All About Reading Review [Review of AAR with a 3-Year-Old]

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I started All About Reading Level 1 with my son a few months ago. We flew through level 1 and we are now a decent number of lessons into level 3 (I had to edit that sentence multiple times as I started this blog post a full level ago….). I wanted to share my review and some thoughts on the program. We are definitely unconventional All About Reading (AAR) users so I thought our experience might be helpful to some.

Why We Did This Program? (And Why Now?)

My son is 3. We started All About Reading Level 1 about a month after he turned 3. This is NOT the general age recommendation. From when I first heard about AAR I decided it was the program I wanted to try. I planned on AAR Level 1 as our Kindergarten curriculum though, not something I would be using at 3.

I really wanted to give my children intentional phonics instruction. I do not know how I learned to read. I know my Kindergarten did not teach reading at all and I know when I entered first grade I was pretty fully reading. I grew up in an era where phonics was not in vogue and any reading instruction I did get did not teach me the rules. I was always a very good reader, but I wish I learned the actual rules!

AAR states that children are ready for level 1 at different times. It is not a grade-based program but based on my comparison with other programs I would consider level 1 to be vaguely aligned with a Kindergarten curriculum and level 2 with a first-grade curriculum (though I think the actual reading abilities rather than simply decoding skills are quite a bit above those grades, more on that later). They have a placement test on their website, which brings me to why I decided to start level 1 with my son at 3.

As I mentioned, I wanted to give my child intentional phonics instruction when he was ready. A month or two before his 3rd birthday he became intensely interested in letters. Before that, I had offered letter exposure but put no effort into teaching letters. He was so young and not interested. I do not believe there is any reason to push that at such a young age, especially since we planned to homeschool and would not have the pressure of being at a certain place at a certain age. But then, a couple of months before his third birthday, he became so interested that he learned all the letters (uppercase, lowercase, names, and sounds) in a couple of weeks. He then started blending two letters, CVC words, and then longer words. At this point, I wanted to know how to support him on what was next. I didn’t actually know the phonics rules and I needed a program that could teach me so I could help him. Everyone recommended Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons which we tried and both despised (no hate to the program, it just was not right for us). This led me to AAR which I had always loved the sound of. I looked at the placement test and he already could do many of the things for the level 2 placement test (but mostly just lacked the fluency required). I decided to give the program a try starting with level 1.

I would not recommend rushing to get a 3 or 4-year-old into level 1. Our case is not the norm (which has made me a bit reluctant to share about it). Both my husband and I are gifted and my son likely is too. I have no doubt he would have easily learned to read on his own without the program or much teaching on my part. If you are considering this program with a child who is a bit younger I would personally recommend going a bit above the placement test. For example, there is a huge leap between knowing letters and actually blending and reading. Though AAR teaches the blending procedure I would not have wanted to start with a child this young if he hadn’t first started confidently blending himself. They also have a prereading program which I have not tried but I know it focuses on letter sounds and rhyming. With Y, he was already reading CVC words and blends with short vowels in isolation and in sentences. He also had a very long attention span for being read to and an intense interest in learning to read. These things told me he was ready despite his age.

With all that said, I think my review applies not only if you also have a very young learner but also if your child is starting later than we did. Some aspects of my review might be more unique to our situation. I have a very motivated learner, for example, and he wanted to spend much more than the recommended 20 minutes doing reading each day. He reads to me from stories constantly. On the other hand, he is young and we struggled more with lacking some of the background knowledge that would be helpful in stories.

What I Love

All About Reading gives very intentional phonics instruction and makes it easy if you didn’t have that instruction yourself. It is open-and-go and scripted. Sometimes the script feels a bit weird for me to be reading while teaching, but it is nice having it really written out just what to say. I have been consistently blown away by my son’s ability to grasp this intentional instruction. For example, as we approached the lesson on open and closed vowels I thought he would struggle with learning so much background mechanics. He didn’t at all and in fact LOVES labelling syllables as open or closed. I, on the other hand, had never heard of open and closed vowels before embarking on teaching Y.

The AAR stories are gold. Truly they are solid gold and I would recommend them to anyone with early readers even if you are not doing the full program. The illustrations are simple but beautiful, and the stories are gentle and not forced. I also love how they build up stamina in readers. I will say, now in level 3, the stories are long. My son now is reading stories that have pages with a large amount of small text, much more challenging than say, Little Bear. This is very different than most beginner-reader decodable books. I feel confident that after finishing level 4 a student will be ready to take on full chapter books. I cannot sing the praise of these stories loud enough. They also do a good job of guiding you in introducing background concepts a child might need to understand the story. Since my son is younger he lacks some of these background concepts and that is helpful for us.

The hands-on activities are nice. I wish there were more of them (more on that below), but my son always really enjoys them. In fact, pretty much every day he asks for more of them. None of them are groundbreaking and they could easily be DIY’d but I appreciate that they exist to practice the concepts in a game-type format. I don’t have to print anything but can just cut out the activities. Some of them he has loved so much he has wanted to play over again with his dad or grandma.

This is an example of an activity from early on in level 1.

I love that AAR focuses just on reading. I will compare briefly in another section below with The Good and the Beautiful but one thing I like about All About Reading is the lack of fluff. There have been a few activities to do with the stories we have skipped because they feel more like fluff but overall the program is very purely reading-focused. For the early stages of learning to read this is my preference. I would rather us add literature, history, and art ourselves based on his interests. I especially like that they do not focus on handwriting at all. With a child who is super interested in reading early this is important to me. He is not ready to form letters and write. We will not start All About Spelling (their spelling program) until he is but I love that I can offer him reading instruction without that. I have found with a child who is eager for this sort of learning early it can be hard to find curriculums that fit and don’t push handwriting before he is developmentally ready. If you have an older learner that might not be as much of a plus but it is a huge plus for me with a young one. Level 1 has nothing that requires writing at all. A couple of the story activities in level 2 suggest writing things but none of that is actually integral to the curriculum.

All About Reading is also secular (or I guess perhaps it would be called neutral) which is my preference for a curriculum. Since our family doesn’t celebrate Christmas I found it a bit funny when Christmas was introduced as a sight word in level 3. But it is a large part of the greater culture, not religious per say, and is ultimately a word my child needs to know how to read!

AAR does not rely heavily on sight words (or heart words or, as they call them, “leap” words, or as we say “frog words”), particularly in level 1. Sight words have gone a bit out of vogue in recent years with a stronger emphasis on phonics. All About Reading fully embraces this. I was surprised in level 2 by a few sight words they included, but overall they mostly limit them to those high-frequency words that either break the rules or your child needs to know significantly before the concept is taught. I love this method. I will say I did introduce some more sight words to Y so he could read other decodables. Since he picks them up easily this wasn’t a struggle.

Finally, I love that All About Reading teaches the language for things. I already mentioned that about open and closed syllable types, etc. but there is little I adore more than hearing him say things are onomatopoeia, for example. He also said he was “on pins and needles” to do something the other day because of a lesson on idioms.

What I Don’t Love

The practice sheets. While the stories are gold for us, we pretty much trashed these. While I understand the need for a lot of practice I have to believe there is an option better than these, particularly the level 1 and 2 ones. My son had no interest. They have a section at the end of the teacher’s guide with ideas on how to make them more enjoyable (so clearly this is a common issue with the curriculum). We tried most of these and he would be excited for a day or two and then not want to do them. I am not trying to force him to read something he doesn’t want, so about halfway through level 1 we ditched them. It worked out well that this was about when he reached automaticity with CVC words. I instead made a lot of DIY activities for him using the same words. His favorite car activity is reading from flip cards so I have made him loads of those for the different lessons (I put a sentence on there and then after he reads he flips it open to reveal a picture). I think it would be amazing if AAR offered printable activities to replace the practice sheets. Their activities are for the most part great and it would be nice if there was a way to print more online. For Y, the activities don’t need to be fancy, just something better than random words and phrases filling a page! They say you can break the practice sheets into multiple days but my son was SO eager for new material I did not want to slow us that way and, any way you cut it, reading a page filled with random words and phrases is just not going to be so enjoyable for many children. Reading in my eyes is about opening up a world of magic. These practice sheets are far from that. We also gained extra practice by reading the stories over and over, rather than the warm-up sheets, and reading other decodables. This is possibly a place where working with a younger child is different than working with an older one. I will say, about halfway through level 2 the practice sheets seem to get a bit better. I am sure they would not be a big deal now and I do end up writing most of the words/sentences on the whiteboard and he happily reads them. I found some of those long long ones in levels 1 and 2 a bit scarring though.

The order of level 2 is very different than most other programs. Level 2 introduces two-syllable words including words with open first syllables early on, before silent E (magic E, sneaky E, whatever name you call it!), ar, or any vowel teams. Open syllables for the first syllable is a tricky concept! The reason I found this a bit frustrating was that it was hard to find other decodables to practice these skills. I couldn’t find a single other decodable that worked on these skills in the same sequence. Extra add-on books from All About Reading could solve that problem. I am sure there was a reason for this earlier introduction but I would have loved it being later in the course so he could read more of the other decodables. That said, it felt like we kind of front-loaded the hardest part of level 2 and the rest was so easy after that.

All About Reading is pretty expensive. Other courses are much cheaper. We were able to avoid some of this cost by prepping all the activities so they can be used again. This means all my children will be able to use the same resources. I think that makes the most sense not just to save money but so you don’t have to cut them out again in the future!

What Does a Lesson Look Like?

I am going to share some pictures here of what a random lesson looks like. This lesson is from level 3 (since that is where we currently are) but it is the same format in level 1. Every lesson starts with a box with information for the instructor to read before starting. As I got comfortable with All About Reading and how they taught reading I got comfortable just quickly skimming this section. After that, it begins with some review: flashcards and building a word or two using the letter tiles. We save the flashcards for later in the day instead.

Then the new lesson starts. This is usually done using their letter tiles. Since I have never used screens with Y in the past I started with the physical letter tiles. As we gained more letter tiles though I found organizing them to be incredibly overwhelming and I got the iPad app. Though I find it harder for my son to divide words and label syllables and such on the app, it is much easier for me. It is a very simple app with no distractions or anything.

After new material is introduced there is an activity (sometimes two). We always really enjoy these. As I mentioned earlier, they are generally very simple but enjoyable for him. I am going to share two examples below. Neither is from the lesson I randomly chose to photograph because that lesson had word flipper cards and no additional activity but they are from nearby lessons in level 3. The first picture is from the story lesson immediately following the lesson photographed here. We did both the photographed lesson and this story one on the same day since my son wanted a new story and a new activity.

This is from a story lesson. We read the story and then did this activity based on the story. You can see it ensures comprehension of the story.

What does All About Reading look like with a 3 year old? — An activity from All About Reading Level 3

Next, you are directed to introduce the new flashcards. I introduce the leap words on the whiteboard but we do the flashcards later in the day.

Then they have the fluency sheets (which we skip). Instead of doing the fluency sheets, I write a few sentences on the whiteboard and he reads those. This works better for us. I don’t think the fluency sheets would be as onerous now as he is a far quicker reader (and overall the sheets don’t feel as long and overwhelming as they did in level 1), but he still prefers this format. This also lets us practice some older material that he might need more of a refresher on. There is then a prompt to mark the lesson off with a sticker on a tracker sheet. We don’t do this because that just hasn’t been needed to motivate my little guy (and as a Montessori family we don’t lean towards sticker charts and such), but I saved them for the future because I’m not above using the tracker if it does help a child in the future.

example of an All About Reading Lesson review for All About Reading with a 3 year old

Story lessons are pretty much the same format but usually have less of the new teaching section. They still have an activity (such as the one I photographed above) but replace the new teaching with reading the story. The fluency sheets are “warm-up sheets” and generally a lot shorter. We tend to skip these as well though sometimes I bring them out to discuss a couple words or names or a picture on the sheet.

Other Things to Consider

I love All About Reading overall but I don’t think we ever need to feel wed to one course or one way of learning. As we got to the end of level 1 I was finding it was moving a bit slow for Y. Around halfway through level 1 he gained automaticity for CVC words, meaning he would read them without sounding them out. Once this happened he started flying through the course far quicker. The general arrangement of lessons is a new concept lesson followed by a story lesson that includes reading the stories from the reader. Y would end up reading the stories on the new concept lesson day. I didn’t want to skip any of the course though as the whole point for me was giving him a solid base of phonics. I discovered online that The Good and the Beautiful offers their reading courses for free as downloads. I downloaded those along with their stories. Since they introduce concepts in a slightly different order there were some stories he couldn’t yet read. I decided, during this time in the second half of level 1, I would introduce a few of the concepts from their Kindergarten curriculum. This worked really well for us. Y easily learned -ay, ee, and -ed, all of which are not introduced until later in AAR. When we finished level 1 in AAR we were also finishing up the concepts (but not all the other language arts, art, or handwriting stuff) from the Good and the Beautiful Level K. This meant he could also read all of their books as well. I will note, Y picked these things up very easily from their course, but I did not find the instruction as intentional or thorough as in AAR. I did not find this as doable with level 2 and their first-grade curriculum since the scope is very different. The Good and the Beautiful introduces concepts much quicker in 1st grade than All About Reading but is far less in-depth than All About Reading.

All About Reading is a mastery-based curriculum. I don’t think I fully knew what that meant until I actually experienced the difference between All About Reading and The Good and the Beautiful (which is spiral). Mastery-based means a child masters one concept before moving on to the next. The concept is, of course, reinforced throughout reading, but it is mastered before moving on. This means All About Reading goes relatively slower than other programs in introducing new concepts. On the flip side, the stories are much longer, have far bigger pages of text, and offer more complexity than other programs. I think in many ways my son would have benefited more from a spiral approach. He was ready for new material all the time and grasped it quickly. That said, I am so glad we have learned with All About Reading because I am so amazed by the stories he is able to read. At the end of level 1, he sat down multiple times and read an entire reader from The Good and The Beautiful K course (20 stories in one of the readers we have and 22 in the other). Those stories are very easy for him because of the skills he developed in All About Reading. I purchased some of the Good and the Beautiful first grade library as well and they are very easy reads for him. I think it would be challenging to jump into a later level of All About Reading without having built up these skills and stamina in level 1, even if a child has fully mastered all of the phonics concepts taught. I will show below an example of an early story from level 1 and a current story from level 3, but they also have full examples of a few of the stories on their website. It was a steady increase in length and decrease in text size between these two stories. I will say, the decrease in text size has always been a bit jarring for at least a few stories and I do at times wish, especially in the level 3 books that the text was a bit larger.

Now nearing halfway through level 3 my son is able to read a lot of books for early readers. He has been loving Little Bear, for example. Little Bear is a far easier read for him than the All About Reading readers but involves some patterns he doesn’t know. From what I’ve found it seems Little Bear is considered an early second-grade level. It was several lessons into level 3 that he seemed ready to take on books that were not phonetically controlled. He has picked up many patterns on his own and his comprehension is very strong for figuring out a word if he isn’t sure about the pattern. I also think reading the longer stories from All About Reading has made it so a book like Little Bear is very approachable even if he doesn’t know every phonetic pattern. He is used to longer and more intense stories so he is able to use his efforts in decoding new words more easily. If he comes across a word that really trips him up I feel confident giving a mini-lesson. For example, he was reading Frog and Toad and came across the word “knocked.” Though we are not there yet in All About Reading I took 5 minutes to teach kn and now he can easily read kn words. One of my concerns about All About Reading and the pacing had been that it is 4 levels of learning to read. I worried we would not be able to introduce any non-decodable texts until the end of all 4 levels. I found that not to be the case. In fact, it is the All About Reading readers, not the other texts he reads that really challenge him, building his stamina, decoding abilities, and comprehension skills.

Overall, we have loved using All About Reading. My son looks forward to it every day. I have heard from some people with more reluctant readers it can be a bit of a slog, but we have loved it. I think the key on it is being willing to take what works and skip what doesn’t. If I felt the pressure to read all of every practice sheet I would have ditched the program long ago.

One last note: if you also have a younger student who is interested in reading I feel that it’s not worth doing if it feels like “a lot.” I have heard many people doing All About Reading with their Kindergarteners describe the program as being a lot. For us it has been so smooth and enjoyable because he was so enthusiastic. If you have a younger student I really encourage you not to press if it is feeling intense. We started by just practicing CVC words and playing lots of games (this is a great one for an early reader!). That is still way more than a toddler or preschooler needs to know. They also have. a prereading level I have not tried but would love to try with future children.