Aaron's self taught alphabet - Age 4

About a year ago, I bought a little Learning LeapPad for $3 at a used clothing store. It has alphabet shaped letters that you push that will tell you what the letter is, what sound it can make, and also a how to spell 3 letter word functions.
Aaron began learning to recognize his letters with that over the last year, and since then, he has learned to write his name (which was a shock to me, he just up and wrote it one day!), and write all the names in our family. Basically, he writes the whole alphabet. And he knows a good portion of the sounds of the alphabet. This has NOT, I REPEAT, HAS NOT!! come about through me daily teaching him through a workbook. A few times, he has messed around with a workbook, or we have read maybe 2 times out of a "Reading Handbook", but the bulk of his learning has come just through daily living, and a desire to learn. He began by asking how to spell things... grass, car, house, road, rock, etc... That was at about age 4 and a half, after he'd been playing with the leap pad for a good couple of months. He would even want to take it on car trips for something fun to do! Also, I would point out how to read simple words, like "hex nut" at the hardware store, to keep him from getting bored while we waited for the guy to find the right part for us.
He has since graduated to writing strings of letters on a piece of paper the way I remember the other kids doing. Then he asks me what it says. I try to sound it out, and he asks... does it say anything? I ask him, Does it sound like a word? He admits that it does not, and I tell him he's doing a great job writing his letters, and Here, why doesn't he write this simple 3 letter word? So, he does, and I sound it out for him. Then he goes back to whatever he was doing.
Today, he was sitting at the table with my MIL and I while we were talking, writing his strings of letters... SMUVWSNM..... I looked over and said, Hey, Aaron, will you do me a favor? Will you sing the alphabet song in your head, and write the letters in order, instead of just all different kinds of letters? I want to see if you can write the alphabet.
So, he did! I probably helped him remember how 5 out of the 26 letters were formed. But his penmanship is just beautiful! :) I was so proud. Afterward, he sat and sang the song to himself as he pointed to each of his letters. I had him write his name and age at the bottom, and explained how to write the word AGE and what it meant. I think he was proud of himself too, by the shy smile on his face! :)
It's a bittersweet thing, this watching your child grow up. But a beautiful one to witness! Especially when you see how contrary to most of society's beliefs, learning to read can be self taught! It really isn't so hard after all, and it doesn't need to be a forced thing!
Recently I got a Reader Rabbit "learning how to read" lab kit from the library. I will probably see if he is interested in that. If not, then I'll get the leappad back out, and see if he wants to do the 3 letter words again... I know he'd be much more ready for that now. My point will not be, "here, Aaron, you HAVE to learn to read.. let's do this or that to accomplish that task". And, I will not attempt to get him to "learn" something every day about reading. It will be more of an attitude of, "Hey, I know you are going to learn eventually, and now that you seem interested, here's a multitude of choices to have fun with! And then you'll be able to read just like other bigger people!" (The fact that he will be able to read actually excites him!- his desire to learn has never been squelched by long periods of forced "learning") I will continue to read to him, and help him sound out signs in public that he asks me too, and stuff like that. It will be a life lived journey to reading, and I know we'll enjoy every step of the way!