As educators, we know how powerful it can be when parents are equipped to support reading at home, but we also know how overwhelming it can feel for families who aren’t sure where to start.
That’s why I created On the Road to Reading: A Parent’s Guide: an easy-to-follow printable resource that helps families reinforce essential early reading skills at home. This isn’t a checklist of homework assignments. It’s a flexible toolkit that supports the reading journey, aligned with the science of how kids actually learn to read.
Two Easy-to-Use Formats for Parent’s Guide
Whether you want something that stays in a folder all year, a quick print-and-go option, or a more polished option with tabs, this guide has you covered.
- Tabbed Version: Organize each section into tabs, keep it in your take-home folder all year, and add pages as needed.
- Full-Page Guide: It’s ready to go as a complete reference packet or can be used selectively by grade level.
- With the full page guide, you can simply print, staple, and send it home!
- You can also add place the pages in sleeve protectors and add it to your take-home folder, so it’s there all year long.
What’s Inside the Parent’s Guide: A Section-by-Section Breakdown
This guide walks parents through the essential pillars of reading development, including:
- Alphabet knowledge
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- “Sight words” (High-Frequency Words)
- Fluency
- Comprehension
- Update: Morphology
Each section has two core components:
- Information Page for Parents
These pages explain what the skill is, why it matters, and how it supports reading development. - Practice Activities
Following each explanation are simple, hands-on activities parents can use at home. From letter hunts and sound games to decoding tips and comprehension questions, these activities are designed to be engaging, doable, and effective.
Inside Each Section
Alphabet Knowledge
This section helps parents understand that learning the alphabet is more than singing the ABCs. It’s about connecting letter names, shapes, and sounds. Activities include multisensory ideas like tracing letters, using pipe cleaners to build letters, and going on letter hunts.
(You can find more resources and information about teaching the alphabet HERE.)
Phonemic Awareness
Parents learn how important it is for kids to hear and play with the sounds in words before seeing them in print. The activities are all oral and auditory, from rhyming games to “I Spy” sound hunts, and they help set the foundation for decoding and spelling.
Phonics
Phonics is where the code comes together. This section explains how letter-sound relationships help children read and spell words. The practice pages walk parents through building words with letter tiles, word sorting, and spelling simple sentences.
“Sight Words” (High-Frequency Words)
This section explains why we don’t just memorize high-frequency words; we teach kids to map them to sounds and meaning. Parents are guided through a structured, multisensory approach to introducing high-frequency words, plus lots of ways to practice in context.
(You can find a post about high-frequency words HERE.)
Fluency
In this section, parents will learn that fluency isn’t about reading fast. It’s about reading with accuracy, expression, and understanding. This section helps parents model fluent reading and includes activities like echo reading, phrase scooping, poetry reading, and even recording themselves for fun!
(You can find a post about fluency HERE.)
Comprehension
Reading for meaning is the ultimate goal. Parents will find clear explanations about what comprehension is and how to support it before, during, and after reading. The guide includes retelling prompts, think-aloud strategies, and sentence stems to deepen understanding.
Morphology
Understanding how words are built using prefixes, suffixes, and base words helps children become stronger readers, spellers, and thinkers. This section includes easy, hands-on activities to help families explore word parts in a fun and meaningful way.
Parents will find:
- A list of common prefixes, suffixes, and base words to get started
- Four simple activities that use everyday materials
- Ideas for building, sorting, and noticing word parts in context
(To learn more about morphology, check out this post.)
Engaging Extras
Also included are bonus activity pages for Family Reading Nights, printable games, information about The Science of Reading, and directions for letter tile use, all designed to help families practice decoding and spelling in a hands-on, meaningful way.
Find this resource here.
