How to Teach Your Child to Read

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The subject area that new homeschool parents seem to worry about most is teaching reading. I get it. Learning to read is a huge educational milestone, and we don’t want to screw it up. Don’t worry, though. I’m going to show you how to teach your child to read.

Take a deep breath. You can do this!

I have taught kids to read as a public school kindergarten teacher, a private school kindergarten teacher, and as a homeschool mom. It is easier to teach your child to read than you might think. You can teach your child to read with a combination of phonics, sight words, and games.

How to Teach Your Child to Read

How to Teach Your Child to Read with Phonics

Phonics make up the foundation of any reading program. When children learn phonics, they are memorizing all of the various letter sounds. Those sounds are combined to create words.

Did you know there are 72 phonemes (letter sounds) in the English language? That is a lot of sounds to master!

I recommend using a phonics program to make sure all of the phonograms are covered. The two I recommend are All About Reading and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Both of these programs follow a logical phoneme progression.

I recommend focusing on phonics instruction for about 20 minutes each day.

All About Reading

I chose the All About Reading curriculum to use in my new kindergarten homeschool partnership. This curriculum uses the science of reading to teach children to read. It is a comprehensive reading curriculum that teaches phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This program follows a logical progression. I really like that it mixes direct instruction and play-based activities. That combination gives children the necessary information, but also hands-on activities to help children truly understand the material.

This reading curriculum also takes about 20 minutes a day.

All About Reading offers free placement tests to judge the best beginning level for your child.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is one of the most commonly recommended books to parents homeschooling kindergarten. This book is easy to use and is pretty affordable. It is a solid program that will get results if you stick with it.

However, the lessons in this book can be very dry. The authors suggest that you only need to work with your child for 20 minutes a day for 100 days to take your child from not reading at all to a second-grade reading level.

My experience using this book was that it takes longer than just 100 days. We worked through the book slowly, and it took us about one school year. It took my son from not reading at all to about a 1st-grade level, which is still great progress for one school year.

If your child is showing signs of boredom, or is stuck on a lesson, take a break. You do not have to finish the book in 100 lessons.

How to Teach Your Child to Read with Sight Words

While the main focus in teaching your child to read should be phonics, sight words can give a quick confidence boost to struggling or frustrated readers. Sight words are high-frequency words that often can not be sounded out by beginning readers. High frequency just means that these words appear frequently in writing. There are over 200 common sight words.

Memorizing sight words is a quick way to boost reading ability. Being able to instantly recognize common words will speed up reading fluency.

Speeding up reading fluency by learning sight words has the awesome benefit of improving reading confidence. Beginning readers can string together simple short sentences and know that they are making progress. Don’t underestimate the value of kids believing in themselves.

This sight word folder method will help your children master sight words in just 10 minutes a day.  There is nothing fancy about it, but it does work.

How to Teach Your Child to Read with Games

Learning to read should be fun and shouldn’t feel like work. In fact, my son will tell you that he taught himself to read. In reality, I spent a lot of time working with him.

It just didn’t feel like work because we went at his pace and included a lot of games. We spent about 10 minutes each day playing reading games, but you can certainly spend more than that if everyone is having fun.

Sight word bingo is a simple game, but kids seem to love it. I used it in my classroom and at home with my own kids.

Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Scrabble Alphabet Soup was a game we frequently played during family game night when my kids were learning to read.

Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Pinterest is full of great free printable reading games too. Check it out and add in a new game every few weeks to keep interest levels high.

You can teach your child to read in just 40 minutes each day. This time includes sight words, phonics instruction, and games. Break it up into smaller chunks. You do not need to do it all at once!

It is important to remember:

• Meet your kids where they are. The grade level and age are less important than their current ability level.
• Remain patient. If you get frustrated, they will get frustrated.
• Keep the big picture in mind. The ultimate goal is to create kids that love to read, not to read by a certain date.
• Don’t push too hard.  

Keep reading . . .

• Everything You Need to Know About Homeschooling Kindergarten
• How to Effectively Teach Phonics at Home
• The Best Method for Teaching Sight Words
• Hands-On Sight Word Games
• Language Arts Centers at Home
• The Best Language Arts Curriculum Options
• Homeschool Curriculum Reviews
• Current Homeschool Deals, Sales, and Coupon Codes

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