So teach me to read.

Well, not me, actually. The writer contends that he and his wife taught their 4-year-old to read in a few months with the phonics method, which he says has been proven to be effective for most children across the socio-economic spectrum. But most educators are committed to a "whole word" approach, where kids learn to identify entire words. Anybody have experience in this area? It seems like it's a question that lends itself to practical research, like taking two similar large groups of kids and using one method for each.

Quote:

Now that it’s summer, I have a suggestion for how parents can grant their wee kiddies the magic of reading by Labor Day: Pick up Siegfried Engelmann’s Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. My wife and I used it a while ago with our then-4-year-old daughter, and after a mere 20 cozy minutes a night, a little girl who on Memorial Day could recognize on paper only the words no and stop and the names of herself and her family members could, by the time the leaves turned, read simple books. My wife and I are not unusually diligent teachers. The book worked by, quite simply, showing our daughter, bit by bit, how to sound out the words. That’s it. And yet in the education world, Engelmann’s technique is considered controversial.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...eading/591127/
https://www.city-journal.org/html/bu...rks-12992.html

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