This works (read first)

You are a caring parent. Your child’s success is top of mind.

You are here because learning to read is tricky. Endless rules, multiple sounds for the same letter, and confusing exceptions make it overwhelming for kids and parents. This is how I felt.

There is a lot of advice, methods, apps, websites, books, and cards out there. I asked myself, where to begin?

Start small. Keep it simple. Simple is best.

Simple is where I started with my kids and our results show this method of learning to read really works. I coded these games while using them as a learning tool for my own kids, in parallel. Here is why it works.

The Simple Approach

Reading is made up of 5 skills:

Recognize symbols as letters: Out of all the symbols in the world 26 have a special meaning.
Associate the letter to the sound it makes: Each letter makes a sound. Keep it simple: teach the sound made most often.
Learn upper and lowercase letters: Recognize a letter in its two forms. Start with upper. Lowercase is the goal.
Letters to form words: One or more letters form words.
Blend sounds to read a word.

String it together and you’re reading. Hooray!

The games on this website teach the 5 skills. Each game builds on the last, making reading an enjoyable experience. You don’t need any special training—just a willingness to explore this new skill together.

Skills 1 to 3 are covered in Game 1 and 4 and 5 in Game 2.

Master these steps, and your child will have the confidence to tackle a word, any word, anywhere. You will have unlocked the world for them.

Focus on the sound, not the name. Each letter makes a sound and each letter has a name. At the start, a letter’s sound is learned first. Because the name and the sound are different, teaching both doubles the learning difficulty - keep it simple, start with sounds.

Tips

A common pitfall: Many parents start with the ABCs, the names of letters, but this can make reading harder. Skip spelling for now. Focus on the sounds. The mathematical explanation: Your child’s young brain learns to read by associating 26 letters to their sounds. 26 is a much less work than 52 (upper and lowercase), and 4x less than 104 (uppower and lower, sounds and names). Less is more. Toddlers can read. Spelling comes in grade 2 and higher, 3 years later - because spelling is hard, save it for later. Focus on the sounds.

It takes two, and you’re it. Here is a recipe that helped me to be an effective teacher. It distills kindergarten teaching tactics into a recipe.

The parent navigates the games. This lets your child focus solely on making the associations.

Celebrate Progress Together

Learning to read can be challenging, so it’s important to make each small victory feel meaningful. Here are a few ways to keep your child’s motivation high:

Praise small wins: Acknowledge even tiny steps—whether it’s recognizing a letter or sounding out a word. Positive comments like “You worked so hard on that!” build their confidence. Give a high-five.
Rewards: Use a reward system, like stickers or extra playtime, for reaching milestones. Celebrate when they recognize three letters, read their first word, or master blending sounds.
Make reading special: Turn reading into a bonding time. Use a cozy reading spot, add fun voices for characters, or let your child choose the book. Making it enjoyable shows them reading is a treat, not a chore.
Celebrate “Reading Milestones”: Take note of when they sound out their first word or recognize all letters in their name. Mark these moments as achievements, like a “First Word Cake” or “Letter Superstar.”

By reinforcing their progress in positive ways, you’ll encourage them to stick with it. The goal is to make reading a happy, rewarding experience!

Next step

Start with the sounds today.

Troubleshooting Common Challenges

Reading isn’t easy, and it’s normal to encounter some bumps along the way. Here are tips for handling a few common issues:

My child has trouble distinguishing letter sounds. What should I do? Focus on contrasting letters with very different sounds, like “m” and “s.” Start slowly, and use visuals or a song to reinforce the sound-letter connection. Games that involve matching sounds to pictures can help them remember.
What if my child confuses similar letters (like b, d, p, q)? These letters can be tricky since they look alike! Use visual cues or mnemonics (like “b has a belly” or “d wears a diaper”). Practicing with tactile activities, like tracing letters in sand, can also help solidify their understanding.
How can I motivate my child to keep practicing? Create a consistent, short reading time each day, and keep it playful. Offer praise, use small rewards, or play quick, interactive games with sounds or letters. If they seem frustrated, take a break and try again later to keep things positive.
Any recommendations on frequent sight words? Find an age appropriate childrens book. Try to find one that repeats these words on a single page. Have them read out each one, point out how it’s the same letters, same word. Once they get rolling, progress to rapid fire. Pick a new word each day. The next day, review pages with the words they learned so far.
How about blending longer words? Teach them how vowels are their helpers. A, E, I, O, U. To help them recognize these use the focus mode in game 1.

The 3 Games

Why did I write these games? The cost. The cards, flip charts, markers, and books are too expensive. I refused to pay $100 to purchase and ship 26 cards to Canada. So I wrote the games and improved them by seeing their effect on my own kids. It served us well, so I hope someone out there will find it useful.

Game 1: Learn the Sounds

Your child learns the fundamentals - each letter is unique, a letter makes a sound, and uppercase and lowercase.

Oversimplify: one letter = one sound.
K-I-S-S: start with three. Start with S, A, T.
Start with UPPER and lowercase letters.
Toggle the difficulty to lowercase only.
Click the letter - kids love seeing the picture of the animal.

What makes lowercase tricky?

Your kid needs to learn that orientation matters. The letters p, q, b and d are the same symbol, flipped.

Learn the sounds a letter makes

Game 2: Blend Letters to Make Words

First words. Three letter words in CVC format; consonant-vowel-consonant. The recipe:

Say the sound made by each letter.
Blend the 3.
Blend faster.
Blend faster - until they hear the word. Their eyes light up.
Tap/click the ? to show the image as a reward.

I find the image makes for a nice reward. My kids want to see the image, even the 100th time they read the word.

Yay, they’re reading words. Mission accomplished. It would be if we were learning Spanish, but this is English which is why we have Game 3.

Learn to blend the sounds

Game 3: Grow Vocabulary

The goal is expanding vocabulary through increasingly complex letter patterns. These are introduced gradually over 4 difficulty levels. Each level adds a bit more of that English language flavour: letter combinations, silent letters, and a combination of Latin, French, German, Ole English, Norse to make your head spin.

Let’s lay this out by difficulty level.

Difficulty 1:

The words get longer but we stick to the sounds a letter makes.
Throw in the Sneaky-E every now and then to gradually introduce the concept.

Sneaky E: It’s the letter e found at the end of a word. Aptly named as it does two things. It’s silent and it makes the earlier vowel say its name, not its sound. For example the word “made”. What’s a letter’s name? Now bring in the ABCs.

Difficulty 2:

The words contain letter combinations.
Learn when 2 or more letters combine to make a new sound.

Focus on related words. Click on a few letters to pin them, then click the next button to see similar words. For example, pin “at” to see cat, bat, mat, that.

Difficulty 3:

I called these sight words as a catch all.
There’s not many.
Difficutly 4: all difficulties at once.

Expand their vocabulary

To summarize: three games to go from symbols to sounds to words, even tricky ones.