I figured it out at about 2. Someone had given G a toy caterpillar. On each leg was a letter of the alphabet. On one setting, the caterpillar said the name of the letter when you pushed the leg. On a different setting, the caterpillar would say the sound the letter made. G memorized all of those when he was a bit older than 2.
At about 2 1/2, I used the word "cat" to show him that different sounds formed words. That was it. Literally one word.
He was reading full books (Biscuit, Spot, etc) by 2 1/2.
Math, numbers counting, etc. is exactly the same way.
I agree that having a safe place to talk about this is so valuable. I can't discuss this with my friends.
