Age 7 marked the end of infancy in most medieval societies. A girl’s life did not change radically, since she had already been learning some of her mother’s skills. Most girls did not learn to read; it was considered a real mark of class if she did, since it implied that her mother had also learned. But boys began school or apprenticeships.
In the early Middle Ages, schools were only attached to cathedrals, monasteries, and sometimes royal households. But by the 13th century, large towns had schools, as did some smaller towns and private homes. Students typically sat on the floor, on mats or strewn rushes/straw. They were often required to contribute a few candles, the way kids today are asked to bring boxes of kleenex for the classroom. Students were expected to bring their own slates, and little or no other equipment was required.
Primary school, the most universally attended level, taught the sound and meaning of Latin letters and syllables. In this way, boys learned to sound out the words in their prayer books, and they also memorized many prayers. Reading and memorizing were not distinguished. If you could look at a page of text and recite it from memory, nobody tested your phonics skills to see if you could actually read the words. Reading your native language, whether English, French or German, was a secondary matter and it was assumed that anyone who knew the Latin syllables could figure out his native tongue. It seems likely that many teachers explained some local letter combinations like “ch,” but there’s no record of its being a priority, and until the end of the Middle Ages, anyone who could recognize a prayer in Latin and recite it correctly was considered a reader.