All About Reading ~ Level Pre-1

Do you have a preschool child asking every day to learn how to read? I did. My 4 year old daughter LOVES books, she has a book in her hand half the day, and is always begging someone to read to her.  When we were given the opportunity to review All About Reading neither one of us could contain our excitement! We use All About Spelling for my two older homeschoolers, and we LOVE it, so I just knew a reading program by Marie Rippel, creator of both programs, would be just as awesome!

I told Skye she was going to start learning to read, and let me tell you, I have never seen a more diligent child out there stalking the UPS man every morning until it finally arrived!

Here she is checking out the contents of the box.....

 

She ADORES Ziggy the Zebra!

When we first started doing the lessons I thought it might be too easy for her. She already knew her letters and their sounds. There is so much more to this program though. All About Reading focuses on what they call the Big Five Skills ..

1. Print Awareness

2. Phonological Awareness

3. Letter Knowledge

4. Listening Comprehension

5. Motivation To Read

We realized that Skye had some difficulty in understanding rhyming words. One of the games in this program is called "Get out of the wagon!" You place 3 picture cards in the wagon and the child picks out the word which doesn't rhyme and tells it to get out of the wagon. At first this game drove Skye crazy, she just didn't understand the concept of rhyming words. With each lesson we have practiced her listening skills and it is now her very favorite game to play, with Ziggy Zebra of course!

Skye was  not a very vocal child. Now she wasn't a quiet child by any means, but she only talked when she needed to. Since getting hold of Ziggy, she has started talking a lot more. She has to talk to make Ziggy come to life. This was an added bonus I never would have thought of before.

All About Reading is a very gentle program, Skye is having so much fun it doesn't seem like work at all to her. She asks to do "her school" first thing every morning. In fact, most days she does it right on my bed. (Ignore the pile of clothes behind her, you know there's an identical pile somewhere in your house too!)

Each day's lesson involves singing the alphabet song, finding the letter for that day on the alphabet chart, then there is an easy to do craft sheet with a letter on it. There is a list of activities to reinforce the letter, your child picks one or more and does that also. Skye's favorite is drawing her letters in a sand tray with her finger. There is a game to play together, this is where Ziggy gets involved. The two included books are full of cute short stories and poems. She likes to listen to the CD's by herself while I am teaching the other kids. Last but definitely not least is reading for at least 20 minutes a day to your child. We usually do this at bedtime, or if we have an appointment or something. It doesn't matter when you read, as long as you do. This is so important for EVERY child!

Here you can see one of the craft pages. She is adding some sand to the bottom of the guppy bowl for the letter G. You can see her sand tray beside her. My 2 year old wants to get involved every day too. She sings with us, listens to the stories, and plays with Ziggy every chance she gets.

All in all, this is the most enjoyable reading program we have ever used. I highly recommend it, and I will be using it with my 2 year old when she is ready to begin reading. More levels will be coming out soon, and we will be continuing with Level 1 as soon as we finish this one!

The Basic package includes:

• Teacher's Manual (208 pages)


• Student Material Packet
  
  
  
  • My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
  
  
  • Picture Cards
  
  
  • Letter Sound Cards
  
  
  • Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
  
  
  • Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
  
  
  
  


• The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book


• Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new hardcover book


• Divider Cards (keeps your Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized


• "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM.

With the Basic package, you will need to add your own puppet and your own index card box.

The Deluxe package includes the same items as the Basic package (Teacher's Manual, Student Material Packet, Divider Cards, "Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM). It also includes

• Ziggy the Zebra puppet


• a charming Activity Box to hold your student's learning cards


• All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

All About Reading is priced at $79.95 for the basic package. The deluxe package is $119.95 and is pictured below.  All About Reading offers a one-year, 100% money back guarantee! You will also receive lifetime support if you need it. You can use this program over again with another child, or with an additional child. All you need to purchase is another student material packet for $24.95.

You can view samples through this link. Click here to get 2 FREE E-Books!



See what other members of The Homeschool Crew thought about All About Reading!



Disclaimer ~ We received this product in exchange for an honest review after using it in our homeschool as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own, and may differ from those of others.