I've always had people who were older than I tell me that I was lucky to have learned to read with phonics. Now I see mothers online saying that whole word readers comprehend a text without ever having to go back and re-read a sentence or paragraph that they sped through like phonetic readers sometimes do. Hmm.., I do that somedays but not on others.
My choice wasn't really that well thought out. It was decided by what was happening when the reading started. At the time my son was recognizing a few sight words (erm., ahem- well, like spongebob on the tv guide channel, and his dad's name) J.C. Penny's had boxes of Hooked on Phonics on sale for $11/each. We made the little word families sat, mat, cat. He learned "fat" thanks to this and told me in a store, "That man is fat". Thanks Hooked on Phonics.
