AAR 1 -vs- LOE Foundations

[AimeeM]

I hesitate with LOE Foundations because it's hot off the press - only beta testers have used it. Also, when I asked how long each "level" (A, B, C, D) takes, I was told that the entire foundations program, while able to move at the pace of a student, was intended to be completed in a year (all levels, I mean). That looks like it's going to be incredibly pricey compared to AAR 1 (because there appear to be separate student workbooks and teacher manuals for every level). On the other hand, I've read that AAR moves very slowly and I'm not sure that my son would care for that.

 

Has anyone used the beta version of Foundations? AAR 1?

[allisondacia]

I am using AAR1 with my 5 year old and I don't think it moves slowly at all. We are set to complete it in about 2 months and for the price of it, I think it should last at least a semester. I dont know anything about LOE.

[ByGrace3]

We are using AAR 1, and I don't think it moves slowly at all. But I imagine it depends on the child. It has been perfect for my 5 yo ds. We started pre level in August and finished it in September (in about 6 weeks) and started AAR 1 in September. We should be finishing it this Friday or Monday. AAR 2 is in the shelf ready to go. We have loved the program!

[Syllieann]

We went fairly quickly through aar 1 but are going slower through aar 2. I don't feel that the pace of aar1 was money wasted for us. The biggest thing is having the games and readers already set up for you. If you are perfectly happy pulling together your own games and trying to align readers, then it might not be where you want to put your money. I considered going with something faster moving after we finished level 1 but after figuring how much time it would take me, I decided aar was still a good value for us. Now that we are into it, I can say I'm glad we stuck with aar because it includes some reading comp stuff that wouldn't be included in a strict phonics program and I appreciate having it integrated for me. I did look at loe as well but the foundations was still in beta testing and the essentials was far too integrated with writing for my young reader.

[Arboreal TJ]

AAR 1 moves much slower than 100 EZ Lessons. We are 100 EZ Lesson drop outs. AAR is easy to slow down or speed up. We sped through the first few lessons, slowed down for consonant teams then knocked out the last few lessons, it took us ~4 months to finish. We start AAR 2 tomorrow, per my son's request! I had planned on giving them some time off. This is an incredible change from the tears generated by 100 EZ Lessons.

 

I'm not familiar with LOE but I don't think you can go wrong with AAR.

 

 

[kirstenhill]

I'm not familiar enough with AAR1 to truly compare it, but I do have the LoE Foundations Beta. I'm using it primarily with my K'er, and have done a few of the initial lessons with my just-turned-4-year-old. I would say that to go through the entire program in a year with a student who was truly starting at "ground zero" where this program starts (with learning the basic single letter phonograms), you would have to have a student who was really ready to move that fast. I started my K'er in at I think maybe lesson 46 in January when I bought the program, and I am able to do 4 or 5 lessons a week with him, BUT he has been able to recognize all his letters since he was three and had already been doing some reading (3 and 4 letter words) for almost a year when we jumped into Foundations.

 

My 4 year old is ready/interested in doing some letter learning...but there is NO WAY he is ready to go at the same pace as my K'er. I am aiming to just finish Foundations A by half way through the next school year with him, or to even take longer than that if necessary (aka maybe 1 lesson per week).

 

I'm no expert, but I would guess the student who will finish all of Foundations A through D in a year is a mature/eager K'er or 1st grader who maybe already has some letter/phonogram knowledge but perhaps doesn't quite know all the sounds or doesn't know how to write the letters so can't start part way through. I think if you are starting with a younger or less mature student it will take longer.

 

Foundations A just takes you through the single letter phonograms, but all the way to the end of D brings you through ALL 74 basic phonograms. So when you are looking at price comparison, to be fair you would have to look at how many levels of AAR you would have to buy to get through all 74 (or however many phonograms it has) vs. buying 4 levels of LoE Foundations A through D.

 

Also, LoE is phonics/reading, handwriting, and spelling all wrapped up into one program...I would guess if you buy AAR that is just reading, right? So you still have to have a different program for spelling and for handwriting (which could be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on your situation I guess).

 

Another poster above mentioned that handwriting is linked in with Essentials and this is really true of Foundations as well. You are expected to be teaching handwriting along with the phonograms, though it can be writing on a dry erase, in a salt box or whatever. If that's a negative to you, you can work around it. I am not being picky at all right now about how my K'er writes. He "knows" how to write lower case but generally chooses not too. I let him write everything in dry erase in any kind of letter he wants. We'll buckle down for better handwriting next year. :-)

[AimeeM]

We are using AAR 1, and I don't think it moves slowly at all. But I imagine it depends on the child. It has been perfect for my 5 yo ds. We started pre level in August and finished it in September (in about 6 weeks) and started AAR 1 in September. We should be finishing it this Friday or Monday. AAR 2 is in the shelf ready to go. We have loved the program!

 

I'm a bit confused about where to start with AAR. My almost 4 year old recognizes his letters and is *beginning* to write. He also knows *some* consonant sounds (a la Reading Eggs and Starfall). I did see the "placement" test, and my son can technically move into AAR 1, but is it writing intensive? His fine motor skills are still a work in progress, lol.

[Arboreal TJ]

There is nothing to write in AAR 1 unless your child wants to color the activity pages!

[AimeeM]

There is nothing to write in AAR 1 unless your child wants to color the activity pages!

 

Woot! Bonus point for AAR! Lol. Thanks!

[silver]

I've used AAS (not AAR) and LOE Foundations. I would say that LOE level A is roughly equivalent to AAS/AAR level 1. I switched to LOE when we were partway through AAS2 and started at midway through what will be LOE B. So I'd say that price wise they are similar for what is covered. I can't say for sure, but I would guess that time to complete a level would be similar (that if your child can get through LOE A-D in one year, he/she would also likely get through multiple levels of AAS).

[Soror]

I started dd5 on LoE Foundations this past fall. There is a lot to it. Personally I think there is a bit too much and it moves too fast. My dd knew all her letters and some sounds when we started, but hadn't learned the phonograms. I had originally thought that we would make it through by the end of the school year or the summer but I don't know it seemed that once we got all 26 phonograms down we started to get confused by all the rules and exceptions so we are parked for a bit and practicing. It is hard to say however how it will go until you do it as kids seem to learn in fits and spurts, especially at this age. I do think it gives a good foundation but that you have to tailor the pacing and written output to your individual kid. I'd also agree if they are making it through all of A-D they would make it through many levels of AAS/AAR, it would be interesting to compare the scopes of what is taught in each.

[Syllieann]

 

Woot! Bonus point for AAR! Lol. Thanks!

 

The same is true for aar2 as well, a big draw for me but maybe not for everyone.

[FromA2Z]

We're just finishing up with Beta LoE foundations lesson 40 (which is Level A). And I just bought a used AAR 1. (I wanted the readers and it was cheaper to get a full version used than to get the readers new).

 

First off I have to say I love LOE foundations (but I'm also sure I would love AAR). I would say foundations Level A-D covers AAR Pre-level 1 (which I did use) and AAR 1 and 2 plus AAS 1 and 2. It's a bit hard to compare b/c the scope and pacing is a bit different in that in LOE you are learning to write the phonograms as you learn them and you learn all the sounds a phonogram makes up front. When you get to words you are reading and spelling. It also includes a lot of the phonological awareness activities that were covered in AAR Pre-1. So in some respects LOE is going slower and faster than AAR.

 

If your child is young (like 3&4) and doesn't know his letters initial sounds yet, AAR Pre-1 is the slow and gentle approach and fun with Ziggy. LOE ramps up very quickly and there is the writing component (which does not have to be a lot and can be done by gross motor and sensory box writing). If your child is K age and hasn't had the phonological awareness activities yet, LOE van give them to you WHILE you work on reading. For my ds it was a nice easy review as we had previously done AAR Pre-1.

 

LOE takes longer to get to reading words than AAR 1. In AAR, you start reading words in Lesson 1. You won't start reading words in LOE until lesson 20. In the first 19 lessons of LOE you will be learning ALL the sounds of phonograms, how to write them and doing the phonemic exercises. By lesson 40 (Level A) you will have learned and written all the a-z phonograms and will be reading CVC words w/ short vowels and words with initial and final blends such as stump, drop, snap, sink, honk, skunk, truck. With LOE you will be dictating (and have the child dictate to you) three to five words a day for spelling and writing (or using tiles). But you will be reading MORE words than just the spelling words. So the spelling part doesn't really hold you back.

 

In Level B you will start learning some of the spelling rules, words with long vowels, two syllable words, and multi-letter phonograms. By lesson 50 (10th lesson in level B) you will have covered roughly what is in AAR 1 (which is 49 lessons). Foundations just covers spelling and writing also and the phonemic exercises that AAR has in Pre-1.

 

I'll just speculate based that Foundations(all four levels) will cover through AAR 3. So monetarily you are looking at 4 (levels) of LOE x 65.00= 260.00. versus 3 (levels of AAR) x 100.00=300.00. (But you need also to add on spelling and handwriting and possibly pre-1 if you want the phonemic exercises before reading). The prices are pretty comparable. The initial price of AAR reading kit versus LoE Game cards is comparable also. However the big price in AAR is the readers, which at least in the first level are real nice to have whether you do AAR or LOE.

 

I think the biggest difference is really in style. Do you want to do something different for writing, hold off on spelling? LOE uses a lot of "physical" games and card games for review. AAr does have games and worksheets but also uses a lot of fluency sheets and has those beautiful readers.

 

I hope that helps anybody who is trying to make a decision.

 

Ps: my ds is 4.75, the handwriting is not too much right now for him...but we do all white board or sensory writing. We had done no writing previously.

 

As of lesson 40 (all of level A) we've been doing a lesson a day. Looking ahead I'm sure that will change. I'm pretty sure all the levels will take through our entire K year (June 2014) and possibly into 1st grade.