All About Reading Review

I have been using All About Reading level 1 with my daughter London for the past year and a half. She is now almost 7, and we’re so glad we finished a couple of weeks ago. Yay! It was an amazing accomplishment us both!

When we first started in August of 2020, age wise, she was on the younger side, as she wasn’t halfway to 6 and honestly wasn’t quite ready. In addition, we discovered she needed glasses, so that played a role in the difficulty we were having with a reading in general. It became clear she wasn’t quite ready well before the pandemic, but I tried to push through. When the pandemic shut everything down, we stopped, like much of the rest of the country. We enjoyed our spring and summer break.

We started back into the reading program where we had stopped. It was much more enjoyable and easier on her (and me)! We just started on level 2 a couple days ago!

In this post I’ll share my review and sneak peek… You can also watch a whole flip-through of the curriculum, learn how we used it, hear my review, as well as see London finish her last lesson on my YouTube channel.

All About Reading Pros…

You work at your own pace. Having this option was very important as London’s pace demanded it.
AAR is very multi-sensory. This curriculum incorporates hands-on learning with the activities and the letter titles, as well as listening, seeing and doing.
All About Reading is built on solid reading methods, using the Orton-Gillingham approach, which is known as the most effective way for struggling readers to learn to read.
It gives straight-forward instructions for the parent, with a step-by-step guide, images and even a gentle script, in case you need help.
I love the readers, They correspond with the lesson and the illustrations are engaging and cute.
The curriculum scaffolds learning as lessons are built on each other. This method enhances learning by seeing hearing, and trying, then practice, repeating and review until eventually young readers master the concepts.

All About Reading Cons…

AAR is a little pricey, however, it is worth every penny. All the research, work, beautifully organized visually appealing materials, as well as its functionality make it worth it! There are groups on Facebook where you can join others who are using the reading program. Also, a bonus it can be used over and over with multiple students!!!
This is a one-on-one curriculum. Your student cannot complete lessons independently. You will need to work with them through the entire lesson. This can be hard if you have a semi-larger family like mine and have other responsibilities to do with other kids…But it can be done, we did it!

Overall, I love the All About Reading program! The comprehensive program sets an amazing foundation to learn to read and builds on what you’ve learned. As someone who came from the “whole language” approach back in the late 80’s and 90’s and struggled with reading (and spelling), I find this program a breath of fresh air learning the literacy skills needed as kids grow.

Here are a few tips for making things easier:

Prepare lessons ahead of time that way there are no excuses! LOL! I liked to at least prepare 5 lessons at a time, if not much, much more! I put each lesson into page protectors from the Dollar Tree and then placed them into a 3-ring-binder.
During a lesson that has a reading portion for the reader, if it’s too much for your student, take turns… you read a page and then he/she reads one and so on.
Do not use the workbook as a consumable, especially if you have other children who will be using the same curriculum or you plan on selling it. Put everything back in an organized fashion after you complete each lesson.
Download the app! There’s a free phonogram version but also a $19.99 letter tiles app. It makes things easier to have the letter tiles in one place and they don’t get lost. (And it’s just like if you had a white board with the letter titles.)

I hope this review was helpful! I highly recommend AAR as I have seen my daughter’s growing confidence as she learned to grasp reading. It was also a great program to help me learn to teach reading. You can check it out here! When purchasing the curriculum through them, they have an amazing “go ahead and use it” one year guarantee. If you are not satisfied, you can get a refund.