A study was conducted to explore how children learn to read in kindergarten. The study employed a heuristic model that included entering ability, home background, instructional processes, home support for literacy development, and measures of student ability at the end of kindergarten. Children were tested, whole-day classroom observations were made, and questionnaires were sent to parents to collect information that could be used to develop data-driven linear structural relationships between variables to explain how children develop reading ability. Results showed that children's performances in reading at the end of kindergarten were directly affected by their knowledge of letters when they enter kindergarten, by their active participation in reading activities at home, and by the amount of phonics instruction and word meaning instruction that they receive in school. (Five tables of data and five figures are included. Twenty-six references are attached. (MG)