Phonics is your friend.
Homeschooling parents learned long ago that the best way to teach reading is by teaching phonics. It’s the least tedious and most natural way to learn to read. There is a wealth of excellent phonics teaching material out there at reasonable prices.
One can sound out words to kids while tracing their spelling. Big print words make this easy. Yes, phonics embraces a lot of exceptions. A classic joke is that ghoti is fish.