My daughter was guessing at words instead of actually reading them. Here is exactly what we did to fix it—and why it worked.
If you have a second grader at home, you know exactly when the “reading jump” happens. The books get longer, the pictures disappear, and suddenly, your child has to decode words entirely on their own.
For us, the panic set in when my daughter looked at the word “eight” and froze. She knew the number 8 perfectly (she’s great at math!), but connecting the letters E-I-G-H-T to that sound? She was totally lost.
Since she attends an International School and is learning English as a second language, she’d developed a coping mechanism: memorization. Instead of sounding words out, she was memorizing shapes. When she hit a word she didn’t know, she’d just guess. Sometimes she got lucky; most of the time, she didn’t.
So, we made a scary decision. We put the chapter books away. We paused the grade-level workbooks. For one full week, we revisited phonics basics.
It felt like a step backward, but what happened next honestly surprised me.
Why Was My Child Guessing Words Instead of Reading Them?
Before I share the activities we tried, I want to explain what was actually going on—because if your child is doing the same thing, you are not alone, and it does not mean something is seriously wrong.
When kids first start reading, many of them rely on memorization. They look at a word, remember seeing it before, and say it back. This works fine when the words are simple and familiar. But once 2nd-grade reading kicks in, there are too many new words to memorize. So instead of slowing down and sounding things out, kids start guessing based on the first letter or the shape of the word.
That is exactly what my daughter was doing. She was not reading. She was guessing. And the more she guessed, the less confident she became about actually trying.
The 3 Simple Phonics Activities We Did at Home
I may be a university professor, but I am not a primary school teacher. I do not have a fancy curriculum or special training in phonics. What I do have is a daughter who needed help, and a little bit of research on what actually works for kids who are struggling with phonics at this age.
Here are the three activities we focused on, and why each one made a real difference.
1. The Flashcard Scavenger Hunt
Let me be honest—flashcards can be boring. Sitting at a table and flipping through cards one by one is not exactly exciting for an 8-year-old. So we turned it into a game instead.
I spread out all of my daughter’s vocabulary flashcards on the table—words like “apple,” “grape,” and “socks.” Then I opened her workbook to a specific letter page. For example, when we worked on the letter A, her job was to find every flashcard on the table that started with that sound and place it on the open page.
It sounds simple, and it is. But here is the important part: it forces her to actually look at the first letter of each word. She cannot just guess anymore. She has to pay attention to how the word starts. Over a few days, that habit started to stick.
2. Tracing Words, Not Just Letters
Most parents think of tracing as a handwriting exercise. And yes, it helps with that. But tracing is actually one of the best ways to help a struggling reader connect letters to sounds, and here is why.
When a child traces a word—not just a single letter, but the whole word—their brain has to process each letter in order. It slows them down. It makes them focus. And for a kid who has been rushing through words and guessing, that slowdown is exactly what is needed.
We worked on number words for this one. My daughter traced the big number 8 on the page, and right next to it, she traced the word “eight” letter by letter. Doing both together helped her brain make the connection between the symbol she already knew and the spelling she was struggling with. It clicked in a way that just reading the word never did.
3. Say It While You Trace It
This one came from a tip a teacher shared with me, and it quickly became our favorite routine. The rule is simple: while your child is tracing, they say the sound of each letter out loud at the same time.
So when my daughter traces the letter “i,” she says “ih… ih… insect.” When she traces “a,” she says “ah… ah… apple.” She connects the letter to its sound and then to a word she already knows. It takes maybe 30 seconds per letter, but for a child who has been skipping over sounds and guessing, this kind of repetition is incredibly powerful.
It might look slow. It might feel repetitive. But trust me—for an 8-year-old who is falling behind in a fast-moving classroom, this small habit builds real confidence.
The Tools We Used (And Why Simplicity Won)
When we decided to go “back to basics,” I initially thought I needed to buy expensive reading programs or fancy apps. I was wrong. We actually found that low-tech, tactile tools worked best because they removed the distractions.
Here is exactly what was on our table during this “reset week” (and what you can look for if you want to try this at home):
1. “Count and Trace” Workbooks
You can see in the photos that we didn’t use standard reading books. Instead, we used a workbook specifically titled “Count and Trace.”
This was a deliberate choice. Because my daughter is strong in math, using a workbook that combined numbers with words gave her a confidence boost. She wasn’t intimidated by the page because she recognized the numbers immediately.
- What to look for: If you are shopping for a workbook, look for one that has large, clear fonts with directional arrows inside the letters. The arrows are crucial because they guide the child’s hand, reinforcing the correct “path” of the letter shape while they say the sound.
2. Visual-Association Flashcards
Not all flashcards are created equal. The ones we used (visible in the pictures) were small and colorful, but they had a specific feature that helped: visual cues.
- The “Snake” Trick: If you look closely at our flashcards, the card for “eight” has a picture of a snake shaped like the number 8. This visual bridge was the “aha!” moment for her. It connected the shape (8), the object (snake), and the word (eight).
- Bilingual Support: Since we are an international family, having cards that included her native language characters helped ground her understanding, even though our focus was entirely on the English phonics.
3. The “Special” Purple Pen
This sounds like a tiny detail, but it mattered. I let her choose her own pen for these activities. She picked a bright purple gel pen.
- Why it helped: Pencils feel like “schoolwork” and “mistakes.” A fun, colored pen feels like an art project. It lowered the stakes and made the tracing feel less like a test and more like a game. If she made a mistake? We just laughed and kept going. We didn’t erase. We focused on progress, not perfection.
It Is Okay to Go Back to the Basics
I want to end with this, because I think a lot of parents feel guilty about it. If your second grader is struggling to read, pulling out the “easy” workbooks and the basic flashcards does not mean they are behind. It does not mean you are failing as a parent. It means you are paying attention.
Sometimes kids need to go back before they can move forward. Building a stronger foundation at home—even if it only takes one week—can make everything that comes next so much easier. My daughter still works on phonics every day now. She is not perfect. But she is reading. And she is not afraid to try anymore. That, to me, is the biggest win of all.
If your child is guessing words when reading, do not wait. Start with these three activities and see the difference for yourself.
Common Questions About Our Phonics Routine
Since sharing this method with friends, I’ve had a few questions about the logistics. Here is how we made it work in our busy schedule.
How long did this take each day?
We kept it short—about 15 to 20 minutes after dinner. When a child is struggling with reading, their brain gets tired very quickly. If we tried to push for an hour, she would get frustrated and shut down. Short, consistent bursts were much more effective than long marathon sessions.
Did she get bored tracing easy letters?
Honestly? A little bit at first. She is a second grader, so tracing “A is for Apple” felt “babyish” to her initially. But once she realized she could do it perfectly, her attitude changed. She went from feeling like a failure (struggling with chapter books) to feeling like an expert. That boost in confidence was worth the temporary boredom.
When did you go back to normal books?
We took a full break from chapter books for one week. After that, we slowly reintroduced them, but we kept the “Say It While You Trace It” rule. If she got stuck on a big word in a book, we would stop, write that word on a piece of paper, and have her trace/sound it out just like we did in the workbook.
