Hi - Our DS4, very soon to be 5, has never wanted to sound out words. I am pretty sure he just memorized words from being read to. For his first bday, he got a leapfrog magnetic fridge letter thing, that he pushed incessently, so he was familiar with all the "b says buh" stuff, but when we tried to sound out words with him, he'd have none of it. Now, when he's reading something unfamiliar, I can cover up parts of the word until he recognizes that, then he can figure out the rest. So it's more like adding words together than phonics. I figure if he needs to know phonics at some point in school, we'll tackle it then.
So I'm in the camp that says even if you don't know phonics, you can still be a reader.
