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What to practice between reading sessions, by stage.
If your child is working with a reading tutor, the few minutes between sessions matter more than they look. The rule is simple: practice the exact skill your child is on, a little, and stop while it is still going well. Here is what that looks like at each stage.
Ask the tutor one question.
The most useful thing you can do is ask, "What one pattern should we practice this week?" A good answer is small: short a words, or silent-e, not "reading." If it helps to see where a skill sits, the scope and sequence shows the order, and our free decodable word lists give you the exact words for each pattern.
Two minutes, the same pattern.
Early on
Short-vowel words like cat and hop. Your child reads a few aloud; you only help if a guess replaces sounding out.
A little further
Silent-e or vowel teams, one pattern at a time. Same short list, read cold, until it is quick.
Longer words
Reading a short, decodable passage aloud, then talking about what it said. Meaning is the point once the words come easily.
Keep it calm, and stop early.
Reading practice at home is not a lesson, and it is not a test. Two good minutes beat ten that end in tears. Sit beside your child, not across from them, keep your voice light, and stop before the hard part arrives. A child who is not afraid of the practice will come back to it, and coming back is what makes it work.
Let the tutor see how it went.
A quick note on which words were tricky tells the tutor where to start next time, so nothing is repeated or skipped. If your child practices in a tool the tutor can see, that happens on its own. More on the tutor's side of this in turning a lesson into daily practice.
See it in the app
A game a child comes back to.
Lillory turns the pattern of the week into a game a child chooses, like Tap It Out, where they hear a word and tap once for each sound. Short, calm, and the same skill the tutor set.
Level 1: Tap It Out and the Sound Garden games.
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