Simple reading instructions can be started about the same time. By five the pace of new learning and reading fluency can increase dramatically. Most children can learn to read at the second-grade level, by age six. Of course not, but you may help significantly. Studies conducted over the last thirty-five years concluded that early reading gives the child a significant advantage in school.
Early readers are also likelier to excel in other academic subjects as well.
By starting early you decrease the chance that your child will be one these children. Although the Reading Lesson is primarily a phonics-based program, we do recognize that there is a great deal of brouhaha over phonics. Any reading program based solely on phonics is both boring and difficult for the child and is incomplete. Our language is not totally phonic and many words do not follow phonics rules and need to be memorized. We need phonics to teach the child how words sound.