The little glue words — the, a, to — caught on leaves, then met again inside real stories. Free, no ads, no flashcard drudgery. 🍃
▶ Play free nowSight words ride in with the first group of levels — just press play.
Some words appear in nearly every sentence a child will ever read — the, a, to, I — and some of them refuse to follow the phonics rules taught in year one. Waiting until the rules catch up would mean no stories for months. So good programs teach a small set of these "glue words" explicitly, while keeping everything else decodable.
That last part is the honest bit: sight words are the seasoning, not the meal. Programs that memorize hundreds of whole words train guessing, not reading. Read with Glass introduces one or two glue words per level group — exactly the ones its next story needs — so your child immediately sees why the word matters: it's the word that makes "Glass sat in the sand" a sentence.
They arrive with the first group of levels, right when the stories need them.
10 big pages of Glass & pals for after screen time.
The ones stories can't move without: the, a, to, I, is. A tiny set of these unlocks real sentences long before every spelling pattern is taught — with just those and a few CVC words, a child can read "Glass sat in the sand." Read with Glass introduces exactly this handful early, one or two per level group, always in service of the next story.
Yes — but honestly. The old approach memorized hundreds of words as wholes; the science of reading says most words should be decoded, and only genuinely irregular high-frequency words (like the) need to be taught as exceptions, with attention to the parts that are regular. That's what Read with Glass does: a small set of glue words taught explicitly, while everything else stays fully decodable.
Quality beats count. A kindergartner who reads 20 high-frequency words instantly inside real sentences is better set up than one who flashcard-recites 100 in isolation. If a program brags about word counts, ask instead: can the child read a sentence? Read with Glass keeps the set small on purpose and immediately embeds every sight word in its decodable stories.