emergent readers and Bob Books first. I never purchased these, but checked them out from the library. Bob Books start off very simple. I have to admit we did not do all of the BOB Book sets. If you want to stick with BOB Books all the way through the rest of the steps than that might be easier for some of you.
First, I read the book to my child. I take the time to sound out word family sounds that are repeated throughout the book. For instance, if the book focuses on the -at family, I sound out “a” and “t” to make the sound “at.” Then, after I read a page, I encourage my child to repeat what I just read making sure to point to the word being read. For example, I might read, “Mat sat.” My child would then say, “Mat sat.”
After a day or two of doing this, I encourage them to read it out loud to me. If they get stuck, I tell them to sound it out. Let’s say they still just stare at the book or look at you like, “What?” This is the time to walk them through it. If the word is, “hat,” say, “What sounds does ‘h’ make?” Now, “What sound does ‘a’ make?” Lastly, “What sound does ‘t’ make?” Help them to put the sounds together repeating the sounds for h-a-t. Ask them to put the sounds together. Yay! They just sounded out “hat!”
We do not move onto the next BOB Book until my child has read the previous one.
There are some BOB Book resources found under Sight Words & More… free worksheet sets and such!
Step 6: Box Set of 12 Phonics Readers
UPDATE: The last two kids, we skipped this step and moved to the Preschool Prep Books in Step 7. 🙂
After good ol’ BOB, we move onto a box set of 12 phonics readers. You do not need to get these exact ones. Our first 3 kids were boys, so Thomas the Train worked great. The point is to get a set of phonics readers that is a step up from BOB Books. I followed the same method as before. First, I would read the book to the child. Then, read it again with them repeating what I read on each page making sure to point to each word as we read it.
After doing this a few days, I then encourage them to read the book out loud to me. When my child gets stuck on a word, I encourage them to sound out the word or we review the sight word. After my child can read the book out loud to me without help, we move onto the next book.
Step 7: Preschool Prep Sight Word Readers
Step 8: Continued Support to Independent Reader
At this point, my student is on their way to becoming a self-assured reader. I continue to work with my student on reading individual books, but at this point, we have no set book list that we follow. With encouragement and guidance, my kid chooses books that interest him and is within his reading level. If your child is hesitant to pick a book, give him an option of picking between two books. We love the author Arnold Lobel, well-known for his classic Frog and Toad tales.
For a while, one of my kids wanted to read books that were too advanced for him. He was trying to compete with what his older brother was reading. After attempting to work with him on his choices, I finally overrode his reading selections. We were both getting frustrated with the reading level of the books he choose and the plots weren’t necessarily age-appropriate. So, in the end, he continued to pick books he wanted for quiet time, but for our reading time together he choose from two or three options I gave him to pick from. It worked. He wasn’t overwhelmed and the content was geared for his age level. It also allowed him to show off in front of his brother during quiet time that he could read “long” books like him.
The steps that we follow may not work for you. It may be more helpful to you and yours to buy a set curriculum guide that is more detailed. If that is you, check out the link below. It will take you to list of reputable phonics and reading curriculum.
Additional Thoughts...
Not all children learn to read by a certain age. I have one that read very early and reading was natural for him. Whereas another child’s natural taking was to math and reading came later. One was like a sponge being able to read well over 300 words by 18 months. Another child struggled to learn the first 100 by age 5 and still another did well sounding out countless words, but didn’t have the first 100 sight words down until 1st grade. I urge you to not have a time frame in your mind about when your child should read. Sure, you want your child to be an independent reader. Just keep moving forward towards that end goal and you too can teach your child to read!
UPDATE: We now have four kids reading- two to go!
How can I encourage my child to read?
If you looking to encourage your child naturally, look no further. Here are some practical and effective ways to push your child to picking up a book all on his own! Not only can you teach your child to read, but you can encourage them to keep reading once they do! Read here to find out more…
Check out these other FREE resources
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4
