Do you have to have the PAL: Writing to do the PAL: Reading?

Yes.

All the individual letters are introduced in the Writing program using letter stories as the student learns to print. Even if your student is too young to do much printing (age 3-4), you should still get the writing and do the printing lessons. He should just do them on a whiteboard (I have a lap sized one that I use). He won't do the copy work (too young), so the parent will then just shelve the Writing part until he is older. He can continue to practice his letters on the whiteboard. When he is old enough to manage a pen or pencil (usually around age 5), then he can pick up where he left off.

IMPORTANT: A child should not try to print on lines using a regular pencil until he has developed enough fine motor control. If you try to do it too early, the child ends up using goofy pen grips because their hand is not strong enough to use a mature pen grip. Thus, it is very important to be patient and WAIT until your child is old enough before working on handwriting.