I don’t have a problem with sight words, and I don’t see an advantage with phonics.
What worked for us was simply diligence, insistence, and patience = necessary parental work.
I can't believe that you've actually said this.
The HUGE advantage with phonics is it teaches you rules to use to deal with new words. The sight see method doesn’t
“I don’t have a problem with sight words, and I don’t see an advantage with phonics.”
How many “sight words” did your kids learn? Hopefully 10,000 or so, or they won’t be very good readers. In what fonts? Were they lower case, capitalized, or all capitals? What do they do if they haven’t “seen” a word before?
Figuring out a word just from its shape leaves out a lot of variables. Sight words are fine, after the kid knows how to read.
(sorry, I get pretty damn emotional about this)