All About Reading {Review}

In my life before being a mommy I was a high school English teacher.  I saw first hand the importance of having a strong foundation in literacy for a student.  As a homeschool mom I had a high standard for a reading curriculum, and the more I asked around about a well constructed program the more one name kept popping up.  That name was All About Reading from All About Learning Press.

Here is a little about the program:  

• All About Reading focuses on teaching your kiddo the five key components of reading-phonological awareness, phonics and decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  Its inclusive and nothing is left out.
• All About Reading takes a multi-sensory approach to teaching your kid to read, so its meets all learners where they are. 
• The program is gap-free. Each skill learned builds upon the one before it.
• The program is geared towards results.  It helps you to teach critical skills quickly. 

The good folks over at All About Reading were kind enough to send me a Level 1 Reading Program and The Interactive Reading Kit to try with E this summer.  I thought Level 1 was good fit for us because E has learned her letters and the sounds they make.  If that wasn’t the case we would have started with the Pre-Reading Program. 

So what did I HONESTLY think about the products I received? 

• The Interactive Reading Kit:  This is the key component of the All About Reading system.  It includes magnetic letter tiles, phonic letter cards, sight word cards, an amazingly cute and durable tote bag for the system, and storage box for your lesson cards.  Everything is made with quality, and I loved knowing that from the get go everything I was going to need was in this kit. 

• The Teacher’s Manual (In the Level 1 Kit): The moment I picked up this manual I KNEW the program was going to work.  Let’s face it, teaching your kid to read is a daunting task, and part of the battle is knowing where to begin.  This teacher’s manual removed the guesswork and laid before me a structured detailed plan on how to help E learn to read.  EVERY STEP of each lesson was laid out before me, making it goof proof.  As a former teacher I cannot rave about it enough. 

• Student Packet and Activity Book (In Level 1 Kit): This packet included everything E was going to need for the hands on portion of our lessons.  Each activity has the corresponding lesson on the page, making it incredibly simple to find what you need when you need it.  No printing off pages, no scouring through books.  Its all in order so you can quickly plan your lessons for each day.  Here is one of the activities we did:
  

  I loved the simplicity and ease of these, and E loved the activities.  These are not just printed ditto sheets but easily assembled hands on activities. 

• Run, Bug, Run!, Cobweb the Cat, and The Runt Pig readers:  The biggest thrill for E was being able to read from a book!  The amazing thing is it didn’t take that long for her to get to the point where she could.  The stories in these readers incorporate the skills your kiddo is learning in their lessons. They are stories that are built around the words your child has learned in their lessons, making it a joy as they see words come together to form meaning!  The readers are so well made, too.  They are sturdy hard back books that I you’ll be able to use for future kids as they go through the program. 

All in all this program has just simply been amazing.  Just to give you an idea, this is E, during lesson 3.  Yes, you read that right.  LESSON 3.  Now remember, E came into this process at 4 years old knowing her letters and their sounds.  That’s it.  I think this speaks for itself: 

I truly cannot recommend this program enough.  From a cost perspective it is on par with other homeschool curriculums I have come across, but it is so worth it.  Even better, you can try it for A YEAR.  They have a money back guarantee.

All About Reading has been a success for us, and as we continue to use it I know that E will only get stronger as a reader.  What’s even better is that as a teaching mommy this program has been a joy to instruct.  It really is one of the best things I have found on my journey through homeschooling.  I highly recommend it.