How to Teach Your Child to Read (Without Feeling Overwhelmed) A Step-by-Step Guide to The Reading Railroad™
Teaching your child to read can feel overwhelming—especially if you’re not a teacher or don’t know where to begin. But the good news is: reading doesn’t have to be complicated. With a simple, step-by-step path, you can guide your child from letters to confident reading—even if you’ve never taught before.
I’ve spent over a decade helping young readers in the classroom, and I created The Reading Railroad™ to help families do the same at home. This is a parent-friendly roadmap for teaching reading in the right order—starting with the alphabet and growing all the way to fluency.
🚂 Ready to get started? Preview the path below. And if you want guided help and free printables delivered to your inbox, join my weekly email series made just for parents.
🚂 Step 1: Get Comfortable with Letters & Sounds
Before your child can read words, they need to recognize letters and connect them to their sounds. This is where it all begins!
✅ Uppercase and lowercase letters
✅ Matching each letter to its sound
✅ Recognizing letters in books and signs
✅ Noticing beginning sounds in words
🛠️ Tips & Tools (even if you’ve never taught before):
🔤 Focus on lowercase first – Most of what your child sees in books is lowercase, so start there.
🃏 Play matching games – Use simple flashcards to match upper/lowercase letters.
✍️ Practice through movement – Try tracing letters with q-tip painting, a favorite of my own children.
🧲 Use magnetic letters on the fridge – Call out a sound and ask your child to find the matching letter.
🎵 Sing the ABCs slowly – Help them say each letter clearly, one at a time.
🧠 Repeat often, but briefly – 10 minutes a day adds up more than a long session once a week.
Join The Reading Railroad™ email community and get instant access to your Free Phonics Tracker.
But that’s just the first stop! Each week, you’ll get:
✏️ Easy-to-follow reading tips (even if you're not a teacher)
📦 Freebies and printable books / activities to support each phonics step
💬 Encouragement from a reading teacher who’s helped 1,000+ kids
🛤️ A guided path through all 12 steps of The Reading Railroad™ system
You're not just signing up—you're getting a reading coach in your inbox.
🚂 Step 2: Blend Simple Words with Short Vowels
Now that your child knows their letters and sounds, it’s time to start putting them together to read real words—like cat, hop, and sun. These are called CVC words (Consonant–Vowel–Consonant), and they’re the foundation of early reading.
✅ Short vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u
✅ Simple CVC words like bed, pig, top
✅ Sounding out words one letter at a time
✅ Early endings like -s, -ed, and -ing (e.g., hop → hopping)
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
🔲 Use sound boxes – Form simple words with this useful visual (freebie included with email signup)
🧩 Build words with magnet letters – Try switching one letter at a time (cat → hat → hot).
📚 Start with short, decodable books – Let them read real sentences with short vowel words.
🗣️ Say it slowly, then quickly – Stretch each sound, then blend it together.
🖍️ Add endings naturally – Talk about how words change in everyday speech: “We jump → We jumped!”
Helpful Resources in the bundle: CVC flashcards, short vowel decodable books, short vowel crafts, + more
🚂 Step 3: Beginning Blends & Trigraphs / Sight Words
As your child gets more confident, they’ll be ready for blends—two or three consonants that start a word, like bl, cr, or spl. These can be tricky at first, but with practice, your child will learn to glide through them smoothly.
✅ L-blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl
✅ R-blends: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr
✅ S-blends: sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw
✅ Trigraphs: scr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr, shr
Your child will also benefit from using high frequency and sight word list to expand their vocabulary
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
👂 Say the whole blend together – Not “buh-luh” but “bl”—one smooth sound.
🎨 Make a blend poster – Use the phonics crafts bundle to create memorable blends in a fun way
📝Use The Reading Railroad™ High Frequency and Sight Words List to expand vocabulary
🎲 Play sorting games – Sort blend words by their beginning sounds.
🙂 Keep it playful – “Can you hop if the word starts with an S-blend? Spin! Slide! Stop!”
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Blends/trigraphs chart, cut-and-paste blend sorts, blends crafts, sight word lists + assessments
🚂 Step 4: Beginning Digraphs
Some letter pairs make a brand new sound when they’re together—like sh in ship or ch in chop. These are called digraphs, and unlike blends, they don’t keep their individual sounds.
✅ sh, ch, th, wh, ph
✅ Optional: kn, gn (silent letters)
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
👄 Practice sound clarity – Th can sound like think or this. Help them feel it in their mouth.
🔍 Go on a digraph hunt – Search for “sh” or “ch” words around the pantry or in books.
📚 Use short decodable stories – Read books with digraphs in focus like “Josh and Dad Fish”
✂️ Make crafts – Try phonics crafts for a fun, hands-on review
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Digraph flashcards, mini-books, sound hunts, digraph crafts
🚂 Step 5: Ending Blends & Digraphs
Ending sounds can be much harder for young readers to hear—especially when two or three letters come together at the end. These are blends or digraphs that finish the word, like -mp in lamp or -ck in duck.
✅ Ending blends: -mp, -nd, -sk, -st, -lt, etc.
✅ Ending digraphs: -ck, -sh, -ch, -th, -tch, -dge
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
👂 Stretch the ending – Say: b-a-n-d and exaggerate that final sound.
🧱 Build words slowly – Focus on final sounds: “What do you hear at the end of lamp?”
✍️ Draw it out – Use sound boxes or tap fingers for each part.
🧩 Play word puzzles – Match words to ending sounds (e.g., -ck vs. -ch).
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Ending blend/digraph games, sound sorting mats, word-building puzzles, + more
🚂 Step 6: Long Vowels & Vowel Teams
Stretch words and learn how vowels can change
Once your child can read short vowel words, it’s time to introduce long vowels. The most common pattern is Silent E (like in cake or bike), followed by vowel teams like ai, ee, and oa.
✅ Silent E (VCe) words: cake, bike, home, tune
✅ Common vowel teams: ai, ay, ee, ea, oa, oe, ie, ue, ui
✅ Recognizing when a vowel says its name
✅ Comparing short and long vowel sounds (hop vs. hope)
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
📉 Start with Silent E – Use visuals that show the E reaching back to "boss" the vowel.
Use door cards – Cards that show how “bossy e” changes words like mad to made
📚 Use vowel team highlighter hunts – Look for vowel teams in books, signs, or printables.
🔖 Read together – Practice vowel teams in short, decodable stories.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Silent E posters, vowel team sorting mats, decodable passages
🚂 Step 7: Diphthongs & Advanced Vowel Patterns
Learn gliding sounds and tricky vowel teams
Some vowel pairs create a sound that slides or glides from one vowels sound into another—like oi in boil or ow in cow. These are called diphthongs, and they often take extra practice. This step also includes other odd vowel teams like igh, eigh, and ye.
✅ Diphthongs: oi, oy, ou, ow
✅ Advanced vowel teams: igh, eigh, aw, au, ye
✅ Recognizing gliding or unusual vowel sounds
✅ Reading fluently with tricky patterns
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
📱 Make it visual – Show how the sound glides: /ow/ starts in one spot and moves to another.
🎮 Play word sorts – Sort words by diphthong or vowel team.
🔎 Highlight and read – Use markers to find the pattern in words and sentences.
📜 Use real texts – Practice diphthongs inside stories, not just isolated words.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Diphthong anchor charts, diphthong passages, vowel pattern games
🚂 Step 8: R-Controlled Vowels
Meet the “bossy R” that changes vowel sounds
When a vowel is followed by the letter R, it makes a new sound altogether. This is called an R-controlled vowel, and it shows up in words like car, bird, and fork.
✅ ar, or, er, ir, ur (note: er, ir, and ur sound alike)
✅ Using themes to reinforce: farm = ar, ocean = or, bird = ir
✅ Reading and spelling words with bossy R
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
📖 Group by theme – Introduce patterns like say “ar = arrrr like a pirate!”
👁️ Point out patterns in books – Find ar, or, and er words as you read.
🏋️♂️ Practice writing and reading – form word bossy R words with magnetic letters
Highlight that ir, er,and ur, make the same sound and visually group them when teaching
🎨 Create a bossy R craft – to reinforce the concept
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Bossy R word cards, anchor charts, themed word mats
🚂 Step 9: Syllables & Multisyllabic Words
Break down big words into manageable parts
Now that your child can decode many word parts, it’s time to teach them how to read longer words by recognizing syllables and their types.
✅ Six syllable types: Closed, Open, Silent E, Vowel Team, R-Controlled, Final Stable
✅ Syllable division rules (like V/CV and VC/V)
✅ Reading and spelling 2–3 syllable words
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
👁️ Look for the vowels first – Help your child spot where to divide.
🏋️♀️ Clap it out – Break up long words by clapping each syllable.
📖 Practice with familiar words – Begin with compound words like sunset or backpack.
🌎 Use color coding – Highlight each syllable in a different color.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Syllable posters, division games, word lists for practice
🚂 Step 10: Prefixes, Suffixes & Base Words
Build vocabulary with word parts
Knowing how to take apart and rebuild words using prefixes, suffixes, and roots is a powerful skill. It helps kids read more complex vocabulary and understand what words mean.
✅ Prefixes: un-, re-, dis-, mis-
✅ Suffixes: -ed, -ing, -ful, -less, -ly
✅ Understanding the base word
✅ Applying knowledge to spelling and vocabulary
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
🔄 Use morpheme mats – Let your child build and break apart words.
🎡 Talk about meaning – Discuss what each prefix or suffix does to the word.
🥑 Flip books and root trees – Track how many words come from one base.
📃 Use real examples – Point out words like recycle, undo, or hopeful in daily life.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Morphology worksheets, affix cards, build-a-word activities + more
🚂 Step 11: Tricky Spellings & Heart Words
Handle the weird stuff with confidence
Now we tackle the oddballs—words that don’t follow the rules or have tricky letter combinations. These include soft c/g, silent letters, contractions, and high-frequency sight words that just need to be memorized.
✅ Soft C/G (city, face, gem, giraffe)
✅ Odd spellings: ghost, laugh, island, enough
✅ Sight words: said, was, their, some
✅ Contractions: can’t, it’s, you’re
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
❤️ Teach "heart words" – Help your child remember tricky parts by drawing a heart above them.
🔄 Play match games – Match base words to their contractions.
🕵️♀️ Use visuals and repetition – Make a mini word wall at home.
🕐 Practice with real sentences – Let them see these words in action.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Heart word list, soft c /soft g word sorts, contraction flashcards + more
🚂 Step 12: Fluency, Writing & Comprehension
Bring it all together for real reading success
The final step is all about using reading skills automatically and meaningfully. Kids read with expression, understand what they read, and apply what they’ve learned in writing.
✅ Read with accuracy, expression, and speed
✅ Understand and talk about what they read
✅ Apply phonics knowledge in writing and spelling
✅ Summarize, answer questions, and write complete thoughts
🛠️ Tips & Tools for Home:
🌟 Practice re-reading – It builds speed and confidence.
🖇️ Use poetry or reader’s theater – Great for expression and rhythm.
📝 Try journal prompts – Ask questions like "What was your favorite part?"
📚 Pair reading with writing – After reading, write about what happened.
Helpful Resources in the bundle: Fluency trackers, journal pages, response sheets, mini comprehension quizzes
