A Plan for Reading Instruction: All About Reading

I am in planning mode for the upcoming school year as I am sure many of you are also. Planning and prepping to be more accurate.

My plan for reading instruction is to continue using All About Reading for both my children this year.

We have been using All About Reading for several years now. I'm a big fan of their curriculum! We tried several other reading instruction programs before making the leap to All About Reading. Since making the switch years ago, I have not regretted it. Even though my oldest child had to endure jumping around until we found a program that worked for us, my youngest has benefited from those trials and errors. When it was time to begin teaching her to read, I started her out with All About Reading. 

Wondering why I Love All About Reading? In a nutshell - it's fun, it works, and there's a money back guarantee if it doesn't! You can read more about it here. 

*This is a post from guest contributor, Amy. I love the perspective Amy brings with younger children. I know you will benefit from her wisdom. This post contains affiliate links.

My Plan for the Year

My oldest child is a avid reader. We have been using All About Reading (AAR) through Level 3 with him. This year we will work through Level 4, the last level of All About Reading. Even though he is an excellent reader, I will use AAR Level 4 to make sure we cover the final phonograms, give him plenty of practice to read aloud, and strengthen his comprehension. 

My youngest has just completed AAR Level 1. She is soaking up everything she can read! I'm fascinated while watching her read signs, menus, just everyday items she sees that not too long ago she could not read. She will be starting on AAR Level 2 this fall. 

In addition to using AAR Level 2, we will also use the supplemental Reading Games with Ziggy with my daughter. These are games that are designed to go with AAR Level 1. Since we have already completed Level 1, these will primarily be for increasing her confidence in reading and give her extra practice. 

We have a Ziggy the Zebra puppet from when we did AAR Pre-Reading Level. Both of my kiddos got involved every time I pulled Ziggy out. So I expect at times I'll be able to turn over the games to my son and let him lead my daughter in these games. Ziggy is just fun! We will use him with the Reading Games with Ziggy.

One of the greatest joys of our homeschooling journey has been watching our children develop into readers. 

Prep Work for This Year

I have found that the better organized I am, the better my homeschool days flow. So part of prepping for this school year is getting my All About Reading materials organized. 

The first thing I need to do is put away all of our materials from last year. I've had my son put the reading and phonogram cards from last year, that we won't need this year, into numerical order so they will be ready to go when I use them for his sister in a couple of years. 

For my emerging reader...

Since I have used All About Reading Level 2 with my oldest child already, there won't be much prep work to get it ready. I'll have the kiddos help me make sure all the phonogram and word cards are in numerical order. That's about all I'll need to do since I put all the lesson activities in a 3 ring binder when I did this level with my son. I share more about that in Tips and Tricks for using All About Reading. 

There is some prep work for Reading Games with Ziggy that I need to do. The games have to be cut apart and put into file folders. Once I get them set up, it will be easy to pull them out to use. The Teacher's Manual for AAR Level 1 tells you when your child is ready for each supplemental game if you have them. Again, these are extra for Level 1, because there are still plenty of fun activities built right into Level 1. 

For my fluent reader...

AAR Level 4 is new to us, so I will need to prep all the materials for the year. I will start by tearing apart all the word and phonogram cards and putting them into the reading review box. This will be a great project for my son to help me with!

I will also go through the Activity Book and prep each lesson's activities. I put all the sheets for a lesson into a page protector and put them in a three ring binder. Some of the games require cutting, so I just go ahead and take care of that ahead of time. 

While this up-front prep work does take a while, it truly makes AAR a grab and go curriculum with no daily prep work required.

I've tried just pulling out a lesson each day and doing the prep work on the fly. This does not work in my house! It gives the kids too much time to get distracted and run off doing something else before I can get ready for our lessons. Yikes!

So I have learned that doing this prep work ahead of time is extremely beneficial in our house. I do this each time we purchase a new level of AAR.

Helpful Hints

If you are using AAR Pre-Reading Level or Reading Games with Ziggy, you can order a Ziggy the Zebra puppet directly from All About Learning Press when you place your order. You can also find similar ones on Amazon if you already have your materials in hand and then realize you wish you had Ziggy - yep, speaking from experience here!

And if you are new to AAR, you may want to visit my Tips & Tricks for Using All About Reading. I hope it will help your family on your journey to reading! 

Are you planning to use All About Reading this year? I'd love to hear from you!

---

You might also like: 

Why I Love All About Reading

Tips & Tricks - All About Reading

Why I Love All About Reading

I am a reader. My husband is a reader. We have always wanted to raise children who love reading like we do. But, what’s the best way to teach them how to read?

When we first started homeschooling, my oldest was five. We began using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It worked fine for a while, but eventually it just wasn’t working for us. From there we tried other reading programs. My son continued making progress, but not as much as I knew he could. Eventually we made the switch to All About Reading, and his reading took off. That’s why I love All About Reading.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mary that providing a literature-rich environment and enjoying good books alongside our children is key to helping them love reading. You may have read her recent post about why you shouldn’t teach your children to read. I’m one of those moms who prefers a structured, but gentle, plan to teaching my children to read. That’s why I love All About Reading.

---

Complete Reading Program

All About Reading teaches phonological awareness, phonics and decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. You can add All About Spelling when your child is ready. This is a complete program for learning to read and spell.

All About Spelling and All About Reading are designed to be able to work independently of one another. But we have found it helpful to have the same approach used for both decoding and encoding. The rules are stated the same. The review of phonograms and word cards is similar. We move seamlessly between our reading and spelling lessons.

All About Reading and All About Spelling are based on the Orton-Gillingham approach. This method of teaching reading and spelling is especially helpful for dyslexic students, but is an excellent approach for all children. 

 Child Friendly

All About Reading is a multi-sensory reading program. Children see, say, hear, and touch during their lessons. It works for all learning styles.

• Build words using phonogram tiles on a magnetic white board
• Review word and phonogram cards
• Read aloud stories
• Fun activities
• Short lessons

All About Reading Pre-Reading Level also includes the optional use of Ziggy the Zebra puppet. My kids had so much fun with him! Even though we have moved passed the Pre-Reading level, they still like for silly Ziggy to be part of our reading lessons. 

Parent Friendly

All About Learning Press provides you with what you need to teach reading to your children.

• Scripted. No guessing on how to teach lessons.
• Simple games and activities. No need for additional supplies.
• Reviews built right into lessons.
• Free lifetime support from All About Learning Press.
• Limited prep work.

I suggest you do all the prep work in advance so each lesson is open and go. Look for my Tips on using All About Reading coming soon. 

Builds Confidence

My children know they can pick up their All About Reading readers and read their stories with confidence. These are the go-to books for my youngest to read aloud to her grandparents, her stuffed animals, and the dog. ;) It builds her confidence to know she can read these books all on her own.

Children know they are making progress. They track the lessons they complete on the provided progress chart. But more importantly, they master phonograms and words through the frequent reviews. Being able to read more and more words builds their confidence in reading. 

Go Ahead and Use It One Year Guarantee

From the time I began looking for a reading program, I heard nothing but good things about All About Reading. But it looked expensive compared to other options. And I just wasn’t sure it was worth it. But my search kept pointing me back to All About Reading. So when I found out about the Go Ahead and Use It One Year Guarantee from All About Learning Press, I was sold.

You can try All About Reading for a year and if it doesn’t work, All About Learning Press will refund your money. This guarantee provides peace of mind about your financial investment.  

And if you’ve ever considered All About Reading but had similar thoughts, let me ease your concerns. It has been well worth our investment. 

If you are looking for a program to help you teach your child to read, I hope you consider All About Reading for your homeschool. If you were looking for that nudge to go ahead and make the switch to All About Reading, this is it. :-) We started it mid-year several years ago with my oldest and have never looked for any other reading program. 

Here's to teaching our children how to read!

Have you ever used, or considered using, All About Reading? 

Also, check out Tips & Tricks for Using All About Reading! 

---