:iagree: Thank you everyone for sharing! We have an audible account already for my husband to listen to on his long commute. Needless to say he was thrilled when he opened his ap and saw 20+ new books!

:bigear:

:bigear: We are kind of in the same boat. It takes longer than I thought it would to get through a lesson. I have been having to divide it up over two days (with the reading and writing). I have a 4.5 year old boy and he does seem to be retaining it. I will ask him random questions when we are looking at other books or out and about and it seems to be sticking. We are going to keep at it for now, but I keep glancing back over at my copy of OPGTR and wondering if I made a mistake, too!

We just finished AAR about a month ago and started on PAL (since the next level of AAR is not out yet). I have a two boys, 4 and 3. AAR in my opinion is wonderful in getting the kids in a "school" routine. The boys loved the craft sheets every day and loved Ziggy. It develops letter/sound awareness and works on getting them ready to learn to read. It is not a reading program. It is so easy to implement, just open and go. PAL on the other hand is VERY time consuming and not as user friendly IMO. But it is a learning to read program. They say you can just use PAL reading without the writing, but I don't think it would help on the confusion factor. We can't do an entire writing and reading lesson in one day. We have to break it apart. And the time I have to spend getting ready for each day is a nuisance after I was accustomed to AAR. We will keep on with PAL for now. I do believe in the program, but I think you need to have a child that is ready to write to get the full benefit from it and be prepared to spend some time every day getting it ready. I hope that helps!

:bigear: Anybody?

I am really curious, too. I have put it in my cart several times and then don't follow through. I just can't seem to pull the trigger!

Lovely... It looks like we may have to change our plans.

tammyw - What a great idea! I too have been trying to decide what to do. We have a rather large hispanic influence in our community. I will have to check that out! Thank you!

:bigear: We soooo need a laser printer but I get overwhelmed trying to decide which one to buy! Thanks for all the input!

:bigear:

I had to throw in my 2 cents. We are completely new to homeschooling and I usually lurk, but this is something I have an opinion on! I can't comment on AAS, but we have been using AAR for several weeks now. I was hesitant because of the cost but we purchased it at conventin which helped. I wasn't going to buy Ziggy, but my husband encouraged me to. We love the program. Every day my boys (3 & 4) ask if Ziggy is going to come today! I really didn't understand the whole puppet thing, but they just eat it up! I am so glad we bought it. My oldest already knew most of his letters and most of the sounds, but it really is more than that. We are only about half-way through and the letters are all solid for him already. We just got back from vacation and in the car they kept asking if different words rhyme. They love the acitivity sheets and I love them too. I am not very creative and love that I can just open the book and everything is there. I really think this program provides a firm foundation for them (and it is enjoyable for all of us--which means a lot!) By the way, we have most of the Leap Frog DVD's and they have watched them numerous times. We do some starfall. But I really think the hands-on, one to one interaction has been more beneficial than anything. It wasn't until we started this program that my oldest started pointing out letters and their sounds when he saw them on signs and in books, etc. Anyway, my 2 cents!

We are kind of in the same boat. Completely new to everything and learning as we go... We have been doing the AAR Pre-1 and are about half-way through. I have two boys, an advanced 4 year old and a typical just-turned 3 year old. I feel it is too easy for the 4 year old and just right for my youngest. They love Ziggy and the activity sheets. I have been doing it with OPGTR (doing the same letter each day in each book) and it seems to work together to reinforce the letters and sounds. The boys hate it when I pull out the OPGTR book though. So, I am really, really interested in PAL and would love to know anyone's thoughts!