Teach your child to read
Resources
One skill at a time. Guides and word lists from the specialists behind Wonster Words.
How-toExplainerFeaturedIs My Child on Track With Reading?A five-minute check you can do at home tonight, what is typical at each age, and what to do about what you find.Foundations
All resources
How-toExplainerThere is no single research-proven order for teaching letters. Here is the sequence we use, why we chose it, and a five-minute way to assess any program.FoundationsABC & lettersApp guides
WorksheetsHow-toLooking for something to do with your kid this fall that is not a screen? October makes it easy. Pumpkins, costumes, spooky decorations and long dark walks give kids plenty to see, hear and talk about. Most of what is on this page needs no paper at all.FoundationsPhonics
How-toWhere to start, the order the skills come in, what a daily routine looks like, and how to tell whether it is working.Foundations
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerWhich letters to start with, how to say each sound, and what to do when they are not sticking.ABC & lettersPhonicsFoundations
How-toExplainerThe most common place children get stuck learning to read. Why it happens, and the techniques that fix it.Phonics
How-toExplainerThe six stages phonics runs through, what to look for at each one, and how to tell when your child is ready to move on.PhonicsFoundations
How-toWhat CVC words and word families are, when your child is ready, and a six-step way to teach them that goes past the family.Phonics
How-toExplainerTwo letters that spell one sound, the six your child will meet first, and how to teach them without turning ship into s-h-i-p.Phonics
How-toExplainerTwo letters that spell one vowel sound, the teams your child meets first, and why when two vowels go walking is only half true.Phonics
How-toExplainerThe four steps in order, why rhyming is not a gate in front of phonics, and what to do when your child can hear a rhyme but cannot make one.Phonics
How-toGuideRhyming games you can play with nothing at all, why songs do so much of the work, and what to look for in one that runs on a screen.Phonics
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerThe five long vowel sounds, the four ways English spells each one, and how to teach them once your child has the short vowels.PhonicsSpelling
How-toExplainerThree letters, one sound. The three a young child actually meets are tch, dge and igh, and two of them follow the same rule.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsTwo words rhyme when they sound the same from the vowel onward, like cat, hat and bat. Rhyming is something a child hears before they can read, so the words here are grouped by their ending and the worksheets use pictures and cards rather than writing.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort a is the sound at the start of ant and apple and in the middle of cat, map and bag. It is the first vowel sound most children learn, and these are the words to learn it on.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort e is the sound at the start of egg and in the middle of bed, hen and net. It is the vowel children most often swap with short i, and it is the one with the fewest words of its own.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort i is the sound at the start of in and igloo and in the middle of pig, lid and six. It is the vowel most often confused with short e, and telling the two apart is what this page is really for.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort o is the sound in hot, pot and mop, and at the start of octopus. It is the roundest of the five short vowels, said with the mouth open and the jaw dropped.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort u is the sound at the start of up and umbrella and in the middle of bug, sun and cup. It is the shortest and most relaxed of the five short vowels, and usually the last one taught.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsCVC words are three-sound words with a short vowel in the middle, like cat, pen and sun, and they are the first words a child can sound out alone. Here they are by vowel and by word family, with free worksheets and no signup.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsShort vowel words are the first words a child can sound out, and the five vowels are what they have to tell apart to do it. Here are the words by vowel, with free worksheets and no signup.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsA silent final e reaches back over one consonant and makes the vowel say its own name. Four vowels do it all the time (a_e, i_e, o_e and u_e), and e_e is real but rare.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsTwo letters, two sounds. The voiced th (/ð/) buzzes in this and mother, and the unvoiced th (/θ/) is only air in thin and bath. Each sound has its own word list and three worksheets, and a mixed review sorts the two.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsSh is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound. Ship has four letters and three sounds. Below are the words that start with sh and the words that end with it, each with its own worksheets, and a mixed review that sorts them by where the sh sits.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsCh is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound. Chip has four letters and three sounds. Below are the words that start with ch and the words that end with it, each with its own worksheets, plus the words where ch says something else entirely.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsWh is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound, and for most American speakers that sound is simply w. Below are the wh words to read and spell, the four where wh says h instead, and free worksheets for both.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsPh is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound, and that sound is f. Phone starts the way fish does. Below are the ph words at the start, in the middle and at the end of a word, with free worksheets and the reason English spells them this way.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsCk is two letters for one sound, the same sound as k, and it goes straight after a short vowel. Duck, back, sock. Below are the ck words by family, the rule in one line, free worksheets and the games that make it stick.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsTch is three letters for one sound, the same sound as ch, and it goes straight after a short vowel. Catch, fetch, itch. Below are the tch words by family, the rule in one line, the words that break it, and free worksheets.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsDge is three letters for one sound, the same sound as j, and it goes straight after a short vowel. Badge, fudge, bridge. Below are the dge words by family, the rule in one line, the dge-or-ge choice, and free worksheets.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsAn ending blend is two consonants run together at the end of a word, with both sounds still heard: hand, tent, jump, nest, desk, gift, belt, wolf, milk. They are harder to hear than the blends at the start of a word, and they are where most of a child's spelling mistakes live. Below are the words family by family, free worksheets, and why nk and ng are taught differently.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsAn L blend is a consonant followed by l, and both letters keep their sound: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl and sl. Blue, clap, flag, glue, plug, sled. Below are the words family by family, the reason children drop the l, and free worksheets for each.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsAn R blend is a consonant followed by r, and both letters keep their sound: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr and tr. Bread, crab, drum, frog, grass, press, train. Below are the words family by family, why this family is the hardest of the three, and free worksheets for each.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsAn S blend starts with s and a second consonant, and both letters keep their sound: sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st and sw. Star, stop, snake, spoon, swing, smoke, scarf. The s can be stretched out for as long as you like, which is what makes this the easiest family to start with. Below are the words family by family, the three-letter blends that come later, and free worksheets.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsA vowel team is two letters that spell one vowel sound, so rain has four letters and three sounds. The lists below are grouped by SOUND rather than by spelling, because the choice between two spellings of the same sound is the part a child actually has to learn.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsLong a is the sound in cake, rain and day: the letter a saying its own name. English writes it at least five ways, and choosing between them is the part a child has to learn.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsLong e is the sound in feet, leaf and happy: the letter e saying its own name. It has more spellings than any other long vowel, and the two commonest, ee and ea, cannot be told apart by any rule.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsLong i is the sound in bike, light and my: the letter i saying its own name. It is the only long vowel spelled with three letters for one sound, and the only one commonly spelled with no i at all.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsLong o is the sound in bone, boat and snow: the letter o saying its own name. One of its spellings, ow, also spells a completely different sound, which is the mix-up this page sorts out.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsLong u is two sounds, not one. It is the /yoo/ in cube and music and the /oo/ in blue and moon, and both are called long u. Knowing that is what stops a child stalling on blue.PhonicsSpelling
Word listWorksheetsA long vowel says its own name, and English writes each one several ways. These lists group the words by the SOUND you hear, so cake, rain and day sit together even though nothing about them looks alike.Phonics
Word listWorksheetsAn r-controlled vowel is a vowel followed by r, where the r changes the vowel's sound so it is neither short nor long. Parents and teachers call it bossy r. There are five spellings (ar, or, er, ir and ur) but only three sounds, because er, ir and ur all say the same thing.PhonicsSpelling
How-toExplainerWhy it happens instead of sounding out, a two-minute check for which kind of guessing you are seeing, and what to do about each.Phonics
How-toExplainerWhat phonemic awareness is, what is normal at each age, and the five-minute spoken games that build it at home.Phonics
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerOne box for each sound in a word, chips before letters, and how to use them with a five-year-old at the kitchen table.PhonicsSpelling
How-toExplainerTwo letters, both sounds still audible: st in stop, fl in flag. Which blends to teach first, how to teach them, and where the word lists are.Phonics
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerThe five short vowel sounds with a picture word for each, which two children mix up, and how to teach them without saying the letter's name.Phonics
How-toHow to sort the list your school sent, how many words your child actually needs, and what five minutes a day should look like.Sight wordsPhonics
How-toExplainerWhy words your child knew last week slip away, the seven usual causes, and what to change for each one.Sight wordsPhonics
How-toNine no-prep games you can play tonight, which words belong in them, and how often to play without it turning into a chore.Sight words
Word listWorksheetsAll 220 Dolch sight words, from the pre-primer and primer lists for kindergarten up to third grade. Each level is split into the words to sound out and the heart words to learn by heart, with worksheets for both. Only 49 of the 220 are heart words.Sight words
Word listWorksheetsFry words 26 to 100, the next 75 most common words in English, sorted for a first grader: 54 to sound out and only 21 to learn by heart, with worksheets for both.Sight words
Word listWorksheetsFry words 101 to 200, sorted for a second grader: by the end of the year 78 of them follow patterns your child has been taught, and only 22 have to be learned by heart.Sight words
Word listWorksheetsThe 25 most common words in English, from the Fry list, sorted for a kindergartner: 16 to sound out and only nine to learn by heart, with worksheets for both.Sight words
GuideThe seven things that matter, what to watch while your child practices, and how to pick the best one for you.SpellingApp guides
Word listWorksheetsThe words a second grader learns to spell, grouped by the patterns of the year, with free worksheets for each group.Spelling
Word listWorksheetsThe words a kindergartner learns to spell, grouped by skill from two-letter words to sh, ch and th, with free spelling and writing worksheets for every group.Spelling
Word listWorksheetsThe words a first grader learns to spell, grouped by the five patterns of the year, with free worksheets for each group.Spelling
How-toWhy spelling is harder than reading, the five-minute routine that works, and what to do when your child gets a word wrong.SpellingPhonics
ExplainerThe handful of rules that are worth teaching, roughly when each one lands, and the ones to handle with caution.SpellingPhonics
How-toSeven games you can play tonight with nothing but a pencil, why they beat worksheets, and how to tell a spelling game from a reading one.SpellingPhonics
How-toExplainerWhat struggling spelling looks like, why writing a word out ten times does not fix it, and the multisensory techniques that do.SpellingReading help
ExplainerWhat age spelling starts, the five stages it arrives in, and why nite for night is a good sign.SpellingFoundations
ExplainerWhat happens when you hear your child is behind in reading, what that means, and what you can do about it.Reading helpFoundations
GuideThe useful question is not which app is best. It is which one fits your child right now.App guidesFoundations
GuideWhat a child needs from a reading app changes sharply between three and seven. What each age needs, what to avoid, and which apps genuinely fit.App guides
GuideYou can teach a child to read without paying anything. What is genuinely worth using, and the one point at which paying starts to make sense.App guidesPhonics
GuideSight words take weeks of practice, so the app has to be one your child comes back to. How each kind works, who it suits, and where we fit in.App guidesSight words
GuideAn honest comparison from a phonics app developer, including where our own app falls short.App guides
ExplainerGuideWhat they do well, where they fall short, and how to tell if they can help your child.App guidesFoundations
