> but no, it isn't new. There's a war between phonetic reading and 'whole word' reading. Older than many think. Search for and read "Why Johnny can't read", a

> but no, it isn't new. There's a war between phonetic reading and 'whole word' reading. Older than many think. Search for and read "Why Johnny can't read", and then do the same for "Why Johnny still can't read". I have an almost-five child who is reading simple books with no pictures. Reading those two essays above, then buying "Teach your child to read in 100 days" and then simply working for 10m-20m each day since he was almost-three has resulted in a 5yo who reads as well as, or better than, many 8yo kids. Also, I moved off the DISTAR alphabet after about 6 months - the book is good, but use it as a good start, not as a complete teaching kit. Once you read those two essays you'll have a much better idea of why most children can't read and, most importantly, what to do about your kid at age 3.5yo - 4yo.