When I was a kid I had the hardest time learning to read. My aunt found out I was dyslexic and that is what was making it so hard to read and spell. With our Timberdoodle curriculum we got AAR Lv 1 (All About Reading). Last year we had the Prereading version and loved it so I was very pleased to see they kept this as part of their curriculum. The main thing I like is that it is written in a way that I can understand what I’m supposed to do in order to teach reading effectively. The teacher manual has a bunch of tips through to help you along the way. The word and letter cards have examples so you know how to pronounce them or what sound you are teaching for that lesson.
What I did was tear out the pages in the student booklet; they are perforated. All the pieces that it said to cut out I also laminated. Some people have asked in the homeschool groups how to laminate. What I do is cut out the item, laminate and cut again. It makes a seal and last longer that way. You don’t have to cut things first but if not you have a chance of the lamination opening up. That’s what I learned when I worked in copy and print. I have all the cut out piece in sandwich baggies with index cards taped on and labeled so I know which baggie goes with which lesson. The sandwich baggies I put in a gallon size ziplock bag. The pages I tore out are in sheet protectors; if the lesson got cut off the page I wrote it somewhere on the page to remind me what lesson it was. I use a binder and about 10 pages per sheet protector for the pages I tore out. Whatever lesson we’re doing goes into a separate sheet protector and we use expo markers to write on them. That way they stay nice and we can reuse them if we need to revisit a lesson. A nice thing about All About Reading is that they let you copy the student booklet if you are teaching multiple kids at once. Sometimes it’s cheaper to photocopy the book and others it’s cheaper to buy a new book.
There are a bunch of great games included in the set. Like feeding the monster or swatting the words. I laminated those as well so they don’t get ruined or bent from multiple use. I personally can not stand bent or crinkled pages; drives me crazy. The set also has letter tiles. You can get these with the curriculum and they have magnets to them or you can get the app. The app is the same price as the tiles and both are used with All About Reading and All About Spelling. No need to purchase a new set (unless you lose the tiles) and no need to purchase the app for every level. I got the app because I didn’t want to have to keep up with tiles and some people said the tiles are harder to see when multiple letters are on one tiles. Another thing that I like about this curriculum is that they have readers that go along with the lessons. So not only are they learning and seeing the words in the cards, the fluency sheets, the app, the games but also in a story.
This is such a great curriculum for reading and I recommend it to everyone who asks for a way to teach reading. I love the way it’s laid out, how you teach with it, the way it’s written for everyone including those who are struggling with reading. I will continue to use All About Reading until we complete all the levels. Their website suggests you finish level 1 before starting All About Spelling level 1 so that is what I’ll be doing.
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