He's funny because it's almost as if he just isn't interested. He has known how to spell his name since 2 and the letters in his name. Then he'll almost play games with you if you ask him what a letter is.
This sounds an awful lot like my son. Could recognize and write his name very early, knew all the letters, and then wanted very little to do with letters or reading on his own until Kindergarten (he still wanted us to read to him all the time).
Now, he is a pretty mathy kid, but he is also very strong verbally. However, his interests have historically been much more focused toward math and science). We just kept reading to him (his preschool was not academic, much more social focus) a lot. I had some flashcard type things he wasn't interested in, so we never did them.
Lo and behold, within about a month of starting kindergarten he started reading (he could read a few basic things before that, cat, dog, etc. but not much, or not much that he let on), and he went from not reading to reading Magic Tree House type books in about two weeks, and just kept accelerating from there. The entire reading thing just popped - either he decided he was interested, or more likely, hit the right developmental spot for him, who knows?
He is very clearly a whole word reader - he still has a hard time with sounding out, and spelling is definitely not his strong suit (I was the exact same way, I don't remember learning to read, I just started to do it) - and it cracks us up when he can't connect a word he knows verbally with a word he is reading - can lead to some very funny questions ("Mom, can we take a trip to Yozmight some time?", "Where??", "You know, Yozmight, where Half Dome is", "Oh, you mean Yosemite. . .").
I have a DD6 who is an equally strong reader, but she sounds out everything, the complete opposite. Her spelling is amazing - it has been so interesting to watch the difference between their reading development, it is completely different, yet they are both equally strong readers. She started reading substantially earlier, but didn't have the same "pop," her progress has been much more steady.
Hard to know, but maybe your DS just has other things he would rather occupy his time with right now (and he sounds like a fun guy).
Cat
