I have always been a strong advocate of phonics. However, DS6 learned to read through osmosis or something about the time he turned 2, and was never taught any method at all. He has a photographic memory (or at least he did back then, for that) and once you told him what a word was, he remembered it. He was reading license plates and signs on every walk from the time he was 18 months old, and just kept adding words as new ones came along. At some point, around the age of 4, I realized that he was sounding out unfamiliar words--so apparently he just automatically knew phonics as well. I have no idea how he did it, it just happened. When he took the WJIII at 5 years, 9 months, his "word attack" score was >21 years or >grade 15.
DD3, on the other hand, seems to view letters as artistic elements rather than as keys to a language. She knows a bunch of them, but she still sees W in M and E, as if it doesn't matter to her which direction it faces, and A and R and K are all the same to her and interchangeable. DS6 NEVER held a book upside down, even as a baby--he knew which way the letters went before he knew what they were.
