I taught my kids to do the same, with magnificent results in a bettered life for them.
Also, please forgive my failure to copy-read my response. But just as an addendum, note that every word in the dictionary is couched in phonetic symbolisn. And it is not “whole word” that allows us to distinguish between the noun for the element and the verb whose infinitive is to lead, and whose past tense led has the same sound as the element lead, and which nost journalist are now regularly confusing, being lazy with the text editor’s spell-checker.
Mom taught me phonics (1960ish)
When in the Second Grade I was checking out “The Wizard of Oz” from the Library, the Librarian didn’t think it was a suitable book for my age (6 or 7) and asked me to read from it, I read her a page and she said “Well I guess I was wrong”
She wasn’t, I was the oldest of *6 and I neglected to keep it from my siblings that proceeded to deface it with color crayons... folks had to buy the book. I had it until about the 8th Grade, then lost it among other things when I discovered Girls.
TT
*Mom had 6 kids in 5 years, (twins) ;^).