I don't think there is one right or wrong way to teach reading but I have seen some children get rather confused about reading when they start with a structured phonics program. They can read regular cvc words but they get frustrated when they start reading real books that they want to read but they do not have the tools to decode non-cvc words.
When this happens, I would suggest 1) do echo reading using Dr Seuss types of books for patterns recognition and high frequency words, 2) find a beginning reader series that the child is interested (I highly recommend the Piggie and Gerald series), and 3) read literature books to the child to develop vocabulary and literally analysis skills.
The problem with brighter (gifted) children is that they don't like repetition and often, they refuse to read the same thing over and over unless they really happen to love it. DD really loved Mo Willems' books.
I agree that with reading, earlier is not better. The only problem with waiting until the child is 7 or older is that many of them want to move to chapter books right away and when that doesn't happen immediately, they lose patience and want to give up. It can be a challenge to find beginning readers appropriate for gifted 7+ year olds.
I still think DD learned to read because she insisted on having subtitles every time she watched anything on screen.
I'm not sure if you can borrow read-aloud e-books for free somehow but those are helpful too as the red highlight moves along but it'd be expensive if you have to pay for each of them.
