Expert tips and guides to help you teach your child to read
Your 4-year-old is ready for phonics — yes, right now. Here's the exact step-by-step plan I use with my own kids, grounded in the Science of Reading, to go from letter sounds to blending CVC words before kindergarten even starts.
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Your kid can read every word on the page and still not understand a single thing they just read. Here's exactly what comprehension should look like at every grade from K through 5th — and what to do when it doesn't.
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Your kid mastered short vowels, nailed the silent-e, and now they're staring at the word 'boil' like it's written in ancient Greek. Welcome to diphthongs — the vowel sounds that slide, and the phonics milestone most parents have never even heard of.
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Your kid can read 'cat' but freezes at 'catnap'? The difference between closed and open syllables is the single biggest unlock for multisyllabic word decoding — and most parents have never heard of either one.
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Your child has dyslexia and the school's 'wait and see' approach is burning months you don't have. Here are 7 Orton-Gillingham-based reading curriculum programs for dyslexia compared head-to-head for 2026 — by a homeschooling mom who's actually used them.
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Parents constantly ask me if they should correct their kid's reading mistakes or stay quiet to protect their confidence. The answer is clear: correct every single time. Here's the science behind why — and the exact method I use with my own kids.
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Writing and reading aren't separate skills — they're the same skill running in opposite directions. Here's exactly how to use spelling, dictation, and journaling to turn your child into a stronger, faster reader.
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Your kid reads every sentence like a robot on fast-forward, blowing past periods and commas like they don't exist. Here's why punctuation marks are the missing piece of reading fluency — and exactly how to fix it.
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If your kindergartner can't read yet, don't panic — but don't wait either. Here's a specific, research-backed catch-up plan that uses the hidden advantage of starting later, plus the phonics methodology that actually works.
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If your kid can 'read' a book but can't tell you what happened, you've got a comprehension problem hiding behind decoding. Here's how to teach story retelling — the single most underrated reading skill — using strategies that actually work.
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Your kid can finally decode words. Now what? Here are 50 easy reader books our kids have actually loved — plus the one strategy that matters more than any list.
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Fourth grade is where reading shifts from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn' — and kids who aren't ready get buried. Here's the honest checklist of what a fourth grade reading level actually looks like, plus the exact steps to close the gap before middle school.
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