[BobL]

“all our kids learned to read phonetically at home and well before the rest of their class “

So here are my questions (based on my other response, which wasn’t as friendly):

1) Did you EVER try to get them to read ANY words by sight (i.e., memorizing the shape of the word) before they could sound out words?

2) Are any of them crappy readers today?

3) Do any of them have dyslexia?

4) Do you see ANY value at all in doing Sight Words first, or in parallel with phonics?

[savagesusie]

There list is great. Works every time.

http://www.nrrf.org/essay_Explicit_or_Implicit_Phonics.html

[Chode]

no to all the above...