Teaching your kids to read is one of the most intimidating tasks for a homeschooling parent of younger kids. It was something I obsessed about in the beginning as I researched endlessly for the “best” reading program that would also hold my hand throughout the process. There were so many to choose from! Today, I’m going to walk you through how to organize All About Reading which is the program we choose 5 years ago and still love.
Boxed or Stand Alone Reading Program?
Some reading programs are part of boxed curriculum packages that include all subjects. Others are stand-alone products which allow you to fully customize the subjects for your kids. We choose to use portions of a “boxed” curriculum AND add in materials from other publishers so that we can have the best of both worlds. We’re not just limited to the what the boxed curriculum publisher includes. My oldest is now out of the “learning to read” phase and has finished levels 1-4 of All About Reading. My youngest is using level 2 this year.
Save Time and Money!
It’s very important to me to choose homeschool curriculum that is mostly non-consumable so that I can use it with both kids. This is a huge time and money saver! All About Reading (and their sister program All About Spelling) definitely fit meet that requirement. This is how I organize All About Reading so that it’s easy jump into the day’s lesson AND easy to use year after year with each kid.
All About Reading Binders Organized
What’s Included with All About Reading?
Each level comes with a Teacher’s Manual and a Student Packet. The Student Packet includes letter tiles, magnets, phonogram and word flash cards as well as an activity book with tear out activities pages. You can get the optional box and divider cards for the flash cards. At first I was going to use a recipe card box but I couldn’t find anything that was the right size. Having a box and divider cards designed specifically for these flash cards has been so much easier for me than trying to find a DIY option. So, I would highly recommend getting the box. Each student will need their own box.
A 2’x3′ magnetic board is recommended, but not required, for the letter tiles. When I did level 1 with my oldest, I bought the magnetic board and I was so glad to have a specific home for the tiles so we didn’t have to set them out and arrange them every day. There was enough space in the middle to use it as a regular white board. She was only in kindergarten so we didn’t really need a large dry erase board for other school work. The following year, I bought another dry erase magnetic board so that we can use one for a dry erase board and one for just the tiles. Not all dry erase boards are magnetic so double check before you buy one.
The Student Activity Book is a collection of pages that can be easily prepped and organized for the whole year. I highly recommend taking the time to organize the Student book before the year begins. I try to get the whole thing done but anything you can do ahead of time will greatly help. The first year I didn’t prepare any of the pages and I often found myself ready to begin the lesson only to realize I had some cutting to do before we could being.
Related Post – All About Reading Review
All About Reading Level 4 Tiles Organized
Supplies Needed to Organize Student Activity Book
3″ binder (level 1 fits into a 1″ binder) – get a heavy duty binder if you want to save it for younger kids
paper clips
a pair of scissors
stapler
paper cutter – quite helpful but not necessary. I use mine for many other paper cutting projects too.
Organize the Activity Sheets
Remove all of the student pages for lesson 1 from the Activity Book. The Teacher’s Manual has small pictures of each lesson’s corresponding student pages so it’s easy to see what you need to use for each lesson. The Teacher’s Manual will tell you exactly what you need to do with each page. Many of these pages are used in hands-on activities which usually involve cutting. The instructions invite the kids to cut out and color these pages but my kids weren’t interested so I cut them out myself as I prepped the pages.
Fluency and Warm-up Sheets
Other pages the the Student Activity Book are the fluency sheets and warm-up sheets. Fluency sheets have lists of words, phrases, and sentences the help increase fluency. Warm-up sheets have words and phrases that are found in the next story that the student will read. These sheets are always full length and don’t involve cutting. Attach any cut-outs to these full sheets with a paper clip and then add them to a page protector.
Repeat with the second lesson and put those pages in the same page protector behind the first lesson. I can get 2 lessons of sheets inside each page protector.
Put the page protectors in the binder. Repeat the process for all the lessons.
Related Post – Sight Words vs Phonics Rules – Which is the Best for Teaching Reading?
All About Reading Lesson Organized
Tracking Progress in All About Reading
Each level comes with a progress sticker chart and a chart for keeping track of all of the read aloud books read throughout the year. (Every lesson ends with a reminder to read aloud to your kids every day). I keep those in the front pocket of the binder or taped to a wall for easy access.
Now It’s Open-and-Go!
When you’re ready to start the school year, take out the first page protector that has the first 2 lessons in it and use it as a bookmark in the Teacher’s Manual. As you finish each paper, put it the the back of the page protector so that the next activity is in the front. After the second lesson is completed, the first activity of the first lesson will be in front again. Put the page protector back in the binder and take out the next set of lessons. The binder can be hidden away so that it doesn’t take up valuable space on your main homeschool shelves.
Now that you’ve organized All About Reading for the year, it is truly an open-and-go system. The teacher’s manual is even scripted so that you know exactly what to say as you teach AND what your student’s response should be. This is the perfect learning to read program for new homeschool parents because it holds your hand throughout the entire process. Even though I don’t need the hand holding anymore, it’s nice to have a program that is so easy to teach. I can focus my creative teaching energy on subjects that don’t have as much hand holding.
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