Phonics still very important for the young kids, and no need to hurry to learn the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), becuase is not hard, you know the ipa symbols well then is not difficult.
Phonics still very important for our students, We teach Phoincs when they are K1 until F7. But I start teach them IPA when they are P5 or P6.
I majored in Linguistics in university. I think IPA ia better for someone who can recognize all the alphabets, A to Z clearly. Phonics is only a study of letters combination. There are so many loopholes. Honestly, Phonics is good for toddlers and Primary 1- 3 students, but not everyone. In fact, Phonics is rather easy if you have learnt IPA first.