TGTB Language Arts compared to AAR

[Clarita]

Bored and future thinking for my youngest (4). So, at some point I will move her to AAR, but the problem that I had with AAR with my oldest is there is a huge gap in skill between AAR pre-reading and AAR level 1. 

Thoughts about me using TGTB language arts until I think my child will be ready to use AAR level 1.

I know I can also use nothing but she loves the idea of school and does feel left out if she doesn't also have a lesson book like her older brother.

[HomeAgain]

I would look into Heggerty Phonemic Awareness for the gap.  Or this free program from Tennessee that goes up to 2nd.

TGTB was not impressive to us.  It felt muddled and pulled together and not systematic.  I think if you're going to continue with an OG program after it might not be best to start here.

[seemesew]

On 6/15/2022 at 4:26 AM, HomeAgain said:

I would look into Heggerty Phonemic Awareness for the gap.  Or this free program from Tennessee that goes up to 2nd.

TGTB was not impressive to us.  It felt muddled and pulled together and not systematic.  I think if you're going to continue with an OG program after it might not be best to start here.

They have redone the Language arts k as of this month and other more recently and I feel they are FAR better than they used to be.

OP, I have used tgab for a few years and I feel like for me it is easier to implement and my kids enjoy it a lot more than something like AAR. As far as comparisons with there new editions there are some similar principles taken from OG that I felt were beneficial and it helped a lot. If you used the preschool course and then kindergarten prep then AAR 1 would flow great afterwards!

Edited June 22, 2022 by seemesew

[BusyMom5]

I am using AAR1 with my 4 year old (6th kid, so I kinda know what I'm doing:) ).  I agree there is a lot expected that most kids this age wouldn't be ready for- it jumps straight into blending sounds and reading words.  My DD was ready,  so it hasn't been an issue, but I know some of my other kids needed more phonemic awareness (Logic of English was great for this).  I downloaded TGATB and I do plan on using some of the pages,  but I didn't think it would be a good program for a lot of kids- like the booster cards.  I think it jumps kinda fast in K and 1st grade.   That's good if your kid is grasping everything,  but if not, you are going to be very frustrated.   I did buy supplemental reading books!  They go well with AAR and are pretty 😉 A lot of Kindergarten is playing with sounds, so get some games and spend a lot of time on pre-reading skills like rhyming, syllables, identifying sounds in different positions in a word.  If you want to go back and forth between TGATB and AAR, switching when one becomes a little too hard, I think it would work well.  

[ktgrok]

I have not seen the new kindergarten yet - if MAY be better. The old one did have some great phonemic awareness stuff, but then would throw in spelling sight words that had never been taught, etc. I was constantly crossing stuff off. I think the new one will be better. 

Another option is doing some worksheets from teachers pay teachers for a while, and using apps before going into AAR or Abecedarian or similar. The Phonics Fairy was what I used for DS at that in between time. Fun, easy, no weird phonics pictures that left me scratching my head or anytihng, and cheap!

Also, Nessy has a newish reading app for that age, it starts with phonemic awareness stuff and goes from there.It does jump into blending too quickly though. My recently turned 5 kid likes parts of it, but can't do the blending stuff yet. She's not ready. 

 

[seemesew]

15 hours ago, ktgrok said:

I have not seen the new kindergarten yet - if MAY be better. The old one did have some great phonemic awareness stuff, but then would throw in spelling sight words that had never been taught, etc. I was constantly crossing stuff off. I think the new one will be better. 

Another option is doing some worksheets from teachers pay teachers for a while, and using apps before going into AAR or Abecedarian or similar. The Phonics Fairy was what I used for DS at that in between time. Fun, easy, no weird phonics pictures that left me scratching my head or anytihng, and cheap!

Also, Nessy has a newish reading app for that age, it starts with phonemic awareness stuff and goes from there.It does jump into blending too quickly though. My recently turned 5 kid likes parts of it, but can't do the blending stuff yet. She's not ready. 

 

This is exactly what the new edition changed! They used actual reading specialists for this edition and they didn't before.

[HomeAgain]

1 minute ago, seemesew said:

This is exactly what the new edition changed! They used actual reading specialists for this edition and they didn't before.

Let us not forget that Lucy Calkins was a reading specialist.  They are not created equal.

I have a very difficult time with the insistence on giving an untrustworthy company like TGTB numerous chances.  Their first edition language arts was muddled crap.  They inserted dangerously wrong geography lessons.  Their "banned book list" included synopses that indicated that they hadn't even read the books they were against, or at the very least looked at their pictures.

And yet, they come up again and again as a company that should be regarded as being in good standing because they are pretty even though they have no idea what they are doing or bothered to do anything right.

[seemesew]

21 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Let us not forget that Lucy Calkins was a reading specialist.  They are not created equal.

I have a very difficult time with the insistence on giving an untrustworthy company like TGTB numerous chances.  Their first edition language arts was muddled crap.  They inserted dangerously wrong geography lessons.  Their "banned book list" included synopses that indicated that they hadn't even read the books they were against, or at the very least looked at their pictures.

And yet, they come up again and again as a company that should be regarded as being in good standing because they are pretty even though they have no idea what they are doing or bothered to do anything right.

Well, that's your opinion 😉 the fact they are trying to make their products better is a GOOD thing in my opinion. Their first editions were written by a mom with no editing by anyone else and as they have grown their resources have changed so they have tried to make it better. its simple really. I know you are anti tgab and that's fine. I was simply letting them know that these new editions are better and have changed from what the other poster was saying had been in them. I hated their earlier editions for the same reason @ktgrokmentioned but having looked at it thoroughly it doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. 

[NinaJ]

We've used level 2 TGTB with my son (the older edition) and thought it was okay. A bit on the light side for second grade and a little disorganized but not bad. He finished LOE foundations prior to that so he has a good base and reads, and spells, way above grade level. He's into level 3 and it's finally a little more challenging. We'll probably finish level 3 (with supplements like Fix It IEW for grammar, reviewing LoE spelling rules, and extra geography), but after that I need to take a hard look at other options. I understand many feel that in the higher levels the writing is not enough, which is another concern.

I had bought the K and 1 levels for my rising kindergartner, and after looking through it we decided not to use it. (This is the older version). The K lessons are WAY too short, don't really do enough phonics (and too many sight words), and despite supposedly being advanced, don't seem very advanced. And again, disorganized. We will use Learning Dynamics "4 weeks to read," and LOE B, C, and D for kinder and first grade (what my son did). 

The new TGATB levels may be better on some of these complaints (?), but with the focus on "shorter, gentler" lessons and pacing, we declined. I feel the lessons are already too short and gentle, at least on the k-2 grades. 

Just my 2 cents!