Sadly, I can believe it. I bet your parents uses phonics, too. My parents taught me to read long before I was old enough for school. As a consequence, I took reading and writing as a given -- it was something you just did without a second thought. It is criminal how schools teach gimmicks that don't work so that people grow up not being able to read fluently. I guess all that folks need to know is how to read just enough to be able to vote for the name that has the letter "D" beside it.
Had a similar situation with my oldest daughter. I put her on Hooked on Phonics before kindergarden, she knew how to read going into kindergarden, and knew long multiplication and division by first grade. The teachers called my wife in to get her to get me to stop because she was bored in class.
Instead, we took her out and homeschooled. She later started college at 15 and is now a chemical engineering major