[heartwood]

I learned to read early and very well by Whole Word - my poor parents had to read me Danny and the Dinosaur until I had it memorized. I wasn't very good at sounding out new words until I was 8 or so, and had problems with never-heard words until 11 or so (menacholy, anyone?) The phonics lessons in first and second grade baffled me. What was the point?

OTOH, you can't really teach Whole Word, not explicitly, just the way I learned it, so when my husband and I taught our children, it was phonics, rhymes and alliterations - and whatever Whole Word snuck in from reading out loud. Thnnk goodness it was not Danny very often, usually Are You My Mother?

[kabumpo]

I also learned to read whole words all by myself, dont know how. Started at 4 years old. My parents read constantly, house was full of books.