What to do after AAR-Pre-Reading

[lasfresasrojas]

My newly-turned 4 yr old is on track to finish AAR Pre-reading by the end of May. We started back in September, and she has flown through it. I had every intention of going slowly and taking 2 years to complete it, but that just didn't happen.

 

I am trying to figure out what to do in the fall, for what should be her "preK" year, age wise.

 

I have been looking into Logic of English and also have considered continuing with AAR-Level 1. 

 

I am concerned that she may not be ready for either of those? Or is that a false concern?

 

I don't want to push her, and I haven't at all. She begs daily to do more "Ziggy School", as she calls it, and has mastered all the material in AAR-Pre.

 

Thank you for any advice/input

[Epicurean]

Have you done the placement test for AAR 1?

[ReadingMama1214]

We did AAR Pre last year with my daughter before she turned 4. She started blending right before 4 and we did Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading. It's very black and white and not as fun as AAR. I do make some of my own games for it though. We also write the lessons in a notebook and I substitute the OPGTR sentences for ones with my daughters name in them. We also still involve Ziggy in budding reading.

 

Or you could do AAR 1 if your daughter is ready. There is an assessment on their site that you could do to see if she's ready. There's also a Ziggy activity pack they sell to go along with it and keep ziggy involved.

 

We didn't do AAR 1 because I was looking for a cheaper option and felt like I could do OPGTR and add crafts as needed.

[lasfresasrojas]

Have you done the placement test for AAR 1?

 

Yes, she meets/passes every criterion listed on their checklist.

[ReadingMama1214]

Yes, she meets/passes every criterion listed on their checklist.

I would say that if you really enjoyed AAR Pre, to go wth level 1 next. It is a lot different than the pre level. But I would buy the Ziggy activity pack to go with it too.

[ExcitedMama]

Have you tried doing any blending with her of CVC words? Like cat, mat, etc.? My DS loved AAR pre and we are big fans of all their stuff but pre did not prepare him at all for level 1 at age 5. I just assumed I could move ahead but he wasn't ready for blending and it was a rocky few weeks before he got it. To avoid any unpleasantness if she's not ready to blend I recommend Memoria Press First Start Reading. It's very gentle and DS thought it was fun. It has bubble letters to trace, coloring and drawing and great reading comprehension questions. The passages to read very slowly get longer. It was totally unnecessary for me to have bought the teacher's guide so you just need the workbooks. It could be a great bridge to AAR1 and boost her confidence going into it. Or if she's not afraid of CVC or if you want to work with her on it a little jump into AAR1. The great thing about AAR is how easy it is to do slowly or ramp it up and go quickly. AAR1 is pretty gentle. We had a rocky few weeks until DS got blending but then it moved much faster.

[kalusignan]

I also recently finished up AAR-Pre with my dd3 (will be 4 in June), and we are very slowly starting AAR 1. Like a pp mentioned, she needs to be ready for blending CVC, but otherwise it's a fairly smooth transition. I also recommend the Ziggy supplement. I can't bring myself to have a 3yo going through the fluency sheets, so we review words using the Ziggy games.

 

I've gone through AAR 1-4 with my older dd, and we love it! 

[TriciaT]

You mentioned LOE as a possibility. I think she could definitely do level one after AAR pre. My daughter started LOE foundations A just a bit before she turned 5, and I hadn't done any formal reading or letter introduced before that. If I had, I think we could have started it even sooner. I did break the lessons up over 2 days though.

 

 

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[MerryAtHope]

The first four lessons are in the sample for the teacher's manual and activity book. You could try working through those and see how she does, to help you get a feel for her readiness. (If you don't have letter tiles yet, you could use magnet letters for now, or write on a white board).

 

Definitely continue to work in Ziggy since she responds well to him! You might try things like:

 

Have your daughter read to Ziggy

 

Have Ziggy take turns doing some of the reading (he might get some things wrong and your dd might be able to correct and help him)

 

Ziggy could read tile words or build tile words.

 

Ziggy could participate in activities and get some of the rhymes incorrect and need help.

 

Ziggy could try to remember letter sounds when reviewing the yellow phonogram cards

 

And so on.  See what ways you and your dd might like to include Ziggy in AAR 1. If you do decide she's ready, I'll second the Ziggy supplement--she'd likely enjoy that too!

[ReadingMama1214]

Do you need AAR 1 to do the Ziggy supplement? Or does it just use Ziggy with independent games that help solidify the concepts in level 1? We are using OPGTR, but I'd love to do the Ziggy games if I can.

[MerryAtHope]

Do you need AAR 1 to do the Ziggy supplement? Or does it just use Ziggy with independent games that help solidify the concepts in level 1? We are using OPGTR, but I'd love to do the Ziggy games if I can.

 

The Ziggy games work with the phonogram and word cards. (Or, some people use them for reviewing the sound and key cards from AAS too--you really can use them with any kind of concept you want to review).

 

If you don't have phonogram cards, you can pick up a set of just those. Or use index cards to make those and/or to make word cards you want to review.

[lasfresasrojas]

Have you tried doing any blending with her of CVC words? Like cat, mat, etc.? My DS loved AAR pre and we are big fans of all their stuff but pre did not prepare him at all for level 1 at age 5. I just assumed I could move ahead but he wasn't ready for blending and it was a rocky few weeks before he got it. To avoid any unpleasantness if she's not ready to blend I recommend Memoria Press First Start Reading. It's very gentle and DS thought it was fun. It has bubble letters to trace, coloring and drawing and great reading comprehension questions. The passages to read very slowly get longer. It was totally unnecessary for me to have bought the teacher's guide so you just need the workbooks. It could be a great bridge to AAR1 and boost her confidence going into it. Or if she's not afraid of CVC or if you want to work with her on it a little jump into AAR1. The great thing about AAR is how easy it is to do slowly or ramp it up and go quickly. AAR1 is pretty gentle. We had a rocky few weeks until DS got blending but then it moved much faster.

 

Thank you! This is exactly what I was worried about. I haven't introduced CVC at all, and in all honesty, she's not doing that great with blending (which is why I was so hesitant to just jump into AAR1). I will definitely look into the First Start Reading.

Thank you!

[ExcitedMama]

Glad to have helped! Another thing you could look out for is the Hooked on Phonics app to go free. I had signed up for a newsletter that reviews apps and tells you which ones are free for a limited time and tried HoP when it was free and it was great for DS. I've seen it go free a few times now:

http://www.smartappsforkids.com

 

It has simple fun games that push letters together to understand how the individual letters become a word. Each lesson is one concept and after finishing the games it has great little stories to read with the same concept so it's similar to how AAR will introduce a concept in the lesson and the next lesson will have a story on it. DS knew all the letter sounds and at the end of pre was begging for a few lessons at a time but really wasn't ready for 1 when we moved on to it. It took him some time to understand blending and he hated the fluency sheets, if you haven't seen its basically a page of words to read, so I think it's a smart move to get blending down before moving on. It's what I plan to do next time around with my DD to avoid the frustration I had with DS. Once she's ok with blending you could always add in AAR1 and go slowly. With DS the beginning was slow because I had to break up the fluency sheets over so many days.

[lasfresasrojas]

You mentioned LOE as a possibility. I think she could definitely do level one after AAR pre. My daughter started LOE foundations A just a bit before she turned 5, and I hadn't done any formal reading or letter introduced before that. If I had, I think we could have started it even sooner. I did break the lessons up over 2 days though.

 

 

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Thank you! I am somewhat concerned about the writing component of LOE. I need to really look into it more. I have loved what I've seen so far though.

[TriciaT]

You can do it without the writing, or do the writing as sensory writing only. My dd struggles with having a good pencil grasp, so we have done a lot of writing in sand and shaving cream. Luckily LOE A gives lots of sensory writing ideas in the teacher manual.

 

 

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Edited April 10, 2016 by TriciaT

[TinyTribe]

In your situation I would go back and do some of the Language Exploration activities that focus on blending. And then work on trying some simple cvc words - (a) (t) (at) ©(at) (b)(at) (s)(at) - and then move on to AAR 1 if she loves it. We did not get the ziggy supplement but use ziggy in our own way with my 4.5 year old who did pre-1. Good luck!!

[countrymum]

I did not like all the writing in first start reading. I am trying christian light kindergarten 2 in between AAR pre and 1. I am doing 1 slowly with a 4 now 5 year old but we do a lot of review and add in Bob books or CLE readers (supply the unknown words and sounds) I do love how laid out AAR is...just make sure not to tie yourself to a program...Guide your child. I have to remind myself of this often.