I am SO EXCITED to share this review of the All About Reading Pre-Reading program with you!
We have been using All About Reading Pre-reading since the end of July, when we started Clark’s homeschool Kindergarten year, and we JUST finished the last lesson yesterday (so today we’re having a small celebration to recognize Clark’s hard work completing an entire program).
First, I’m so glad we took the time to go slow, ease into Kindergarten, and not jump straight into Level 1. When I did the assessment to find out where Clark was, he right in between pre-reading and Level 1. In fact, he probably would have done fine had we just started in Level 1 right away. HOWEVER, he’s only 5 and I really didn’t want to push him. He knew all of the letters, but there were a handful that he still mixed up occasionally and he wasn’t 100% on all of the letter sounds. So I felt like taking the time to review each letter and letter sound would be a worthy endeavor.
Also, there’s a ton of research that shows that learning to read early is not actually any better than learning later, so I certainly didn’t feel any pressure to get him blending CVC words right away!
So what does the All About Reading Pre-Reading program cover?
The Pre-Reading program covers the “Big Five Skills,” which are print awareness, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension, and motivation to read.
But basically, the lessons cover
- Each capital letter of the alphabet
- Each lowercase letter of the alphabet
- Each letter’s sound
- Rhyming
- Segmenting
- Beginning sounds
- Ending sounds
- Counting syllables
In addition to making sure Clark had a firm grasp on the alphabet, we really wanted to make sure his reading readiness skills were solid before formally starting blending. He was already pretty great at rhyming, but we hadn’t ever really focused on other things like syllables. So to us, it was COMPLETELY worth it to go through the Pre-Reading level first.
Why We Loved the All About Reading Pre-Reading Program
It’s open-and-go.
This isn’t a requirement for me, but gosh it sure is nice! We purchased the deluxe package, which comes with a teacher’s manual, a student activity book, two readers (Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou), activity cards and storage box, a Ziggy puppet, and a canvas tote bag. (I didn’t end up using the tote bag to store the program, but it makes a fantastic library bag!)
I just stored the entire program right on the shelves in our homeschool room (aka dining room), and each day when we’d get ready for reading, I’d tell Clark to grab his books. He’d get his basket with everything in it, and we’d get started.
Literally, that was all of the prep time it took. So if you’re looking for a great open-and-go reading program for your preschooler or kindergartener, this is it!
It’s a gentle, engaging way to introduce (or review) the alphabet.
Each lesson includes singing the alphabet song, completing the listed activities for the letter of the day, completing the language exploration games, and reading aloud. In all, the recommendation is to spend only 20 minutes on the lesson portion and another 20 minutes reading aloud at some point during the day (which we more than get in during our morning basket, wonder tales treat time, and bedtime basket).
My son loved the craft sheets that accompanied each letter! He often spent way more than a few minutes coloring and decorating his, and I could tell he was so proud to hang each sheet up and show his daddy each evening. The best part of the lessons to me was that we would play the language exploration games and he really didn’t even realize we were doing school. Totally a win in my book!
I will say, I’ve seen in Facebook groups where parents mention that their little ones don’t really like to color, so they wonder if this program will still be a good fit for them. There are so many other hands-on activity suggestions for working with the letters. They will still get a lot out of the program with the other activities and the language exploration games, so don’t let that stop you!
Ziggy is a delight.
As I mentioned, we bought the deluxe kit, which included a Ziggy puppet. And I had NO IDEA how much my kids would LOVE Ziggy! Every single time Clark saw Ziggy in the books, he’d get excited. And he loved the games that Ziggy played to help him learn his reading readiness skills. This was hands-down the best purchase of the school year!
We kept Ziggy stored in a “bed” in our hall closet, because I wanted him to only come out for reading lessons to make him feel like a special treat. Each day, I’d say, “Ah! It’s time to wake Ziggy up to join us!” Clark would go get him, we’d do our lesson, and then he’d tuck Ziggy back into his little closet bed to sleep until the next lesson. It was adorable!
We will begin All About Reading Level 1 after the New Year, and I’ve already purchased the added Reading Games with Ziggy so we can continue to have him be a part of our daily reading lessons. 🙂
The lessons are short.
It was really important to me that each subject’s lessons be short for our Kindergarten year. Part of it was because we follow Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, and she advocated for brief lessons. But part of it was just because Clark is an active little boy, and I didn’t want “seat work” to eat up a lot of our day.
The lessons in the Pre-Reading program are mercifully short! In fact, AAR recommends keeping lessons 20 minutes or less. Clark almost always took his time with the coloring sheets, but that was on his own terms because he enjoyed it. The rest of the lessons didn’t take more than 20 minutes, and then we’d move onto something else.
It uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading.
I did a LOT of research before settling on this reading program. After reading Uncovering the Logic of English, I knew I wanted to use a program that uses the Orton-Gillingham approach. There are several on the market, and they honestly all look like they’d be good, solid programs. The reason I settled on this one was two-fold.
First, the other major contender packages reading and spelling together in the same curriculum. And while that’s probably just fine and probably works great, I preferred that spelling be separate. I didn’t want one or the other to slow us down in case Clark needed more time on one. If he’s a strong reader and not a great speller, for example, I didn’t want to hold him back in reading while he caught up in spelling.
Second, based on loads of other reviews, it sounded like AAR was a gentler approach, which is definitely what we wanted. We feel that in these early years, there’s absolutely no reason to move at breakneck speeds. There will be plenty of time for rigor later in our school years. These early years are to whet our appetites for learning and to get an introduction to the structure and feel of school. Is there a better way to do that than to use a program that includes an awesome zebra puppet?? 🙂
If you’re curious about the Orton-Gillingham approach and why we chose it, AAR published this fantastic *FREE* ebook explaining why it works:
So that’s it! Clark has officially graduated from the Pre-Reading program, and we are so thankful this is the path we chose!
I would highly recommend the All About Reading Pre-Reading program to anyone with a pre-reader, and we’ll certainly use it again with Elliot and Nora.
