Is There A Right or Wrong Way to Teach Your Child To Read?

Is there a right or wrong way to teach a child to read? Or, is there even a BEST way? We all know the most common way is to sound out the word, but in my experience that doesn't always work for little tikes learning how to read. 

We work so hard to teach our children the alphabet and the corresponding sounds for each letter. But in the English language there SO MANY words that don't work so well to sound out, and this can be very frustrating for early readers. 

For instance, consider the word sound, was and eyes. These are basic words, but you can't figure them out if you sound them out! According to the sounds of the letters these words should be spelled s-a-o-u-n-d and w-u-z, and i-e-z. Of course, as adults we know the rules of the language and why they are spelled the way that they are. But, how can one teach all these rules to a four or five-year-old? 

This is why I really like the strategy of teaching words by sight at first. As advanced readers, we don't look at letters, we look at WORDS. Children can learn the same way--by learning to read a word as a WHOLE, before they sound it out. Obviously, early readers need to know and understand that letters have corresponding sounds, but I think that this doesn't always need to be our first method. Children have AMAZING memories. My daughter could sight-read 100 words before she tried to sound out words. This worked great for her personality because it gave her confidence in reading from the get-go (she is one who likes to get things right the first time) and when she reached Kindergarten and really learned to read the traditional way she already loved reading and knew she could do it. 

Moreover, letters and sounds are sometimes so abstract to a youngster learning to read, but they relate to WORDS. "See this word, honey, this is the word 'eyes,' like the eyes we see with." That is much easier to explain to a four or five-year-old than, "Ok, now in this word the 'e-y' sounds like an 'i' and the 's' sounds like a 'z'. That's too much to remember! And a child may get frustrated when they forget. 

However, having said all of this, my second child learned much differently than my first. I had tried to teach him to read words by sight initially and he did great. But, he has a personality that likes to work things out on his own. He was intrigued that each letter of the word had a sound and he wanted to try to sound them out because he loves to figure things out on his own. Of course, sometimes I have to tell him, 'this is just a word you will have to learn by sight.'

Do any of you have thoughts on what is the best way to first teach your child to read?