Sorry. You are full of it. Sight is how children instinctively learn to read.
I have no problem with phonics teaching. It’s a great way to teach a child who doesn’t know how to read.
But I learned to read by myself very early, and now I have witnessed 2 of my 3 children do it on their own as well. One is a bit of a genius and, from reading books, learned all of the letters by 18 months. From hearing his favorite books read to him over and over, he cracked the code of the words by age 2, and by 2.5 could read a newspaper. Something I was actively trying NOT to let him do, because the front pages were full of details from the O.J. Simpson trial!
My 2nd child learned to read in kindergarten, using a wonderful phonics program. I saw the progression and it was painless and just as thrilling for him when it started clicking.
My 3rd child was behind in every developmental milestone so we were not pushing reading at home, just homeschooling him with a lovely and relaxed, old-fashioned and non-academic kindergarten curriculum. Of course he was being read to every day. And HE cracked the code too! Suddenly he was asking what this word said, and that one, and then he could read simple books by himself, BOOM. He’s still behind in a lot of things but he is a very good reader with NO formal reading instruction.
The humans brain is an amazing, G-d-given gift. Do not think that any way, under any life conditions*, that our beautiful children crack the code of reading is in some way HARMFUL. Just control what they are reading.
*Here I am thinking of children in abuse situations, or captivity like poor Jaycie Duggar’s two children of rape, or wartime, etc.
Do you have an education degree?
I taught our kids how to read. It took a year and a half for one of my sons to learn to read fluently. I mean, he was sounding out the word “cat” after all that time. (He’s been homeschooled since halfway through 1st grade because, among other better reasons, his reading recovery teacher thought he could read when all he’d done was memorize the books.)
I eventually used the Dolch word lists, figuring it would encourage him if he could easily read a few of the words in his books.
By June 1st after his 2nd grade year, he was reading at a 2nd grade, month 1, level. I didn’t teach him to read during the summer because he needed a break.
In mid-August, he read the first Harry Potter book to himself. I had him read parts of it out loud, and he was reading fluently!
This kid was persistence personified. Every day for 2 years (with breaks in summer and at Christmas) he patiently and cooperatively had reading lessons for at least an hour. Frequently he would ask to spend 2 hours or more on this. (My experience was that after every 2-week or more break, he returned to reading lessons with an inexplicable improvement in his ability.)
I am sure that he was developmentally delayed — not a stretch because he weighed only 1 lb. 7 oz. when he was born 13 weeks early.
Anyway, he’s been a reading whiz since then, and scores off the charts on comprehension, reading speed, and reading ability.
It took a lot of one-on-one time with me for him to learn to read. I tried different methods and ditched them when they did not work. I am convinced that having him learn the Dolch sight words was the breakthrough event, in addition to his further brain development over time.