For Parents

Help your child strengthen their literacy skills at any stage of development.

Your family plays a big role in helping your child learn to read and write. With the right phonics activities at home, you can support your child’s literacy development and academic success. The more you understand how and why phonics instruction works, the better you can facilitate effective and meaningful learning experiences with your family. 

To help your child practice phonics at home, read our insights for parents below! You can also browse our phonics program reviews for more.

Phonics Education for Families

Explore New Year's read-alouds for Pre-K and Kindergarten that support phonics development through rhythm, counting, and celebrations.

New Year’s Stories That Build Reading Skills

New Year’s brings fresh starts, new goals, and celebrations around the world. You pull...

Learn how to choose books that support specific phonics skills for emergent readers. Match rhythm, rhyme, and repetition to your child's developing literacy needs with these expert tips.

Matching Books to Phonics Features

You open a picture book with your four-year-old. The words dance across the page...

Discover holiday books that support phonics learning for emergent readers. These festive picks make reading practice fun during the winter season.

Christmas Books For Reading Practice

Your child snuggles beside you on a cold December evening, eyes bright with anticipation...

Discover 10 holiday books that combine festive fun with phonics practice. Learn which decodable features make each book perfect for supporting early readers during the season.

Holiday Books With Good Phonics Practice: 10 Festive Reads for Emerging Readers

The twinkling lights are up, cookies are baking, and your eager young reader wants...

Discover how to support twice-exceptional readers—gifted students with dyslexia—through structured phonics instruction that honors both their advanced thinking and reading challenges.

Twice-Exceptional Readers: Phonics for Gifted Students with Dyslexia

Picture a seven-year-old who can explain the water cycle in stunning detail, design elaborate...

Discover phonics professional development programs that actually work. Research-backed training for teachers to improve student reading outcomes.

Phonics Professional Development: Programs That Actually Work

Rachel teaches first grade in a suburban elementary school. Last year, she watched five...

Discover how to choose and implement effective homeschool phonics programs with research-based strategies for success.

Homeschool Phonics: Choosing and Implementing Programs

You open the package with equal parts excitement and dread. Inside sits your investment...

Letter reversals worry many parents. Learn when b/d confusion is normal development versus a sign requiring intervention, plus practical strategies to support your young reader.

Letter Reversals: Normal Development or Red Flag?

Your kindergartener writes “doy” instead of “boy.” Your first grader reads “was” as “saw.”...

Discover why children hit phonics plateaus and practical strategies to help them break through reading barriers and continue progressing toward literacy confidence.

Phonics Plateau: Why Some Students Stop Progressing

Your child was making steady progress. Each week brought new letter sounds, longer words,...

Word games seem educational, but can they actually teach reading? Learn when games help literacy development and why phonics instruction must come first for young readers.

Can Word Games Like Bookworm Support Literacy Development?

Your child loves playing Bookworm on your tablet. They’re making long words and racking...

Gamification in Phonics: What Motivates Students?

Gamification in Phonics: What Motivates Students?

Your kindergartener rushes to the tablet each morning, eager to earn more badges in their phonics app. Two months later, they barely glance at it. What happened? This scenario plays…

Morphophonemic Awareness: The Missing Link in Upper Elementary

Morphophonemic Awareness: The Missing Link in Upper Elementary

Your fourth grader breezes through simple stories but stumbles over science textbooks. She can decode “cat” and “jump” perfectly, but falls apart when facing “ecosystem” or “photosynthesis.” This may not…

Memory and Phonics: Why Some Kids Forget Letter Sounds

Memory and Phonics: Why Some Kids Forget Letter Sounds

Your child confidently identifies the letter M on Monday. By Wednesday, they stare at the same letter as if they’ve never seen it before. You wonder if you’re doing something…

Organizing Your Home Reading Space for the New Year

Organizing Your Home Reading Space for the New Year

January brings fresh energy and clean slates. You’ve organized closets, cleared out old toys, and maybe even tackled that junk drawer. But have you looked at your child’s reading materials…

Setting Realistic Phonics Milestones for Your Child

Setting Realistic Phonics Milestones for Your Child

New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for adults. January offers the perfect opportunity to set meaningful reading goals for your child. The key isn’t setting ambitious targets that lead to frustration.…

Why January is the Perfect Time to Start Phonics Intervention

Why January is the Perfect Time to Start Phonics Intervention

The new year brings more than just resolutions and fresh calendars. For parents of struggling readers, January offers a strategic window of opportunity that is often overlooked. The timing isn’t…

Starting a New Year Reading Ritual That Supports Phonics Growth

Starting a New Year Reading Ritual That Supports Phonics Growth

Family literacy traditions work because they remove the daily negotiation. When reading becomes “what we do on Sundays” or “how we start each month,” children stop resisting. The routine creates…

Keeping Phonics Skills Sharp During School Holidays

Keeping Phonics Skills Sharp During School Holidays

Many parents watch their children’s hard-won phonics skills fade during extended school holidays, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The good news? Keeping those reading skills sharp during…

Building Phonics Skills Through Winter Traditions

Building Phonics Skills Through Winter Traditions

Your child watches snowflakes drift past the window, clutching a mug of warm apple cider. The holiday lights glow softly in the corner. A stack of books waits on the…

Hanukkah Books That Support Early Reading Skills

Hanukkah Books That Support Early Reading Skills

The menorah glows on the kitchen counter. Your preschooler watches the first candle flicker and asks, “Can we read a Hanukkah story?” You reach for a colorful picture book, and…