I learned to read with phonetics. That's the way they taught kids in the 50's. My mother taught me to read before I went to Kindergarten. I've always loved reading, and at 76, I'm still an avid reader. I usually have 4 or five hard and softcover books that I try to read from every day. Then I always have two books on my Kindle that I read from before turning out the light at night. I'm a long-time student of history.
I learned to read the same way you did in the early ‘60s in a Catholic elementary school in an America that vanished a long time ago.
“There’s a history in all men’s lives’’ said the Bard of Avon.
Currently I’m reading James Holland’s “Normandy ‘44.’’