Back when I learned (self taught) the recorder all I learned of sight reading was note there on page fingers there on recorder. I could "read" music to the extent that if I already knew the tune, I could play it from music on the recorder. This was perhaps mostly because I could never accurately translate the concept of time out of the filled and hollow notes and the little flags.

*space notes have similar qualities to other *space notes... possibly (as they search deeper) some intrinsic opposite to *line notes, and this gets *proven (unfortunately mistakenly)over and over again as they learn.

Then they get whacked up side the head with the bass clef in which the space notes are now line notes and vice versa and how come the e on the bottom of the staff is a line note but the one up top the staff is a space note?