All About Reading Level 1 {A Full Homeschool Review}
Alright, here we go, my heartfelt full review of All About Reading Level 1.
The very first thing I want to mention is that I absolutely love the people behind
. They are authentic, kind-hearted, wonderful to speak with, and they truly care about children and parents. They really, seriously, are in this to help kids read and spell well and the help parents help their kids succeed in literacy and in life. And that is a very good starting point for the kind of products I want to use in our home every day.
As for
– our family absolutely LOVES this program. Our son (who was 6 when he started Level 1 and is age 7 now) did remarkably well with All about Reading.
I wasn’t sure whether to place him in
or
of All About Reading. When I looked through some of the content of Level 2, I thought he may be able to do it, but upon ordering Level 2, I realized Alex really should have started in the first level.
I want to chat about his placement. As I stated above, when I first looked at the
, I made the wrong choice for Alex. I thought he would fit best into Level 2. I made this decision based on my own ideas of what he ‘knew’ and how he could read through readers as well as a look at the Placement Tests for both Level 1 and 2. What I found is that he could read some of the words and understood some of the concepts but he did not have a very strong base for his ability. Much of his ability came from sight word recognition and memory.
All About Reading is very in-depth. When you work through this program, you cover ALL your bases. All About Reading starts with the Pre-reading Program, then comes Level 1. If your child is just at the beginning reading stages, I’d encourage you to look through the placement tests and if you have questions, don’t hesitate to email the amazing people at All About Learning Press.
In hind sight, boy, am I ever glad I bumped him back a bit to Level 1. Although the first few weeks were a bit of a review, he learned quickly and easily and was introduced to a more detailed approach to reading instruction. His success encouraged him and gave him the confidence to move forward with enthusiasm.
Alex completed the entire program in about 3 months. He went from barely reading to reading fluently in this time! Hooray, Alex!
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Alex’s completed progress chart, Yippee Alex! He was so proud to put that last star on there! |
Let’s take a closer look at All About Reading Level 1 and how we used it in our home:
Getting Started:
The Different Elements of All About Reading Level 1
If you are ordering
for the very first time and you have no other All about Reading Resources, you will need to buy the following:
–
All about Reading Level 1 Materials
(includes the Teacher’s Manual, Student Packet, and the 3 Readers)
The lessons flow in a very natural and fun format. Generally, you work through a concept in one lesson, then in the next lesson, the child will read one or two of the stories from the readers which uses and applies that reading concept.Of course, the stories get harder as the child moves through the level – by the end they are reading pretty challenging stuff!
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The Blast Off to Reading! Activity Book (you really do need this), along with the Student Packet for Level 1 before I took all the cards apart. |
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Love this little Viewfinder Bookmark! It helped our kids focus on the word they were reading, rather than being distracted by a page of words. |
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The Phonogram and Word Cards found in the Level 1 Student Packet before you take them apart and organize them. |
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Teacher’s Manual, Student Packet, stickers, and Readers. These are all used consistently in All About Reading. |
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Don’t you love how colorful and inviting these materials are? Makes you want to do the program, doesn’t it?! |
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The three Readers that come with Level 1. We loved these. |
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Phonogram Cards – the back of the cards have printed prompts and give the sounds for each letter. |
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Divider Cards for the Phonogram and Word Cards. |
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How we store our extra Word Tiles – just a simple crafting bin from a dollar store. |
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One of the activities/games for a lesson and some of the Word Flippers. Our children loved all the extras that came along with All About Reading (in the Student Activity Packet). |
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Fluency and activities from much later lessons. |
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Another fun game we enjoyed from one of the earlier lessons. |
How the Lessons Work
Here is an overview of a typical lesson flow for All About Reading Level 1:
First we do our Review– We start with a review of the Phonogram Cards and Word Cards we had in our “review” sections in our word box. These are cards that have previously been taught but that the children still need to practice until they are mastered. All the Phonogram Cards are yellow, and the word cards are green. This ‘review/mastered’ pattern follows for Level 1 to 4 of All About Reading.
Then we do our New Teaching – Here we are presenting the new concepts. This often includes new letter sounds (here we use the Phonogram Cards), new reading concepts, new rules, etc. This starts very simple and gets progressively more difficult.
Here are some examples of what the New Teaching looks like in the lessons:
Lesson 1 – New Phonogram Cards for M, S, P, and A (ah). Children are taught the sounds for these letters and use the Letter Tiles to make simple words like MAP. We practice sounding out each letter in the word M-A-P. Then we do SAM and PAM and SAP and MAP again. We then learn about the difference between vowels and consonants.
Lesson 12 – New Phonogram Card for the letter E. We learn the two most common sounds the E makes. We use Letter Tiles to blend sounds with E. So, BED, SET, JET, MET, HEN, PEN, PET, BET, YET, YES…
Lesson 22 – Here we are practicing and learning how to blend the sounds we know with final blends. We are using letter tiles to build words like, LAND, BEST, LUNCH, TENTH.
Lesson 33 – New Phonogram Card for the consonant team ‘CK’. Children are learning the sound of the blend CK and building words like, PICK, NECK, SNACK, SACK, SICK, PICK, LUCK, etc.
- mob
- mom
- mop
- top
- hop
- hot
- rot
- pot
- got
I will say, “Ok, change ‘mob’ to ‘mom’, now change ‘mom’ to ‘mop’! (And so on.) This is a fun, easy way to play with words and practice reading. The hands-on, tactile process works so well with my children, as I’m sure it would with most children.Next there is usually some kind of Activity or Game to complete. The games and activities vary in difficulty, length of time, and style or learning.
Some examples of activities/games include:
- Feed the Monster (photographed below). The child reads words on the back of the bones and after reading them correctly he/she feeds the monster by feeding them through his mouth
- Letter Sounds Bingo
- Monkeys and Bananas (photographed below). The child finds the bananas that rhyme with the monkey’s name and reads each of the rhyming words.
- Over Easy. The child uses a spatula to flip over paper ‘eggs’ one at a time and read the words on the back of the eggs.
Now – We Practice our Reading Words! This is the part of the lesson where we apply what we’ve learned. I took out the required Word Cards and we flipped through them together, having Alex read each word as it came to the top of the pile. If the child is able to read the word, it moves to the ‘Mastered’ section of the Word Box, if not, it is placed in the ‘Review’ section.
On to Fluency Practice! The Fluency Practice sheets are found in the All About Reading Blast Off Activity Book which comes in the Level 1 Materials Pack.
There are various parts to these sheets including, New Words, Mixed Review, and Phrases and Sentences. These sheets will combine what children have learned in previous lessons to build on their reading skills. These sheets can seem a bit daunting to some children. There is quite a bit to read though and practice. We often didn’t read through every single word. These are meant as a tool to practice what you’ve learned. They are a great resource!
Hooray, if your child has completed their lesson, it is time for a sticker on theAll About Reading Level 1 Progress Chart! This is a cherished and favourite part of the program for our children! They love the feeling of putting that star on that chart and seeing their progress!
And… that’s what a typical Lesson looks like!
Sometimes, it would take us a couple days to finish one lesson, just for reference.
The ‘Reading’ Lesson
Some lessons are what I call, Reading Lessons. These lessons are ones where the child applies what they’ve learned by reading one or two stories from their
No new concepts are taught during the Reading Lesson. The child simply focuses on reading the story or stories assigned.The main idea is to snuggle up and read together, having your child read his best through the assigned stories. Once they have successfully read the stories for that lesson, they earn another sticker for their Progress Chart!
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I love the readers from All about Reading. They are beautifully made with hard covers, gorgeous hand-sketched illustrations, and stories that actually make sense and are engaging. I think All About Reading did a great job on their readers. These are readers I actually want to read and keep! |
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We also love using the All About Reading Read-Aloud Record to keep track of what books the children are now reading. They have grown SO much in their ability! |
I truly hope this post is helpful to those of you trying to decide on a great reading program for your child. I give a whole-hearted ‘two thumbs up’ for All About Reading. It worked wonders for us and I hope and trust it can and will do the same for many other Homeschool families!
Some of my other All About Reading posts:
Join us for a Lesson (Level 1)
Level 1 Progress Update
Our First Look at All About Reading
Join us for a Lesson (Level 2)

9 Comments
Megan Russell
Thank you for this very detailed review. I just started AAR, pre-reading level, with my 5 year old. He is considered "late" by the world because he doesn't yet know all of his letters and sounds. He just wasn't ready until a few weeks ago. We are loving AAR, and I was excited to see what level 1 will be like. I cannot wait to use it! You make it look so fun!
Cassandra
THanks, Megan, I trust you will continue to love AAR!
serenity
HI Megan, I'm on the same boat as you with respect to the world thinking my son is "late ". It's a good thing his mother isn't swayed by what the world thinks 🙂
I was thinking of actually starting Level 1 when he turns 6 in September . Our focal point right now is to read plenty of books daily and really enjoy it. I want my son to have a strong desire for reading. I am also here and there giving him various letter "activities " but he seems to actually know his letters without anyone teaching him, so I figured reading to him must be working. May God guide us all.
Thanks for the detailed review.
Cassandra
Level 1 would probably be a good fit, and you can always take it slowly! 🙂
carrie beth
Hello! I am just now exploring the idea of homeschooling. I have two boys. One is almost 3 and the other is 4. I have been reading over your blog. It's very helpful and informative, but I do have a question for you. I have read your reviews of Five in a Row, Sonlight, and All About Reading. Do you use all of these at the same time? I had done some research about Sonlight and it looked like it included everything you would need. I just don't know where to start!! help 🙂
Cassandra
Hi Carrie Beth. 🙂 Hooray for your exploration of this wonderful thing called, 'homeschooling'!!! It is an exciting time. I'm so glad this little blog has been encouraging to you. So, you will see lots of reviews that I have done over the years. Many of the programs I review(ed) I no longer use. This could be for many reasons- my kids outgrew it, our needs changed, my philosophies changed, our budget changed, etc. For Sonlight – we used it for 2 years and enjoyed it very much because it was an open and go situation which is very nice when you are first starting and not sure what to do. It really opened a world of GREAT books and learning through literature for us. HUGE gift. We did combine some Five in a Row with Sonlight as we went along, but we would pause Sonlight to do a Five in a Row book and then jump back into Sonlight. The young years of Sonlight talk alot about world cultures – so that fits very well with FIAR. As for All About Reading, it could be combined with anything you are doing as it is completely separate reading program. Honestly, from my heart to yours – at your children's ages… just enjoy them. Do everything you can to totally cherish their young cuteness. Do playdough and dig in dirt and do fingerpainting and sing songs. Read, read, read TONS of great books. (This is why I loved Five in a Row because it gave me these things – great books, light hearted learning). Dont' stress. 🙂 As for your question of what to start? Well, after about 7 years… One of the things I've taken WAY too long to learn is to pray earnestly and seek God's will for our homeschool and our direction… it is really easy to get sucked in to searching EVERY SINGLE curriculum and going nuts in the process. (I'm currently planning a post about how we 'quit' curriculum (are are in the process…). Honestly, the single most important thing is the soul and the character of the child… their relationship with God and others…. not anything academic (at least for us)… so that remains a priority. 🙂 Hope this offers some encouragement.
Erin
Cassandra,
What a fantastic review! We've just finished Level 1 and soo love it too, can't rave enough about AAR (and Spelling) enough myself.
Pretty pleased too to find another Aussie blog.
Just linked you up at my post on AAR Pre-Reading.
serenity
Your reply to Carrie Beth makes me smile . Sometimes we can get caught up in curriculum and planning….and realize we're missing out on our children's lives. I also realized I wouldn't care if my child was 'top notch' in academics if he had bad character!
Cassandra
Thanks Serenity. 🙂 Yep… I am so guilty of this… getting distracted with curriculum and missing the precious moment that was there waiting for me…