[CelestialChild]

When I was in Japan, my little host brother was in third or fourth grade, and he had just begun learning Kanji. Many of them were the Kanji I had started out with also. It seems like they learn the kanji as individual units and words simultaneously. I'm not sure about readings, but I imagine its very similar to how must foreign language teachers do it, where you're taught the most prominent readings right away and learn them better over time.