How to Teach Phonics at Home
A plain-English guide to teaching phonics at home: which letter sounds to start with, how to blend, and when to move on from CVC words to digraphs.
The thing every phonics guide tells you and almost none explain: children learn to read faster when you teach the sounds of letters, not their names. A four-year-old who says "buh-a-tuh" to sound out "bat" is going to read. A four-year-old who says "bee-ay-tee" is going to be confused for a year.
We use the same sequence the UK Letters and Sounds programme uses, which is also what the Science of Reading crowd in the US has landed on: s, a, t, p, i, n first. These six letters make enough CVC words (sat, pin, tan, pit, tap, sit) that your child can read real books within a fortnight.
The full sequence, with the exact blending script to use, is below — along with the free worksheets we print most often and the letter-sound games that actually get played more than twice. If you have a three-to-six year old, this is the cheapest literacy intervention you can run.
Practise With These Free Games
Printable Worksheets to Go With This Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
At what age should I start teaching phonics?+
Formal phonics usually starts at age 4 to 5 in most curricula. However, you can introduce letter sounds from age 2 or 3 through songs and simple books — just keep it playful, not drill-style.
What's the difference between phonics and sight words?+
Phonics teaches the code: matching sounds to letters and blending them. Sight words are the ~100 most common English words (the, was, said) that often break phonics rules and are memorised as wholes. Children need both.
How long does it take a child to learn phonics?+
Most children can decode simple CVC words (cat, dog, pin) within 8 to 12 weeks of consistent 10-minute daily practice. Full phonics mastery including digraphs and trigraphs typically takes 18 to 24 months.
Is synthetic phonics better than other methods?+
Research consistently shows synthetic phonics — the sound-blending approach — produces stronger early readers than whole-language or mixed methods, especially for struggling readers. It's the mandated approach in English state schools.