Teaching Your Child to Read at Home: A 7-Step Guide Based on the Big Six of Literacy

Teaching your child to read is a major milestone—and one of the most fulfilling parts of homeschooling.

But where do you start, and how do you make sure your approach is effective?

Fortunately, decades of educational research have identified the Big Six of Literacy—six interwoven strands that support successful reading.

These align beautifully with the recommendations of the influential Rose Report (2006), which highlighted the importance of systematic synthetic phonics in early reading instruction, along with a well-rounded approach to literacy.

Here’s how you can teach reading at home with confidence, using the Big Six as a foundation—and wrapping it all up with the magic of reading for pleasure.

✅ 7 Steps to Teaching Reading at Home:

Build Oral Language
Develop Phonemic Awareness
Teach Systematic Phonics
Practice for Fluency
Grow Vocabulary
Teach Comprehension
Foster a Love of Reading

Step 1: Build Rich Oral Language (Oral Language)

Reading begins with listening and speaking.

Long before a child decodes print, they need to develop strong oral language—vocabulary, grammar, and the ability to express thoughts.

How to support oral language:

Read aloud daily and have conversations about the story.
Play pretend games and role-play scenarios.
Use rich, descriptive language in everyday life.

🧠 Why it matters: The Rose Report recognizes that children need a strong foundation in language to support reading comprehension.

Reading is not just decoding—it’s understanding.

Step 2: Tune Into Sounds (Phonemic Awareness)

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and play with the individual sounds in spoken words.

This is a critical skill that prepares children for phonics.

Try these activities:

Clap syllables in names or words.
Play “I Spy” with sounds (“I spy something that starts with /b/”).
Segment and blend sounds orally without showing letters.

🎧 Rose Report insight: Phonemic awareness should be developed before and alongside phonics. It’s the listening skill that leads to strong decoding.

Step 3: Crack the Code with Phonics (Phonics)

Once children can hear sounds in words, it’s time to connect those sounds to letters through phonics.

This is where decoding begins.

What to teach:

Start with regular sound-letter correspondences (e.g., s, a, t, p).
Teach digraphs and alternative spellings as your child progresses.
Blend sounds to read words, and segment sounds to spell them.

🔡 The Rose Report strongly advocates for systematic synthetic phonics as the most reliable method for teaching early reading skills.

Step 4: Practice for Fluency (Fluency)

Fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension.

It’s about reading smoothly, accurately, and with expression.

How to build fluency:

Use decodable readers that match your child’s current phonics level.
Encourage rereading familiar texts.
Try paired reading—read a sentence, then have your child echo it.

⏱️ According to the Rose Report, fluency develops through guided and independent practice—not guesswork or memorization.

Step 5: Expand Word Knowledge (Vocabulary)

The more words your child knows, the better they can understand what they read.

Vocabulary is learned through conversation, books, and real-life experiences.

Simple ways to grow vocabulary:

Explain new words as they come up in stories or daily life.
Use precise language (e.g., “enormous” instead of “big”).
Read a variety of genres to expose your child to diverse language.

📚 The Rose Report emphasizes that strong vocabulary supports both reading and writing.

Step 6: Build Comprehension Skills (Comprehension)

Comprehension is the goal of reading. Good readers think about what they’re reading—making predictions, asking questions, and making connections.

Help your child develop comprehension by:

Asking open-ended questions: “Why do you think the character did that?”
Summarizing together after reading.
Linking the story to your child’s own experiences.

💡 Rose Report guidance: Comprehension must be explicitly taught, even to strong decoders. It’s not automatic.

Step 7: Foster a Love of Reading (Reading for Pleasure)

The final—and perhaps most important—step is helping your child fall in love with reading.

Children who read for pleasure develop better vocabulary, stronger comprehension, and a lifelong reading habit.

How to inspire reading joy:

Let your child choose their own books (yes—even comic books and joke books!).
Make reading cozy and positive—think cuddles, tea, and storytime.
Be a reading role model—let them see you read, too.

💖 Though not emphasized in the Rose Report, reading for pleasure is championed by many literacy researchers as a powerful driver of motivation, fluency, and deeper learning.

What are the 7 Steps for Teaching Beginning Reading

With the Big Six as your foundation—and a love of reading as your goal—you have everything you need to teach reading with purpose and joy at home.

Evidence-based research gives you confidence that a phonics-based, language-rich approach works. But you, the parent, bring the heart.

Your child’s journey into reading doesn’t need to be rushed.

Focus on progress, not perfection—and celebrate every story shared and every word sounded out.

You’re not just teaching your child to read; you’re helping them discover a lifelong source of knowledge, comfort, and imagination.