All About Reading Level 3 {Review}

All About Learning Press has been such a blessing to our homeschool.  I get a lot of questions asking why I am using All About Reading and All About Spelling in lieu of the Language Arts that comes with our main curriculum and the answer is simple: It's a better program!

I've written about why I think it is a better program:

The program is clear.  The lessons are scripted and you know exactly what to do every step of the way.  It is easy to teach and easy to learn.

All About Reading is logical. Reading concepts are taught in a logical, understandable order and there are no gaps. And the program includes all the necessary elements to teach and learn reading.

All About Reading is multisensory. The lessons appeal to all learning styles and engage the child using sight, sound and touch.

All About Reading has continual review. While the child learns new material, there is still continual review of previously-taught concepts.

For my review of All About Reading Level 3, I'd like to share a little about the program, how we are using it, my "set-up," and how the program, overall, has made a difference in our homeschool.

 

To teach Level 3, I need:

• Reading Interactive Kit $28.95


• Level 3 Materials $119.95


• Additional Student Packet (if teaching more than one student)

Because, this is truly an open and go program, I'll jump right in to both what I think of level 3 and how we are using it.

The charm and friendliness of All About Reading Level 3 continues to be what I have come to love and expect from All About Reading. It follows in the same pattern as level 2, with a practice sheet for each story, pre-reading discussions and activities, comprehension questions that help my child make predictions about what will happen next, post-reading discussions and activities that include discussing the main character or conflict, story sequencing, how the story relates to my child's life and more. It continues to take reading beyond the process of decoding and involves my child on a deeper level.

We do our lessons at a desk in the dining room. I have our white board with letter tiles in front of the desk and a pocket chart on the side to hold phonogram cards. I love this set up for ease of use, but the cards can be filed in a index card box and pulled out, just as easily.

The hands-on component to the program is outstanding and makes this program a lot of fun - to teach and to learn.

Reading the Warm-up Sheet for "Train Cat"

The Warm-Up sheets help prepare the child for the actual reading of a story. This was a brilliant addition to Level 2, and I often wish that they were available in Level 1, which I am using with Eliana, my 1st grader.  I could skip these with Malachi because he can read them without hesitation, but I think it gives him a confidence boost and they have helped to increase his fluency.

Reading "Train Cat," a story set in the 1800s.

The stories are interesting and my child can relate to them.

I love these photos of Malachi reading because he looks so peaceful (and so grown up!) while he reads. He seems to really enjoy the stories.

Reading the readers aloud has been very beneficial to him. I've noticed the more he reads aloud, the less he stutters. In fact, I haven't heard him stutter in awhile. His confidence is soaring!

After he finishes the story, I am prompted to give him encouraging feedback. I naturally do this, but it is good to see the reminder. Then, I am prompted to read aloud to my student for twenty minutes. I love this, too, as well as the read-aloud tips. This day, I am reminded of how "reading is like a conversation between the author and the reader." I teach Malachi to think about what he is reading and make sense of the information.

The lessons really engage my child. Here he is creating a floor plan for Lesson 5. He spent a lot of time thinking about his floor plan and rearranging the "furniture" to make his room cozy and functional. This activity sets the stage for the story "Houseboat Summer."

Malachi's Floor Plan

I tuck the pieces into an envelope for safe keeping and slide the activity into a plastic page protector to store in his binder.

As he reads "Houseboat Summer," his floor plan activity makes sense, and the story comes alive! He understands the need for a practical floor plan for such a small place as a houseboat.

I place removable transparent dot stickers on the corners of select pages that have discussion prompts in the teacher manual. When he sees the red dot, he knows to pause so I can ask him comprehension questions. I am not only prompted to model these comprehension strategies, but I also got the awesome tip to mark the pages from the manual, so I remember to pause after these pages are read.

My Set-Up:

I put Malachi's completed activity pages, charts, read aloud record, and word cards into a binder. If he needs to review a concept I can easily pull the lesson's activities out and use them again if needed!  I'm really bad about losing game pieces and activity sheets, so this keeps them organized and handy.

I'm using removable green transparent stickers to mark words Malachi misses.

Here he missed one word: mow. He rhymed it with cow. So, at the end of our lesson, I know to review the word.



I have accidentally dumped the whole set of Word Cards out and painstakingly put them back in order more than once, so I decided to not separate the Word Cards this time. Instead, I slipped them into a plastic page protector!

I use a green transparent dot sticker to mark where we leave off at the end of a lesson and this has become such an easy method to use.

I love this program!

With All About Reading my child is not only learning the process of decoding, he is learning to understand the world around him. 

And we are both enjoying the process!

Malachi has literally taken off in his reading since beginning All About Reading. Each level  has increased his confidence so much that Malachi read a school years worth of reading (3rd grade readers) over the summer before 3rd grade and by the time Level 3 came out, I thought that it might be too easy for him.

And so far it is. Which, to me, means that All About Reading has done a good job of teaching him to read!

I've said before that All About Learning Press programs make me feel most like a real teacher and that is because of all of the above.

I feel smart because it is a smart program! And my child feels smart, because with this program, he is!

More All About Reading on Delightful Learning:

• A Review of All About Reading Level Pre-1


• Pre-Reading Snapshots {All About Reading}


• All About Reading Level 1 {Review}


• Adventures in Reading with Zigzag Zebra {Review}


• A Day in the Life (and Review!) of All About Reading Level 2

All About Spelling: 

Spelling with letter tiles and labeling syllables.

Spelling on paper.

We are still using All About Spelling, however, I am not correlating it for Level 3. Level 3 does not correlate as well as Levels 1 and 2.  So we are just plugging along in both. Please note: I teach the same level in reading as I do in spelling and it makes sense to me to do so. But, I have always shared that Marie doesn’t recommend this. The article doesn’t change my mind ~ I don’t believe that one or the other have been sacrificed at all. My children will write whether they know how to spell or not, so I feel right in giving them the tools they need to be good spellers and writers. I’m on my 3rd level of teaching AAR/AAS levels together and I am happy with the results! My 3rd grader’s reading level has advanced way beyond level 3 and his spelling is on target with level 3.

While my child is ready to work in the same spelling level that he is reading at, not all children are, so please take that into consideration when choosing for your child. 

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of All About Reading Level 3 from All About Learning Press in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way.  All opinions expressed are my own, or those of my family. Affiliate links are included in this post ~ if you order using one of my links, I receive a commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support! I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.