Hey friends, Anna here—teacher, mom, and CEO and founder of Laprea Education. If you’re teaching your child to read at home, I want you to feel confident—not lost. Phonics isn’t just “one idea among many.” It’s foundational to learning to read. And right now, the data shows why getting it right matters more than ever. Let’s dive in together.
These aren’t abstract numbers—they reflect real children, real families, real struggles. The good news is that decades of reading research give us a clear path forward. As homeschoolers, we have an opportunity to approach reading differently and better.
Experts in literacy, including state boards and instructional review panels, are increasingly aligned around key principles. Here’s what they recommend:
1.) Systematic Phonics Instruction
Teach sound–spelling patterns in a planned, cumulative sequence so decoding builds logically. Align your instruction and instructional materials to a single scope and sequence. Avoid using an “incidental” or “implicit” phonics approach, where spelling patterns appear unpredictably in stories or word lists. Research consistently shows that students, especially those with reading difficulties, learn best when instruction is organized (NRP, 2000; Torgesen et al., 2006).
2.) Explicit Instruction
In structured literacy, nothing is left for the child to “figure out”. Instead, teachers model, explain, and demonstrate how the code works. For example, instead of asking, “What sound do you think this letter makes?” the teacher directly says, “This letter m represents the sound /m/. Watch my mouth as I say it.
Scaffolding & Cumulative Review
Instruction should be cumulative, meaning each new concept builds on previously taught material, and scaffolded, where support is gradually removed as the learner gains independence. In practice, effective scaffolding and cumulative review often include daily warm-ups, blending and dictation lines, and guided oral reading.
3.) Assessment & Progress Monitoring
Another cornerstone of research-based reading instruction is that it’s diagnostic and data-driven. Each lesson provides opportunities for the teacher (or parent) to observe accuracy, fluency, and automaticity in real time. Effective monitoring focuses on both word-level skills (like letter–sound correspondence, decoding accuracy, and fluency) and language-level skills (like vocabulary and comprehension). The goal is to detect when a skill has been mastered, when it needs reinforcement, or when intervention should intensify.
4.) Decodable Texts
Decodable texts are a cornerstone of research-based phonics instruction. These are books carefully matched to a phonics scope and sequence, and they ensure that reading practice directly reinforces what has been taught. This alignment allows children to apply decoding strategies with success, leading to increased confidence, accuracy, and fluency (Mesmer, 2005; Cheatham & Allor, 2012).
The Texas Instructional Materials Review showed that Laprea Education’s Structured Literacy with E.A.S.E. Grade 1 phonics (2nd Ed.) met strong ratings for “explicit (direct) and systematic phonics”, “ongoing practice opportunities”, “support for all learners”, and “progress monitoring.” Texas Education Agency
Here are a few practical ways to make phonics instruction more effective at home:
Warm-up with phonemic awareness:
Start each lesson with 3–5 minutes of sound work using words from your current phonics skill or the text you’ll read. Have your child blend sounds to make a word (/s/-/a/-/t/ → sat) or segment a word into its sounds (ship → /sh/ /ĭ/ /p/).
Preview high-frequency words:
Before reading, look at a few new or high-frequency words. Show how to decode regular words and point out any irregular parts (e.g. “The ai in said doesn’t follow the usual rule. This is the part we have to remember by heart”). Research shows that words become automatic through sound–symbol mapping, not memorization by sight (Ehri, 2014).
Use repeated reading of decodable texts:
Fluency improves with repetition.
Pause for comprehension:
After reading, ask a couple of higher-order thinking questions (“Why did the character do that?”, “What might happen next?”) These quick checks ensure understanding develops alongside decoding.
Error correction:
If your child guesses or misreads a word, guide them back to the letters and sounds: “Let’s look at the letters and say the sounds: /k/ /a/ /t/. What’s the word? Yes, cat!” Keeping attention on letter–sound patterns builds accurate decoding habits (Stanovich, 1986; Archer & Hughes, 2011)
We believe in equipping you with tools. Here are some free things you can grab now to support phonics instruction at home:
Here’s how these evidence-based standards and teaching practices are built into the Developing Decoders Annual Plan, so you don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”:
|
Standard / Practice |
How Developing Decoders Delivers |
|
Systematic, sequenced phonics |
Every book is mapped to specific phonics skills and follows a scope & sequence. |
|
Explicit instruction |
Prep Pages include direct teaching of new sounds or spellings through explicit modeling and guided practice. |
|
Decodable texts |
All texts are carefully designed to include only previously taught skills.All student reading texts are decodable according to what has already been taught. |
|
Scaffolding |
Intentional warm-ups, explicit instruction for irregular tricky words, audio supports, and interactive reader tools are available.. |
|
Assessment & review |
Each book includes built-in comprehension checks, quizzes, and a cumulative review of previously taught skills. |
You’re already doing something powerful by teaching reading at home. When you pair your love and commitment with tools that are built on what we know works—systematic and explicit, phonics instruction—you give your child a huge advantage.
If you’re ready to make confident progress and reduce the stress of “what next?”, I’d encourage you to explore the Developing Decoders Annual Plan. It’s the distilled best practices in a format made for homeschool families.
Here’s to helping your child become a capable, joyful reader. 💙