Nobody warns you that once school starts, teaching your child to read becomes your job too:
You're not sure you're saying it right.
You learned by sight and memory, not phonics, so now you're trying to teach sounds you were never properly taught yourself.
Correction starts to feel like criticism.
Every “try again” can feel like judgment, so they guess, give up, or say they’re tired. The problem becomes the dynamic, not the skill.
Unplugged learning still needs you.
A tablet can hold attention alone. Flash cards usually need you sitting there the whole time — so the tablet wins again.
The last learning toys ended up in the cupboard.
Used twice, then forgotten. You've stopped trusting anything labelled “educational.”
The problem isn't that your child can't learn.
It's that you're expected to teach sounds nobody properly taught you.