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

child reading with headphones on a tablet

Top 5 Reading Apps for Kids

With so many educational apps available, it can be tricky to figure out which...

young girl with curly hair holding a pencil learning to write

When Can Kids Write Their Name?

If you’re a parent, you likely anticipate your child’s developmental milestones with awe and...

How Does Oral Language Support Children’s Writing? 

How Does Oral Language Support Children’s Writing?  KW: how does oral language support children’s...

How to Help Preschoolers Develop Pre-Writing Skills 

How to Help Preschoolers Develop Pre-Writing Skills  KW: how can you help preschool children...

Simple 10-Minute Phonics Lessons for Busy Parents

If your child is learning phonics, you might be wondering how to help them...

phonics for teaching English language learners

Phonics for EAL: Instruction Methods

As one of the most widely-spoken languages in the world, English continues to be...

When Should Kids Learn Phonics?

Every parent and educator wants the best outcome for their students. At the beginning...

Most Popular Home Phonics Programs for Kids

Phonics instruction sets the stage for your child to thrive as a reader and...

5 Findings That Prove Words Are Remembered in Phonological Memory

To read fluently, the brain pulls from a large sight word vocabulary that we’ve...

children learning basic concepts in language

Basic Concepts in Language Development 

In language development, basic concepts are words that set the foundation for children’s learning....

Federal Focus on Evidence-Based Reading: What This Means for Your Child’s Education

Federal Focus on Evidence-Based Reading: What This Means for Your Child’s Education

In a historic shift that could transform how millions of American children learn to read, the U.S. Department of Education has announced that evidence-based literacy instruction will be a top…

Teaching Phonics to Children with Hearing Impairments

Teaching Phonics to Children with Hearing Impairments

When five-year-old Maya first entered kindergarten with her hearing aids, her teacher wondered how to help her learn phonics alongside her hearing peers. Like many educators and parents, she assumed…

Decodable Texts vs. Leveled Readers: Making the Right Choice for Your Child

Decodable Texts vs. Leveled Readers: Making the Right Choice for Your Child

Did you know that the books your child reads during their early learning years can make or break their reading success? Many parents assume all “beginning reader” books serve the…

Phonics Assessment Tools: How to Measure Reading Progress Effectively

Phonics Assessment Tools: How to Measure Reading Progress Effectively

The journey to reading proficiency isn’t linear—it’s filled with plateaus, leaps forward, and occasional steps back. This natural variability makes systematic assessment not just helpful but essential. When we regularly…

Phonics Games for the Classroom: 10 Teacher-Approved Activities

Phonics Games for the Classroom: 10 Teacher-Approved Activities

Learning to read shouldn’t feel like a chore. When children associate reading with enjoyment, they’re more likely to develop into lifelong readers who approach books with enthusiasm rather than dread.…

What is a Phoneme?

What is a Phoneme?

Have you ever wondered why your child can recognize the letter ‘B’ but struggles to connect it with the sound it makes? Or why sounding out words like “ship” and…

What is Inference? Helping Young Readers Become Critical Thinkers

What is Inference? Helping Young Readers Become Critical Thinkers

Your five-year-old is listening to you read “Little Red Riding Hood.” When the wolf appears dressed as Grandma, your child exclaims, “That’s not Grandma! It’s the wolf trying to trick…

What Are Graphic Novels? Connecting Visual Storytelling to Phonics Instruction

What Are Graphic Novels? Connecting Visual Storytelling to Phonics Instruction

Picture this: Your reluctant reader who struggles with phonics suddenly can’t put down a book. They’re engrossed, sounding out words, making predictions, and actually enjoying reading. What magical transformation has…

What Are Consonants?

What Are Consonants?

Have you ever watched your child sound out a simple word like “cat” or “jump”? Behind those moments of learning lies a fascinating linguistic structure that forms the backbone of…

Nursery Rhymes as Phonics Tools

Nursery Rhymes as Phonics Tools

Did you know that the nursery rhymes you loved as a child could be powerful reading tools? Those catchy, sometimes silly verses that have entertained children for generations are actually…