I teach my son English myself. Tell me, please, do I have to teach a him the rules of reading? Or is it enough to learn new words?

If we talk about preschool children, they can be taught new words without transcription. It’s better for students to learn transcription and reading rules, especially since now there are a lot of good resources for this. You can easily turn it into a game with such website as starfall.com. Many people are afraid of transcription. In fact, it is not as scary as everybody sees it. Focus both on teaching a child the rules of transcription and the rules of reading, and the child will thank you, because it will become easier for him or her to read the words.