AAR to...CLE?

[dessertbloom]

I know AAR and AAS are hugely popular, but has anyone decided that AAR just isn't the best fit for their dc? What did you switch to? How did it go? I'm thinking about switching to CLE's Learning to Read. My dds like workbooks and don't like phonics games or the lengthy stories. I need open and go but didn't really click with the OPG / Phonics Pathways / The Reading Lesson type of all-in-one-book kind. Starting AAS could be a possiblity, but only if we drop AAR. (We finished lesson 38 in AAR). Please tell me I'm not alone in AAR not working for us. Going back and reworking through segments of AAR level 1 just isn't an option. I feel like we need a real change of pace, more writing involved... 

[mamamoose]

Have you seen explode the code? It's workbook based and goes along fairly well with AAR. I am considering something similar. My kids aren't in love with the set up.

[Meadowlark]

What is it specifically that's not working for you? I think the games are such a small, short part of AAR. We've done AAR 1-4 with 2 kids now and I believe it's a stellar program and I've found nothing else like it. I've also made it completely open and go which I love.

[OneStepAtATime]

Is it too teacher intense for you with 4 younglings?  I think some find it too teacher intense when they have a lot of littles. It is an excellent program but teacher intense.  What exactly isn't working?  If you can answer that you might have a better chance of finding something that fits better.

 

Honestly, no program works great for every single child or every instructor/parent.  If it isn't working then absolutely look elsewhere.  Lots of options out there and your kids are really young.  Plenty of time.  I have not used that level of CLE but we do use CLE products and they have been a good fit here (although reading was through a program similar to AAR).

 

Maybe this just isn't the season for teacher intense instruction and you need something more open and go/workbooky.  Try out CLE. 

 

Or take a break and do a ton of read alouds and listening to audio books for a bit.  Exposure to content/grammar/vocabulary at a higher level than they can currently decode is actually a huge help in learning to read (at least if there are no LDs).

[dessertbloom]

Actually, thinking about this post, I think it's not the curriculum, it's the kid! lol  She's just going through a phase of being really resistant to reading. I love AAR, but she will only do the word cards. She runs screaming when she sees the readers or the activity book pages or games. But she doesn't want to read anything else, either. I don't think it's just AAR, if I'm honest with myself.  She probably needs to be able to read many more words automatically, without sounding them out. Right now we're just going back over the word cards and trying to learn them by sight. I'd like to try AAS with her, but we should probably finish AAR level 1 first, right? Maybe I'll just start also asking her to write the words she learns by sight, then go back over the readers, then try to finish level 1.... Arg, I so much want her to like reading!    As far as All About being teacher intensive, it kind of is, and kind of isn't. I love how open and go it is. It has taken me hours and hours of prep in the beginning because I colored, laminated, cut, and filed all the activity book (and Ziggy game supplement) pieces to use for all my littles. But I love how structured and easy to teach it is. 

[OneStepAtATime]

She is very young.  My suggestion?  Back off for the summer.  Do read alouds and listen to audio books.  Read in front of her for your own pleasure.  You want her to love reading?  Let her hear great stories.  Act out some of those stories with her and her siblings.  Play games based on those stories.  Cuddle with her as you sit and look through a great picture book.  Get a book that is all pictures and have her create her own story for you verbally.  Scribe it for her so her imagination isn't slowed down by trying to spell.  Type it in big letters so she might want to try reading it back to you.  Let her associate books and reading with a loving parent and fun activities and cool pictures and all the positives that reading can provide.  Some children are not ready for the nuts and bolts of decoding/encoding/fluency at that age.  

 

FWIW, I was not given explicit instruction in reading as a little one.  I loved reading because reading was when my mom would cuddle me and read to me and my brother.  It was a time to come up with fun stories based on characters from my favorite books.  I associated words and reading with love and fun, not drill and kill.  Is it helpful to have explicit reading instruction?  Yes, I think most kids benefit from that.  I don't think it is always a good idea to start with that when they are little unless they are ready.  You can pick up explicit instruction again in the fall, when she is older and a bit more mature and perhaps more motivated.

 

 

[Jess4879]

Actually, thinking about this post, I think it's not the curriculum, it's the kid! lol  She's just going through a phase of being really resistant to reading. I love AAR, but she will only do the word cards. She runs screaming when she sees the readers or the activity book pages or games. But she doesn't want to read anything else, either. I don't think it's just AAR, if I'm honest with myself.  She probably needs to be able to read many more words automatically, without sounding them out. Right now we're just going back over the word cards and trying to learn them by sight. I'd like to try AAS with her, but we should probably finish AAR level 1 first, right? Maybe I'll just start also asking her to write the words she learns by sight, then go back over the readers, then try to finish level 1.... Arg, I so much want her to like reading!    As far as All About being teacher intensive, it kind of is, and kind of isn't. I love how open and go it is. It has taken me hours and hours of prep in the beginning because I colored, laminated, cut, and filed all the activity book (and Ziggy game supplement) pieces to use for all my littles. But I love how structured and easy to teach it is. 

 

The games are reinforcement, so I'd skip them until she's interested.  My middle kiddo had zero interest in the games.  She read the words on the back of the pieces and never touched them again.  My younger kiddo gets totally in to them.  There's an egg game and he had to have the frying pan and a flipper and the whole nine yards. 

 

I think it's normal for them to dislike the fluency sheets, especially in the beginning.  There are a lot of words there and reading is still a lot of work.  Some things we've done that have helped - writing the words on a white board, having them highlight the words as they read, putting a chocolate chip at the end of each row of words and taking turns where they read a word and then I read a word.  There are a ton of ideas on the All About learning press forums too.  :) 

 

All that being said - in regards to your first post - not every kid is going to love AAR, especially as written.  But since you already own it, I'd try tweaking it to make it fit before switching.  :)

[SnMomof7]

We did it. CLE LTR lives at a much faster pace. We almost finished AAR 1 with DD2, and we started 1/2 way through LTR. Phonics instruction in CLE continues in their LA series. DD3 use the whole thing, and DD4 will start this fall/winter. Clearly, we like it :). Lessons can be long, we often did 1/2 a lesson.

[ktgrok]

We only read a page a day sometimes, in the readers. And we took breaks to read Bob books some days, which are easier. And sometimes I put up the words from the reader on the board using magnetic letters. And we only do part of a fluency sheet at a time, usually half a page or less. 

[melmichigan]

Actually, thinking about this post, I think it's not the curriculum, it's the kid! lol  She's just going through a phase of being really resistant to reading. I love AAR, but she will only do the word cards. She runs screaming when she sees the readers or the activity book pages or games. But she doesn't want to read anything else, either. I don't think it's just AAR, if I'm honest with myself.  She probably needs to be able to read many more words automatically, without sounding them out. Right now we're just going back over the word cards and trying to learn them by sight. I'd like to try AAS with her, but we should probably finish AAR level 1 first, right? Maybe I'll just start also asking her to write the words she learns by sight, then go back over the readers, then try to finish level 1.... Arg, I so much want her to like reading!    As far as All About being teacher intensive, it kind of is, and kind of isn't. I love how open and go it is. It has taken me hours and hours of prep in the beginning because I colored, laminated, cut, and filed all the activity book (and Ziggy game supplement) pieces to use for all my littles. But I love how structured and easy to teach it is. 

I would wait on AAS.  I think the recommendation is until you finish AAR1.

 

I'm not sure how your pacing things, but I would slow down, sometimes they just need time to mature.  I'm on my last of five, and they've all learned to read at different paces, some varying by years.  I would also suggest looking at the website for more suggestions on the fluency pages, we've done all kinds of things with them to make it more interesting.

[Caviar]

Love all the advice here.  I'd mix it up!  My ds7 is in AAR2 right now.  It took us 1 1/2 years to get through AAR1, and we will be finishing AAR2 in 5 months!!!  What I did with him was take it slooooow.  We did maybe half a page or one third of a page a day sometimes, which means it would take us one or two weeks to go through some lessons.  I have actually had him do all the reading pages because the practice for fluency is important.  But, I didn't make him do AAR everyday, nor have I had him do all the activities.  I'm using AAS1 for writing practice, in cursive, but not really for the instruction because he already knows the sounds, and most of the words he can spell, but he writes slowly, so we're focusing on that.  

 

I mixed in progressivephonics.com (it's free online!!!) - which he loves!  I think we're at level 13 in the intermediate stage with that.  It's just fun and helps to reinforce what he's learning elsewhere.   And, I had him read  RLTL Level 1 (we did not do the spelling part of it) which can be much more fun than AAR.  I did teach him all the phonograms and all the sounds of the phonograms right away ala SWR, because I have that program too!

 

He is now at a stage where he can read Splat the Cat and the Elephant and Piggie books.  These are the books he prefers to check out at the library.

 

May you have success on your journey!