I have an amazing Reading Program to share with you today. As part of the Timberdoodle Blog Team this year I was sent the All About Reading Deluxe Kit, Pre-reading level to review with Mr. F. He is 4.5 years old now, he will be 5 in January and he loves this program! Every day he looks forward to working on his school and it has been such a joy to see him really think through his letters, sounds, and make words.
This particular set is designed for young learners in preschool through kindergarten. The All About Reading Pre-reading builds a solid foundation by teaching five key skills: print awareness, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension, and motivation to read. Learning is set up to feel like play and I think that's why F is having such a great time with it. In fact, it has become a habit for Mr. G to join us during Mr. F's school time - he loves listening it as well.
So, what's included included in this deluxe kit? A teacher's manual, student packet, The Zigzag book, The Lizard Lou book, lesson divider cards with activity box, Letter Sounds A to A app, reading tote bag, Ziggy Zebra puppet and animal stickers.
{Note: If you are teaching more than one student at a time or plan to reuse this program for additional children, you can order additional activity books or photocopy each page per family use copyright. You can also find the consumable progress chart and certificate of achievement as free downloads as well.}
The program is great in how much is figured out for you. There is some set up required so let me walk you through it. The PreReading picture cards are perforated for easy separation. The lesson number for each picture card can be found in the lower right hand corner of the card. After you separate all the cards, place them behind the corresponding yellow dividers in your reading activity box. I would recommend storing these cards out of reach until lesson times as I have had to reorganize it multiple times from the boys dumping out the cards. They
💖 them. This is how the tote bag comes into play. You can store all your items inside the tote until they are needed. Woohoo.
Example of a page of picture cards
Activity Box with Lesson Cards
F posing with his letter posters.
I chose to laminate our AAR letter posters (upper case and lower case) and hang them on the wall of our school room. They can be seen easily and they are a great visual for Mr. F when working through this program. There are a few nontraditional selections. For example, the capital U has a picture of a penguin with an umbrella. This might seem off; however, when you read the capital U story in The Zigzag Zebra book, it is about a penguin who uses an umbrella. The program ties in nicely together that way!
You will need to download the Letter Sounds A to Z app in the app store if you plan on using it. This is what it looks like. You can download the app to your computer, tablet or phone. This will be used in later lessons.
And this is the app when it's open.
This app is very simple. When you touch each letter, the app gives you the correct pronunciation for that letter. Your child can listen to the most common sound for each letter. F likes this.
The Teacher's Manual will walk you through all the lessons. It is laid out really well. It's simple design is easy to follow. Lessons 1-26 are on the capital letters A-Z. Lessons 27-52 are on the lowercase letters a-z. And lessons 53-78 are on the sounds of the letters. In lessons 1-26, you will use The Zigzag Zebra book, The ABC Craft Sheets for those lessons, the Ziggy the Zebra puppet, the activity cards associated with these lessons, and various craft supplies and books. Most of the craft supplies are fairly simple and I already had them on hand! I listed various books because a large part of this curriculum is daily reading. They suggest 20 minutes a day. We have a vast homeschool library and a nearby library so we read a variety of books and topics. Lessons 27-52 is similar except you will use the Lizard Lou book instead of The Zigzag Zebra book and the activity cards associated with these lessons. In lessons 53-78 you will use both books - The Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou as well as the Letter Sounds A to Z app.
Here F worked through the first Lesson on the letter A.
And here you can see some of our letter B fun.
Working on rhyming with activity cards.
Playing Get Out of the Wagon by removing the card that does not rhyme with the other two.
Mr. F having fun with dinosaur stickers during his time with the letter D.
F really likes the stories.
The teacher's manual has a page of ideas that you can use to have more fun with the alphabet. These are suggestions. You can do as many as you want or use them to come up with other ideas that work for your student and family.
Elephant friends helping out with the letter E and F's peanuts.
Here is an example of the instructions for the letter pages, this one is for the letter F. Each one is unique.
Above you see Mr. F making the fish for the pond with his thumbprints.
Now coloring...
His masterpiece!
Some of our daily reading!
More Fun With Letters
I often found manipulatives around the house that tied into the letter that we were learning.
F loved turning the octopus over and feeling the tentacles. This really gave him a great visual when he went to make tentacles using an eraser tip and paint.
Learning about syllables with the activity cards
There is a great progress chart and stickers that you can use after each lesson to document your child's progress. F loved this. It may be simple but it is important for him to get his sticker!
All About Reading is a multisensory, mastery-based curriculum. You can really tailor it to your student and your schedule. You can spend a day on a lesson or a week, it is really flexible. The built in review systems really help solidify student learning. This program is also available in numerous levels: Pre-Reading, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4.
We have not finished this program but we are close to halfway there and it has been such a blessing for Mr. F. He really enjoys it and I love the flexibility and ease of use. I would highly recommend this curriculum. If you have any questions about this program, please feel free to ask. I'm happy to help!
Disclosure: Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger. Timberdoodle sent my family All About Reading Deluxe Kit, Pre-Reading level in exchange for our honest review. All opinions are my own.
