Emily Carter

If your child is struggling with reading, you may have heard teachers mention “Response to Intervention” or “RtI” without fully explaining what it means. Understanding how Response to Intervention tiers work for struggling readers can feel overwhelming when you just want to know how the school plans to help your child. I have spent years … Read more

I’ve spent the last three months talking with reading specialists, digging through the National Reading Panel’s findings, and watching my own second grader sound out every word on a page without understanding a single sentence. That last detail is what made me sit down and write this guide. If you’ve ever asked why phonics alone … Read more

Phonological awareness is the broad skill of hearing and playing with the spoken parts of words, from whole sentences down to rhymes and syllables. Phonemic awareness is a smaller, more specific part of that skill — it zooms in on the individual sounds (phonemes) inside words. Phonics is different from both because it brings printed … Read more

If you have a child learning to read, you have probably heard the debate about decodable readers vs leveled readers. Decodable readers are books written so that nearly every word can be sounded out using phonics patterns the child has already been taught. Leveled readers are books sorted into difficulty levels based on sentence length, … Read more

If you are watching your child sound out their first words in a decodable reader, you might already be wondering how long this phase lasts. It is one of the most common questions parents and homeschooling families ask. Knowing when a child should move from decodable books to regular books can feel like guesswork, especially … Read more

CVC words are three-letter words that follow a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern with short vowel sounds, like “cat,” “dog,” “sun,” and “pen.” They are the very first words children learn to decode independently, and there is a clear reason why they come before every other word type in reading instruction. When I started teaching my own kids … Read more

You sit next to your child as they sound out a word. /c/… /a/… /t/. They look up at you, waiting for the next step. They know every sound, but the word never appears. If this sounds like your week, this guide is for you. I have worked with many parents and teachers facing this … Read more

If you have a child learning to read, you have probably heard the term “sight words” thrown around by teachers, curriculum guides, and other parents. But what exactly are sight words, and why do some of them refuse to follow the phonics rules you thought were supposed to unlock the English language? Sight words are … Read more

Most parents hear their two-year-old sing the ABC song and feel a burst of pride. Their child is learning letters! They are on their way to reading! But here is the part that surprises almost every parent I have talked to: singing the alphabet song and knowing letter sounds are two completely different skills. One … Read more

If you’ve watched a beginning reader stare at “jam,” sound out “juh…a…muh,” and then guess the wrong word, you’ve already seen the problem that glued sounds and digraphs solve. These are two of the trickier phonics patterns children meet in kindergarten and first grade, and they trip up even capable readers when no one names … Read more