All About Reading

Have you heard about All About Spelling?  Well they now have a new reading program called All About Reading.  They have Pre-Level 1 out NOW!  We have had it for about 6 weeks now.  Level Pre-1 is for preschoolers and kindergartners.  It focuses on what they call the Big 5 Skills. 
They are

1. Letter Knowledge
2. Phonological Awareness
3. Print Awareness
4. Listening Comprehension
5. Motivation to Read

 

I have struggled in the past getting Katey to remember her letter names, she did pretty well with sounds, but I was beginning to feel the pressure of her not being where a typical Kindergartner her age was.  So I was grateful and so excited to receive the Pre-Level 1 Deluxe package from All About Reading.
Sure I tried using letter craft and activities I found on the internet, but I noticed that I would get “lost on the internet” searching for ideas to use, and they were all so cute, I would get overwhelmed by which one to do.  I think that having a creative curriculum to help me teach reading that I don’t have to do a lot of prep work was just what I need, and just what I got!   This curriculum is designed to go at your child’s pace.  You can do a letter a day, a letter a week, or a letter whenever you feel like it.   Although consistency is key.   We learned letters as often as she would master them.  Some she already knew, some she didn’t.   

The teachers manual is divided into 4 parts.

Part 1 is the capital letter recognition.  Which is the one we have been currently working on.
Part 2 is the lowercase letter recognition.
Part 3 is the sounds.
Part 4 is the appendices.


Each part has pretty much the same layout, but my description below is pretty focused on Part 1.
Let me tell you about the lessons.  Each lesson is based on a letter.  You learn uppercase letters first and lowercase next.  Every day you begin by singing the alphabet, while pointing to letters on the alphabet poster.  Then you have the child find the specific letter they will be learning that day.  Next you read a poem out of the cute book The ZigZag Zebra.  They locate the current letter on the pages.  And they do a craft sheet for the letters.   Each craft sheet is already made and ready for your child to color and add simple ideas to it, such as googly eyes, thumb print art, or construction paper grass, etc.  There is then a list of activities that you can choose from to have even more letter practice.  There is a game that goes along with each lesson as well.  They are fun games, that Katey absolutely loved.  She loved that ZigZag Zebra (the puppet) played some with her.  You finish the lesson by reading aloud to your child for 20 minutes.


There are samples of the Teachers Manual, My Book Of Letters Activity Book and both the read aloud books at the bottom of the order page here.     

The teachers manual  has all of the lessons in easy to read format.  It is full of tips, hints and ideas, that are super easy to incorporate into the lessons, and your everyday teaching life. 

There is also a letter sound CD-Rom.  It is a very simple click the lowercase letter, and it makes the sound.  I wished it had the uppercase letters as well.

Katey has been averaging mastery of a new letter about once a week.  Each day I also incorporate a review of the letters previously learned.  We also read all the poems for previous letters learned each day.  She really loves the poems, and has some of them memorized.   

The book does have you teach the letters in ABC order.  I chose not to do that.  We started that way, and then I decided to do the letter in a random order.  I kept the lessons in order though.  For example, letter A is lesson 1, B-2 etc.  When I taught her letter M, we were on lesson 4, which would have been D, I just did lesson 4 with her which was play a rhyming card game.  The lessons are progressive, so I felt it important to keep those in order.  With Tyler, I will teach the letters in order.

I also added in handwriting practice every day, for Katey, but again I will start this program with Tyler most likely before he can really write, and therefore the handwriting part will come later. 

So I was going to tell you about why I love this program, it became one big run on sentence.  So here is a list.

• It is so organized
• It is pretty much prep free, just grab the bag and learn
• It is so organized
• It really appeals to children
• It is so fun, for both of us
• Everything is planned out and right there for you
• It is so organized
• It is designed to go at your child’s pace.  I never felt rushed to get through a lesson, or like a lesson took longer than needed.

My favorite thing is the organization.  Everything fits in the tote bag.  The box, with the lesson cards are divided into lesson numbers.  The books are easy to read and find your way around in.   I struggle with organizing things on my own.  So this is such a breath of fresh air.  Katey never had to wait for me to get stuff ready to do these lessons (while she was coloring the letters, I got the basic art supplies that were needed that day). 

 

Level Pre-1 is offered in Basic and Deluxe packages

The Basic package $79.95 includes:

• Teacher's Manual (208 pages)
• Student Material Packet
  • My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
  • Picture Cards
  • Letter Sound Cards
  • Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
• The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
• Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new hardcover book
• Divider Cards (keeps your Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized
• "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM. 

With the Basic package, you will need to add your own puppet and your own index card box.
The Deluxe package $119.95 includes the same items as the Basic package (Teacher's Manual, Student Material Packet, Divider Cards, "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM). It also includes

• Ziggy the Zebra puppet
• a charming Activity Box to hold your student's learning cards
• All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

You can also buy all of these items individually, which is great if you have two children doing this, then just purchase an extra activity book for $24.95.

Right now they are giving away TWO FREE E-books.  In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra and Safari Stories with the ZigZag Zebra to get those go HERE!

All About Reading is now a staple curriculum in our house. 

Other crew members reviewed this as well, to see what they had to say check out that post here.

{I received this product for free in order to write this honest review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions herein this blog are my own, and your experience may differ.}