My two kids were very different. My older DD started to decode individual works in K but didn't really read till late 2nd grade. While my DS17 took off reading/decoding works when he was a young 3. And stunning people when he'd read all the aquarium or zoo signs out load when he was 4. (I'm glad there was a 4.5 year old age difference between them at that point.) Although I'm sure it didn't hurt that we had all those early readers lying around because of my daughter.
To be honest I'm not at all sure how he learned to read that young. He just figured it out on his own. Other parents in K used to quiz me about what i'd done and I'd just say except reading to my child & having lots of books in the house I didn't do anything particularly special.
