all about reading

[Melissa in Australia]

I know there is probably a million threads on AAR but my searching only brought up one that was 4 years old.

 

I just bought AAS and am very impressed with it and am looking forward to using it this year with my children ( school year starts Wednesday here in Victoria, AUS) 

 

I have looked at AAR and am pretty impressed- I have been using LEM an australianised version of Spalding and it is tedious, not fun drill that has disengaged ds13

 

I have a practically no reading ds13 with dyslexia ( can read chapter books but cannot comprehend what he reads, he describes it that the word goes into his head and instantly vanishes )

 

 a new arrival 8 who due to multiple disruptions / placement shifts etc is working at beginning grade 1 level - can read Bob books box 3 with  errors ( will be homeschooled one day a week and will be doing mostly remedial work) 

 

and 2 almost six year olds who have global developmental delays in all areas and are functioning at age beginning 4. ( after almost 2 years of daily letter work they still only know 5 letters of the alphabet)

 

Because of the cost of shipping , currency conversion etc to get pre-reading through to level 3 will cost me over $1000. for me that is A LOT OF MONEY .

 

I was thinking of putting ds13 in level 2 and as he knows all his  phonograms I am hoping he will move through it very quickly 

 

So my questions

 

Is the pre-reading worth the money? or is it basically just alphabet cards and colour in sheets? we already have alphabet colour in books and multiple sets of alphabet cards

 

is there any other advice anyone would like to share?

 

thank you 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by Melissa in Australia

[ReadingMama1214]

Pre-Reading is not worth the money. Pre is the only level that I did (we switched to Ordinary Parents Guide) and if I had the time and energy I could have done it all by using Pinterest and free resources. It goes over letter recognition (upper and lowercase) and phonemic awareness (rhyming, recognizing beginning and ending sounds, clapping syllables), and letter sounds. You could do all of those by pulling together from different websites and resources. We used leap frog for letter sounds. We do blending and rhyming and the other phonemic skills through play. Definitely don't need the Pre Level

[Melissa in Australia]

Thank you very much

[MerryAtHope]

It really depends on your student's needs. One of my children would have benefited greatly from the phonological awareness skills (it wasn't out when my kids were learning and I worked to cobble stuff together on my own). The way to see if your kids need it is to check the level 1 placement test. (I would use the placement tests for your others too, to see which level they really need.) 

 

If your student seems borderline, email the company--they have a number of articles and free resources that can help if you have a student who is really close to being ready for AAR 1.

[Melissa in Australia]

thank you so much

re the placement test- ds13  is really close to going into AAR3 which is why I thought we should get AAR2 and do a quick review.

 

new arrival 8 would really benefit from AAR1 . I have started doing AAS 1 with him and have noticed straight off that he does not know how to sound out words. he is grasping the concept quickly. I would say he has been taught whole language sight words.

 

Twins have been doing OPGTR  and Reading Eggs for 2 years and have only managed to remember 5 letters and sounds. I have alphabet charts everywhere, and lots of alphabet games and letters that we work with daily. 

Edited January 30, 2017 by Melissa in Australia

[SevenDaisies]

Pre-reading was the only level I did not love. If you think your kids need work on phonological awareness, you could skip the readers and the student book. The best parts of the program are contained in the teacher's guide and flash cards. For all the other levels, I loved the readers and recommend full sets.

[Bay Lake Mom]

My youngest daughter will be 7 next month. She has some vision issues and learning delays. I've been trying to determine what to try next for her. We have been trying to learn ABC's for 1 1/2 years. She only knows about half of the letters and that's not consistent. I've been talking with other Moms and my husband about suggestions. We've decided to spend the time and work slowly through AAR pre level 1. I used it for my older daughter when she was 4, but she didn't really need it. She learned very quickly. Our youngest though, not so much. I think AAR pre level 1 will be helpful and encouraging for her.

 

Even if you don't buy the program, I would consider doing a letter of the week focus. Have them create a poster for each letter. Clip out magazine pictures that start with the letter and glue them on. Go on scavenger hunts around the house to find objects that start with the letter. Also, focus on the correct mouth formation for the letter. Use a salt or sand tray to work on letter formation. Have them decorate the letter. (Turn the "A" into an apple). Check out http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/phonics-printables for tons of ideas and printables for Letter of the Week.

 

Also, it's probably worth it to place a call or email directly to All About Learning. They will guide you to make the right choices. Good luck!

Edited January 30, 2017 by The Substitute is a Westie

[wendyroo]

thank you so much

re the placement test- ds13  is really close to going into AAR3 which is why I thought we should get AAR2 and do a quick review.

 

new arrival 8 would really benefit from AAR1 . I have started doing AAS 1 with him and have noticed straight off that he does not know how to sound out words. he is grasping the concept quickly. I would say he has been taught whole language sight words.

 

Twins have been doing OPGTR  and Reading Eggs for 2 years and have only managed to remember 5 letters and sounds. I have alphabet charts everywhere, and lots of alphabet games and letters that we work with daily. 

 

 

If the 8yo is grasping sound blending easily, then I would probably keep working on that for a while before deciding if you need AAR1.  My oldest used AAR1 for a while, but it went sooooo slooooow (it covers blending like FLL covers nouns) that his reading soon shot way ahead of the curriculum.  He also hated AAR, because the fluency sheets are so long and tedious.

 

Have the twins watched Leapfrog Letter Factory?  At our house, that video has been magic.

 

Wendy

[Syllieann]

You might want to post on the learning challenges board as well. The folks over there will be able to give you some other ideas for your ds13. I know dancing bears has worked for some people. It is more affordable and accessible for Australians as well. You can view samples of entire books here. http://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/en_AU/product-category/dancing-bears-en_au/

[Melissa in Australia]

You might want to post on the learning challenges board as well. The folks over there will be able to give you some other ideas for your ds13. I know dancing bears has worked for some people. It is more affordable and accessible for Australians as well. You can view samples of entire books here. http://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/en_AU/product-category/dancing-bears-en_au/

Thank you.

I have posted on the learning challenges board about ds13 and got some terrific advice about technology aids

[Melissa in Australia]

If the 8yo is grasping sound blending easily, then I would probably keep working on that for a while before deciding if you need AAR1. My oldest used AAR1 for a while, but it went sooooo slooooow (it covers blending like FLL covers nouns) that his reading soon shot way ahead of the curriculum. He also hated AAR, because the fluency sheets are so long and tedious.

 

Have the twins watched Leapfrog Letter Factory? At our house, that video has been magic.

 

Wendy

I haven't heard about leapfrog letter factory. I will look it up. Thank you

[Melissa in Australia]

My youngest daughter will be 7 next month. She has some vision issues and learning delays. I've been trying to determine what to try next for her. We have been trying to learn ABC's for 1 1/2 years. She only knows about half of the letters and that's not consistent. I've been talking with other Moms and my husband about suggestions. We've decided to spend the time and work slowly through AAR pre level 1. I used it for my older daughter when she was 4, but she didn't really need it. She learned very quickly. Our youngest though, not so much. I think AAR pre level 1 will be helpful and encouraging for her.

 

Even if you don't buy the program, I would consider doing a letter of the week focus. Have them create a poster for each letter. Clip out magazine pictures that start with the letter and glue them on. Go on scavenger hunts around the house to find objects that start with the letter. Also, focus on the correct mouth formation for the letter. Use a salt or sand tray to work on letter formation. Have them decorate the letter. (Turn the "A" into an apple). Check out http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/phonics-printables for tons of ideas and printables for Letter of the Week.

 

Also, it's probably worth it to place a call or email directly to All About Learning. They will guide you to make the right choices. Good luck!

Thank you so much for the link and advice, greatly appreciated

[Melissa in Australia]

Pre-reading was the only level I did not love. If you think your kids need work on phonological awareness, you could skip the readers and the student book. The best parts of the program are contained in the teacher's guide and flash cards. For all the other levels, I loved the readers and recommend full sets.

Thank you for your feedback.

 

Before starting this thread I have been shifting the teachers manual and student pack in and out of the shopping cart.

[Melissa in Australia]

My youngest daughter will be 7 next month. She has some vision issues and learning delays. I've been trying to determine what to try next for her. We have been trying to learn ABC's for 1 1/2 years. She only knows about half of the letters and that's not consistent. I've been talking with other Moms and my husband about suggestions. We've decided to spend the time and work slowly through AAR pre level 1. I used it for my older daughter when she was 4, but she didn't really need it. She learned very quickly. Our youngest though, not so much. I think AAR pre level 1 will be helpful and encouraging for her.

 

Even if you don't buy the program, I would consider doing a letter of the week focus. Have them create a poster for each letter. Clip out magazine pictures that start with the letter and glue them on. Go on scavenger hunts around the house to find objects that start with the letter. Also, focus on the correct mouth formation for the letter. Use a salt or sand tray to work on letter formation. Have them decorate the letter. (Turn the "A" into an apple). Check out http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/phonics-printables for tons of ideas and printables for Letter of the Week.

 

Also, it's probably worth it to place a call or email directly to All About Learning. They will guide you to make the right choices. Good luck!

I just checked out the link, THANK YOU SO MUCH

[Ausmumof3]

Not sure how you feel about tech stuff but we did that free letter of the week program for a whole year and my ds still only knew half the letters. He played on one of those dumb preschool alphabet programs and then knew them all well. I'm generally not a huge fan of using tech but for stuff that requires a lot of memorisation and drill it can work well and take a bit off teachers work load.