Hi everyone! I had so much fun offering a giveaway for the newly released All About Reading Level 3 curriculum. But now I want to take a few minutes to review it a bit for those of you with questions.
{Disclosure: I am an affiliate with All About Learning Press because I love their products! Links contained in this post are affiliate links.}
All About Reading Level 3 is great for teaching not only reading skills, but also phonics, phonograms, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and decoding multi-syllable words. If you’ve already been using All About Reading Levels 1 or 2, you already know that this is a fun hands-on program!
I think Tinker Bell’s favorite thing are the fun activity sheets included in the Student Activity Pack. She actually asks to do these fun sheets all the time! And I figure if a kid is asking to learn it’s a good thing.
What comes with the curriculum?
As I mentioned in my last post, the set comes with a Teacher’s Manual, phonogram cards, sound cards, word cards, two fun readers, and an interactive student workbook to accompany the lesson plans.
Frequently Asked Question:
I’ve had several people ask if they need to order the teacher’s manual and the answer is “YES!” You do need the teacher’s manual, along with the student workbook, reading cards, and student books to work through the program effectively.
As we do each lesson, Tinker Bell gets to do a fun worksheet that practices the skills taught in the lesson itself. Since this is usually in the form of a game, she loves doing them!
What’s the cost?
You can get the whole set for $119.95, or you can purchase the items individually.
However as I mentioned before I HIGHLY recommend getting the Teacher’s Manual as it is really critical to the lessons. It’s NOT one of those curriculum that you can just look at the worksheet and teach off of that.
After our lesson and activity sheet, Tinker Bell gets to the reading portion. She really enjoys these stories. At first I wasn’t sure since they’re in black and white. I’m a color type girl, so I like books with colorful illustrations. But she says that she likes the stories and that’s really what matters.
Once she’s done with her reading assignment, the Teacher’s Manual contains comprehension questions for the reading to help make sure your student is understanding what they’re reading.
As you progress through the lessons, you’ll find your student will begin to read more fluently as well as comprehend what they’ve been reading. And with the phonograms included in the lessons, they can easily begin to sound out new words by breaking them up into syllables, or looking for the special sounds they’ve learned.
The curriculum also covers vocabulary, phonograms, synonyms, antonyms, onomatopoeia, alliteration, similes, idioms, and personification throughout the curriculum.
Not sure what level to start your child on? No worries! All About Learning Press has a placement test to help you figure out where to begin.
Click below for more information on All About Reading Level 3!
Hi Erica, are you using aar3 along with abeka phonics/reading? thanks!
How would you say the entire AAR program stacks up against Abeka Phonics/Reading?
Not sure if you are still seeking an answer to this or not. I came from Abeka and I am switching to AAR level 2 and 3 for my 1st and 2nd grade children. Abeka and AAR teach from different philosophies. Abeka teaches more from a starting with phonics but moves to a whole language approach. It is a lot of reading and reading and more reading to get kids good at reading. AAR is more scripted and designed to be used one on one. I personally am using AAR with my younger kids because I like how it teaches better. It fits my teaching style more than Abeka.
We are close to finishing up Level 2 and I’m excited to start on Level 3. My son has made so much reading progress thanks to AAR! He’s excelling with their spelling program as well.
I’m considering this reading program for my son but I started to think twice when I saw the dragon reader. We don’t do mythical/magical creatures. Would I be able to skip that reader or substitute it for something else?
I’ve been trying to decide if I want to stick with Abeka phonics for next year or go with AAR! Thanks for this review.
Hi Erika,
We are about 5 lessons away from completing AAR level 1. IT has helped my girls so much with their reading this year. They get pretty frustrated on the fluency sheets still…I was wondering if level 2 and 3 have those?
Thanks!:)
also, do you do AAR and AAS during the same school year? or one is the fall one in the spring?
Thank you for the review. I was curious about how many lessons a week do you do of AAR and how many of AAS. Thank you again.
Thanks for the review, Erica! I keep going back and forth on whether to splurge and get this program or not. I have 2 girls, 7 and 8, who I’d use it for but we are currently using AAS. How exactly are these 2 programs different from each other? I don’t want to spend the extra money if they teach the same concepts. Thanks again!
Jamie
AAS is strictly a spelling program. AAR only deals with reading. They follow the same sequence as far as phonics though. The website says Level 1 Reading should be taught before Level 1 Spelling, but I had a remedial 1st grader and taught both at the same time. All other levels are suppose to be taught at the same time, going at your child’s pace in each. It did take us longer to finish AAS. I love both curriculum and wouldn’t trade it for anything else. A friend of mine purchases AAS and the readers for AAR and makes up her own curriculum covering spelling and reading. Good luck!
I too appreciate the review but also wonder about comparison to Abeka’s phonics and language program. What would you say?
I second most all these questions 🙂 my daughter is over half way with AAR1 and I love it….but is it enough? Should we be doing more? We complete about 3 a week, but work daily. She really hates the fluency sheets, loves the work sheets and loves building words on the board. With it only being 49 lessons I just wonder if the concepts progress to fast? I mean, I think it would be possible to complete all 3 levels in a year. Is it all you do? How quickly are you moving through? Does she do her reading alone? I sit right with my Kindergartener. I also just bought AAS….
I wondered same things. We are almost finished AAR 2 & AAS,1 all in same year & ready to start AAR3 & AAS,1 but not sure if too fast?m
I went through them way faster as well 🙂 I think it just depends on what your student is ready for.