When I was in first grade, I learned to read in "ITA", which stands for "Initial Teaching Alphabet." It's a phonetic alphabet, with roughly 45 letters, representing various sounds and sound combinations. We learned and read in this for about half of first grade, then switched to "Mama's alphabet", which is what our teacher called the normal alphabet. This was supposed to make the transition easier.

I can't speak to whether it helped me or not. I already knew my alphabet, and it was confusing to learn different shaped letters for various letter combinations. I've only met one person from a different school who had ever even heard of it.

My sister reminded me of it today, so I thought I'd see if my little elementary school in Waterford was on some sort of cutting edge. Thanks!