Reading is a staircase, not a switch. Here is the whole journey — four levels from sounding out cat to reading vowel-team words like rain and boat — each with free printable decodable readers built on the Science of Reading.
Short vowels & simple CVC words
Short-vowel words your child can sound out letter by letter — cat, hat, sit, dog. The very first step in learning to read. Start here.
Start here if: Your child knows most letter sounds and is starting to blend them into simple words like "cat" and "sit".
Blends & digraphs (sh, ch, th)
Two-letter sounds and consonant clusters — ship, chin, that, stop, hand. The next step once short-vowel words feel easy.
Start here if: Your child reads short CVC words confidently and is ready for two-letter sounds like "sh", "ch", and blends like "st" and "nd".
Silent-e & long-vowel patterns
Words where the vowel "says its name" — cake, bike, hope, cute. Magic-e and the first long-vowel patterns.
Start here if: Your child reads blends and digraphs well and is learning that a silent "e" makes the vowel say its name (cake, bike).
Vowel teams, r-controlled & diphthongs
The last of the single-syllable patterns — vowel teams (rain, boat), r-controlled vowels (bird, fort), and diphthongs (coin, cow). Next comes putting them together into longer words.
Start here if: Your child handles long-vowel words and is ready for vowel teams (ai, oa), r-controlled vowels (ar, ir), and diphthongs (oi, ow).
Multisyllable words, prefixes & suffixes
Longer two- and three-syllable words broken into readable chunks (sun·set, rab·bit, un·lock), plus the prefixes and suffixes that build them (un-, re-, -ing, -ful). The bridge from sounding out single words to reading real books and chapter stories.
Start here if: Your child reads vowel-team and r-controlled words smoothly and is ready to tackle longer words like "sunset," "rabbit," and "unlock" — and to see how prefixes and suffixes change a word’s meaning.
Your reader is decoding fluently and ready for full books and chapter readers. Keep the momentum with the complete reader library and phonics practice — and revisit any level for a confidence boost.
PrintableScholar reading resources are aligned to systematic, cumulative phonics (National Reading Panel, Reading Rockets, International Dyslexia Association). They support practice of skills already introduced by a parent or teacher and are not a substitute for professional reading assessment or instruction.