My granddaughter has had similar experience with phonics, starting with learning the alphabet at an early age, and consistent messaging from those of us who care for her, led by her mother. She is in first grade, can read almost anything. I expect her little sister will have the same skillset.
I personally believe that reading to babies very early on is critical in their development. Just the exposure to stories helps them to develop a sense of how people and things relate to each other, including all of the early learning of colors, animals, body parts, shapes, textures.
We are lucky to have fairly high quality public schools in this area, but do really believe that so much of this learning begins at home, and very early.
The Dems/liberal culture would have you think that only the government can succeed in this area.
“My granddaughter has had similar experience with phonics, starting with learning the alphabet at an early age, and consistent messaging from those of us who care for her, led by her mother. She is in first grade, can read almost anything. I expect her little sister will have the same skillset.”
It comes down to whether parents are able to ACCEPT the fact that public schools DO NOT ‘educate’ kids in the best interests interests of the kids - they have higher priorities (like ‘leveling the playing field’ so minorities have higher ‘self-esteem’). From what I can tell, the vast majority of parents still ‘trust’ the public schools to do what’s best for their kids. Many parent eventually do catch on, but by then the damage is already done to their kids.
Parents essentially have ONE CHANCE to ‘get it right’ for their kids, when they’re roughly 3 to 9 years old. If they learn reading then (properly, through phonics), they’ll be great readers through life. If not, they will still eventually learn reading...but not nearly as well (after all, phonics now starts at Grade 4 in the public schools, with ‘Sight Words’ being used to delay their learning when they’re younger). Math is similar, teach them right when young, although that window is when the kids are a couple of years older than for reading.