I homeschooled my kids and I can say that reading and phonics was a lot easier to teach than I realized.
And I might add, my kids were anxious to learn before their 5th birthdays. It is amazing how much kids can absorb and learn.
Ditto. We HS’d and used phonetics. The kid was reading and correctly pronouncing words that were beyond what she knew.
IOW, she was frequently coming up and reading a word to me with “what does that mean, daddy?”. Most of the time she pronounced it correctly.
We had to watch her because we discovered she was capable of reading stuff that was a little too, uh, mature, for a kid her age. It was a challenge. /grin
When I retire I would like to find a deserving innercity voucher school and help tutor reading.