All About Reading?

[~happy2Bamommy~]

I saw this mentioned on a blog and went to look it up.

It seemed a little fishy that nearly all the reviews were posted the same day :blushing:

 

I thought I would ask here to see if anyone has used it and would mind sharing their thoughts on the program.

 

I am considering both level pre 1 and level 1.

The children I would be starting in the program are 4 and 6.

[Jen500]

I think this is a somewhat new program and I know some people here have started using it. Just be aware that the publisher has a strong marketing/affiliate program when you are reading reviews, especially from blogs.

[ErinD]

If they were members of the Homeschool Crew, they probably had a specific date range in which they could publish the review. (I'm a Crew member this year). That might explain why the dates are all the same.

 

ETA: I got distracted by a hungry child and forgot to say that we really like this program. My youngest is almost through AAR Pre-1 and asks for it daily. My middle child is working her way through AAS and finds it fun too.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Eddie

[genny]

I'm currently using this with my 4 year old and as a review for my 6 year old (she's a advanced reader).

 

I purchased level 1 for him because he already knows his letter sounds and basic cvc words. He also knows a bunch of dolch sight words. I'm currently on lesson 24.

 

My thoughts on it so far

 

He asks me to do it everyday first thing in the morning:lol: He enjoys the games and I have to say the readers are very nicely done. I love the fact that they are hardcover and the pencil drawings are done very nicely. He seems to enjoy the stories and feels proud he's finished the first reader.

 

I think the real motivating factor (to be completely honest :blushing:) is the progress chart. He really wants to fill in all the spaces so he can get a new digger truck:lol::tongue_smilie: Also, he wants to be big like his sister:D

 

DD 6 enjoys the games and I have her take turns with ds with the fluency pages.

 

Now that we are on lesson 24, I've noticed he's not quite as excited when I pull out the fluency pages (there are quite a lot of words/pages per lesson). I don't make him read all the words and go over the pages slowly bit by bit with him so it's not torturous:lol:

 

IMHO I feel it's a bit pricey for what you get.

 

I'm a phonics book junkie and have quite a few phonics programs here:blush: All my other books are pretty much a complete phonics program. I don't like that to use aar I would need to buy several levels and spend quite a bit of money.

 

That being said, I probably will be buying level 2:lol:

 

HTH's

[corduroy]

I'm curious about this program as well!

 

Can anyone who has the pre-level 1 program give any insight as to what you actually need to do the work? Do you need everything in the basic package, or...? Maybe I'm just super cheap, but the price of even the basic package gave me sticker shock. That seems like a lot of money for something that isn't designed to take a kid all the way to reading. Do people feel like it's worth it?

[KristenR]

I think this is a somewhat new program and I know some people here have started using it. Just be aware that the publisher has a strong marketing/affiliate program when you are reading reviews, especially from blogs.

 

I am an affiliate for All About Reading and Spelling and did a review on their PreLevel here. However, for myself, being an affiliate doesn't mean trying to hype a product in the hopes of making a buck or two.

 

When I started researching homeschooling as a real option for our family I gained so much inspiration AND motivation from blogs. It did my heart good to see families out there trying to make it work for them. I loved the window into another homeschooling family's routine and suggestions. I don't mind if they made some money from a purchase I took upon their recommendation. I know Angela at Satori Smiles made a lot of money from the purchases I made through her site but I just appreciate her taking the time to put her experiences out there for others to read. She, and many others, have saved me so much time and money from wasted purchases that I don't begrudge them a percentage of my purchase. It's not like I'm being charged any more for it.

 

That being said, I'm sure there are some sites out there that are flagrantly attempting to be a salesmen in the hopes of making a quick buck; but I think by reading the review and researching the blog, you'll gain a pretty good impression about whether or not it's a serious, honest account.

 

Just my two cents. :001_smile:

[Syllieann]

We are about a third of the way level 1 with my 3year old. It is a bit pricey but the manuals are scripted which takes a lot of pressure off me since this is my first year. I ultimately purchased because it didn't require any writing from the student and offered the tile work instead. The readers are very high quality and ds is happy to read from them. He dislikes the fluency sheets but overall enjoys the program. I plan to purchase level2 when it's released.

[Jess4879]

We used AAR-Pre 1 last year and will be starting AAR 1 tomorrow! :) My DD6 LOVES, and I do mean LOVES, this program. She thinks Ziggy is just awesome! I think it is a very solid program and I definitely recommend it. :)

[Jess4879]

I'm curious about this program as well!

 

Can anyone who has the pre-level 1 program give any insight as to what you actually need to do the work? Do you need everything in the basic package, or...? Maybe I'm just super cheap, but the price of even the basic package gave me sticker shock. That seems like a lot of money for something that isn't designed to take a kid all the way to reading. Do people feel like it's worth it?

 

sent you a pm!

[Twilight Woods]

We are currently using AAR-1 for my 6 y/o DD. She LOVES it. She loves the sticker chart, the activities and the books. She does not like the fluency pages but if I break those up into smaller chunks she does fine with them. Her reading has been so much better since starting this program. We switched from OPGTR. She would cry everytime I took OPGTR out.

 

It works for us but everyone is different.

[ByGrace3]

Well, we are only a week in so my opinion might not be worth much, by I am using it with my 5 year old and really really love it. We are flying through the first part of pre level 1 and plan to move to level 1 when we are done. I really hesitated to make the purchase and honestly tried several other things to try to get out of spending the money. I ended up caving after my attempts with another program failed. I am so glad I caved! I am a AAS fan so I was AAR curious, but it really is a lot of fun. DS really enjoys it. I bought it used and was missing somethings like the first part of the activity book pages. I think we can survive without those. I do need to print a progress chart, and I think I am going to break down and buy Ziggy. ds loves the books, and the phonemic awareness activities are perfect. It is a great program. Yes, it is expensive, and some kids do just fine with an inexpensive straightforward approach like OPGTR, but my ds wasn't one of them and seeing him giggle through AAR when OPGTR brought frustration to him and tears to me...is priceless. It is all about what you are looking for and what you want out of a program.

 

Hope that helps!

[melmichigan]

I am thinking of sending mine back. Maybe it's the fact that this is my fifth one to teach to read I'm not sure, but I'm just not feeling the love. I plan to give it another week before a final decision.

[ByGrace3]

I am thinking of sending mine back. Maybe it's the fact that this is my fifth one to teach to read I'm not sure, but I'm just not feeling the love. I plan to give it another week before a final decision.

 

Interesting. Since we are just getting started I am curious as to what you don't like about it.

[SJ.]

I am thinking of sending mine back. Maybe it's the fact that this is my fifth one to teach to read I'm not sure, but I'm just not feeling the love. I plan to give it another week before a final decision.

 

:bigear:

[~happy2Bamommy~]

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts!

 

 

sent you a pm!

 

Is it snoopy of me to ask you to share the info here too? I'm learning a lot by reading the thoughts of others and I can't read the pm :D

 

We are currently using AAR-1 for my 6 y/o DD. She LOVES it. She loves the sticker chart, the activities and the books. She does not like the fluency pages but if I break those up into smaller chunks she does fine with them. Her reading has been so much better since starting this program. We switched from OPGTR. She would cry everytime I took OPGTR out.

 

It works for us but everyone is different.

 

What is OPGTR?

 

I am thinking of sending mine back. Maybe it's the fact that this is my fifth one to teach to read I'm not sure, but I'm just not feeling the love. I plan to give it another week before a final decision.

 

What have you used in the past?

[genny]

Ordinary Parents Guide To Reading;)

[DandelionPrincess]

We are using all about reading, we're only a few lessons in, about 9-10 or so, but we've been working on it on and off for almost 6 months. I'm taking it slow and trying to enjoy the process of teaching reading.

 

I have to say, i love it! My son is 5, and a real "know it all" when it comes to school stuff, which makes homeschooling rather difficult, when he is trying to read the word bag but INSISTS that it says big. It's all humorous in hind-sight, right?. :)

 

Anyhow, the only part that we really don't fully follow are the fluency pages, my son gets frustrated with the sheer amount of review words on the page (already a double sided page with only knowing the cvc words with vowels a, i and o), and so I write a bunch of words one at a time on a small whiteboard we have, and he does a simplified version of these pages. I figure as long as he is successfully reading the stories and understanding what he is reading, we're doing just fine. Overall, it's effective, and i love the tiles we can move around on the whiteboard to make new words and whatnot. (he is easily distracted, so having him involved with the word building helps to keep him focused).

 

Could we have gone with a cheaper program? Of course, and we have far too many phonics workbooks around the house as well, but this is a concrete step-by-step program for me to follow with him, which is exactly what i was looking for (it's my first year and i'm nervous :P) oh, and i am not an affiliate or whatnot for the company.

 

EDIT: we tried teaching your child to read in 100 easy lessons with disastrous results, many tears were shed over it, just a bad fit for us. AAR finally helped the blending of sounds to "click" with him.

Edited September 3, 2012 by DandelionPrincess

[PhotoGal]

I'm not affiliated with AAR in any way. We did enjoy level 1 last year. The reading books are very nicely done. We didn't play all of the games because dd was just a bit above the level of the curriculum. I think we would have used it more fully if I had started 6 months earlier than we did. I agree that there are too many words on the word lists - I would just point to several words and a few sentences when we got to those pages.

 

Dd didn't love it, but was fine with it. She liked it a lot more than Explode the Code.

[Twilight Woods]

Ordinary Parents Guide To Reading;)

 

 

this.

[SnMomof7]

We finished MOST of Pre-1 until level 1 came out and DD #2 was desperate to progress :). It helped SO much with her phonological awareness and even her speech (some artic. delays). Level 1 is helping with blending - which can be tough to nail.

[ByGrace3]

We finished MOST of Pre-1 until level 1 came out and DD #2 was desperate to progress :). It helped SO much with her phonological awareness and even her speech (some artic. delays). Level 1 is helping with blending - which can be tough to nail.

 

This is very encouraging to hear. DS has some artic issues and needs instruction as far as phonological awareness which is why we decided to go with AAR pre level before moving onto level 1. So far I am very glad I did.

[Marie131]

I've been using AAR 1 w/ my almost 5 y/o for the past month and a half and neither of us are thrilled. Despite working on it nearly daily for 1.5 months, we're only on lesson 6. My ds finds it discouraging to do all that work and not get to put a sticker on his sticker chart. I find the lessons are very long, in contrast to AAS lessons which are very short. I wish they broke the lessons up more. I also think the program is over priced and I don't think the books are anything special.

 

Despite all that, it does seem to be effective as my DS is beginning to read. However, I wish I had saved my money as I'm sure I could have taught him to read using a less costly method (I taught my older DS to read using free materials!). I expected it to be a lot more fun based on the reviews I had read.

[MerryAtHope]

I've been using AAR 1 w/ my almost 5 y/o for the past month and a half and neither of us are thrilled. Despite working on it nearly daily for 1.5 months, we're only on lesson 6. My ds finds it discouraging to do all that work and not get to put a sticker on his sticker chart. I find the lessons are very long, in contrast to AAS lessons which are very short. I wish they broke the lessons up more. I also think the program is over priced and I don't think the books are anything special.

 

Despite all that, it does seem to be effective as my DS is beginning to read. However, I wish I had saved my money as I'm sure I could have taught him to read using a less costly method (I taught my older DS to read using free materials!). I expected it to be a lot more fun based on the reviews I had read.

 

Maybe you could make some adaptations to fit him better since he's on the young side (he's doing great to be reading & not yet 5!). Are you trying to do the whole fluency page with him, or do you cut that back a lot? (There was a note near the front to adapt that to your child's needs.) As young as he is, I would only do about a quarter of a page with him. Does he have a favorite stuffed animal, puppet, or doll? You could have that character do reading with him, and alternate reading lines on the fluency pages with him, or use the character with the games or review cards. Another mom I know lets her child highlight all of the words she reads on the fluency pages. You might let your son put a sticker on each page as he finishes it to help him see what he's accomplishing. Just some thoughts! Merry :-)