Resource Description
All About Reading is a multisensory, mastery-based program that starts with essential pre-reading skills and continues on to teach all five key components of reading. This complete program teaches phonics, decoding, fluency, and comprehension in a fun and engaging way. Suitable for all ages and learning styles!
Website: All About Reading (may contain affiliate links)
Post Your Review »
(33 Reviews)
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Some stories and activities can be boring for students, especially older ones
Grades Used: K-3
Overall AAR is a good homeschool reading curriculum that covers ALL areas of reading, but I would say that many of the stories or activities could be boring, dull or predictable. Wouldn’t be one of my top recommendations.
Grades Used: 1
I am a retired first grade teacher and reading specialist who found myself back in the saddle with my grade-2-age granddaughter due to the pandemic. I purchased All About Reading after reading reviews stating that is worked well with older children. My student was almost 8 and still didn’t reliably identify all letters and sounds, so I wanted something that didn’t seem babyish. All About Reading is reasonably priced, easy to use, and has a logical and developmentally appropriate scope and sequence. While I would recommend it to anyone, it was an especially good fit for my granddaughter, because the books are hardbound and have an authentic, grown-up feel to them, and the illustrations are fantastic. She loves art and animals and one of her favorite things to do after a lesson is to sketch the characters. Investing in “real” art for these stories makes them much more interesting-since they are 100% decodable (and therefore somewhat stilted in their language and content), this makes a huge difference. The phonogram and word cards, and the workbook are super easy to use, and the manual lays everything out so that any parent can feel comfortable using them. Best of all, my student went from being a total non-reader to a Guided Reading level G in 40 days of school.
This is NOT a complete reading program. While comprehension questions and activities are provided, the stories don’t contain enough real literary elements to effectively teach comprehension. The authors emphasize that you need to read aloud to your student every day, and it’s extremely important to do this. Additionally, I supplemented the program with natural-language leveled books from Pioneer Valley in order to provide a reading experience with more genuine “book language.” This has proven to be a winning combination for us.
Overall, highly recommended!
Cons: Long lists of words to read, which can be boring
Grades Used: Kinder
After a lot of researching I decided to buy this program for my 6 yr old who was starting kindergarten. I purchased it because she loves animals and many of the stories include animals, which helps to peak her interest. Most stories have been interesting enough considering kinders can't read too many words yet, but some are silly and don't make a lot of sense. The activities are fine. There is a warm up page to read before each story and often an extra page of practice words to read. My kiddo hated reading boring lists of words so I skip the lists and have her read the story again if she needs extra practice. All in all, I've been happy with the program and we are buying the next level soon. We manage about 1/2 to 1 full lesson a day. (30 min) Reading hasn't been difficult for her so we finished the first manual in 4 months, averaging 4-5 study sessions a week. I hope this review was helpful!!!
Cons: more prep work on me but worth every second of it!!
Grades Used: 2nd
I chose this program after a lot of research and talking to other parents of ADHD children... I was very happy to learn this program was one of the best for children who need a little extra hands on stuff. As an ADHD mom it was overwhelming to figure all this out but once I got started it was just as fun for me and it was for my son!!! I LOVE that I no longer have to fight with him to sit and do school work and what an awesome feeling it is to see him flying through this program!
We have really enjoyed using All About Reading. My son has made a lot of progress.
Cons: Fluency sheets can be a little long
Grades Used: 2nd
We started using All About Reading in second grade after trying two other programs which weren't working. Reading does not come as easily to this child as to my other two. However, with this program she is making more progress than with the other two. I really like how she is learning the rules for decoding words, love the review each day. She really enjoys reading the stories in the books. I also like the activities that are followed up with the skill that was just learned. I also need to mention how easy it is to prepare for the day's lesson. Thankful to have found this.
I heard about All About Reading when I saw posts from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine on FB. I used Abeka with my daughter, but I was struggling with my son. Abeka just was not a fit for him and I felt that it was so hard for me to gather EVERYTHING needed for Abeka's curriculum. When you have 3 different grades going it can be overwhelming. Hearing him reading and seeing smiles instead of frustration lets me know we made the right choice. Awesome stuff! I feel like it is a more simple format for teachers than Abeka. No extras to buy! Everything you will need is included in the package. One can go completely broke buying all the recommended teaching aides from Abeka.
Cons: costs
Grades Used: k
Im a first time home schooling mother to a 5 year old boy. When I first started homeschooling I thought I could never be able to do it. But all about reading lays its all out simple. I love there app for phonograms, when im unsure of sounds I simply check it out before the lessons. Once we start I say the sound for him plus let him try on the phonogram app. I enjoy the bedtime syiries with ziggy it gives reading that extra touch especially when it can sometimes be a challenge to have my boy sit long enough. Often I read to him and let him hold it while we read. I love the fact that there is little preparation for me. I simply open the manual and suppplies and lessons plan are laid out simply. My favorite thing in all about reading though by far has been seeing the growth in my childs reading. When we started he only knew the letter names not sounds but now he starting to blend letters. Everyday I watch him with a smile as he takes one more step to independent reading.