Week in the Life of All About Reading 1 {Day 1}

I'm back to share a day in the life of All About Reading Level 1 Second Edition


If you haven't seen my review, please check it out to see general product information, what you need to teach Level 1, what's new in Second Edition, how you know your child is ready for Level 1, what to expect, my thoughts, and more! 

This week, I will share what All About Reading looks like in our home.

I documented this day on September 19th, but then decided to extended it the rest of the week to give you a better picture of what All About Reading looks like with Bo, who is currently 5 and in kindergarten. 

Today, I am sharing the tail end of Lesson 10, which is the Practice Sheet (aka Fluency Sheet). 

Bo and I now sit at the white desk pictured below. I was doing our lessons on the couch, but I got tired of moving the magnetic board around and kept losing tiles, so I had it installed within arms reach of the desk. 


I keep his materials on the desk like a little station with handwriting and supplies in the drawer. (Math  is at another little station at the living room table). 


We started this practice sheet last Friday, so Bo has read through all the New Words, and we are reading Phrases and Sentences today. 


The Practice Sheets are getting longer so I had an idea today to cut up the words, phrases, and sentences into bite size pieces.


Then, I made it a game, giving him points for each one. He loved this! 


He kept track of the points on a small white board and earned one Spry berry mint for every 5 points. 



I took a video to show this in action. The first one is 17 seconds - a quick vid to give you an idea. The second one is almost 5 minutes for a more detailed peek. 




(With each new short vowel sound we are learning, Bo wants to use the last sound we learned. He's done this with every lesson, so he usually needs a few days to get the hang of a new sound. When he reads an incorrect sound, I repeat the sound he missed first. For example, he read fog as "fig" so I say the short sound of /o. I then decode the whole word for him if he needs it.)

This ends our reading lesson for today. Tomorrow, Bo will have a chance to put his new skills to use reading real stories from a beautiful reader, and I will be back to share Lesson 11.

After reading, Bo worked on handwriting. He is working in Getty & Dubay Book A, but I occasionally give him some extra practice with sheets that I make for him.


After handwriting, we move to the living room table for Math U See. Bo is working in Beta and is finishing Lesson 3 today. 



We are rowing Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, so we read the story and then read from Berenstain Bears Big Book of Science and Nature for Science and did a hands on activity.




At bedtime, we are reading The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon

See you tomorrow for Lesson 11

See links to our week below: 

Day 1 Lesson 10 Practice Sheet (this post)
Day 2 Lesson 11 - Read "Jan Did It" and "The Job"
Day 3 Lesson 12 - Letter u and the second sound of s
Day 4 Reading Game with Ziggy (review)
Day 5 Our row {literature study} of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. 

Thanks for following along!

4 comments

  1. Hi Michelle,

    My daughter is also doing AAR level 1 this year. She was doing very well until the fluency pages got longer. Now she seems to dread doing it. I like your example of rewarding your son as he reads a fluency sentence, but I'm wondering how you break the lessons up so that they flow nicely each day. Could you give me an example? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, for example, in the lesson I share today, Bo is doing the 2nd half of the fluency sheet that he started during his last lesson and that's all he did. Usually with a new teaching (one where we are learning new phonograms), I spread the lesson out over 2 to 3 sessions. We may do the lesson one day and the fluency sheet the next, or divide the fluency sheet into two days like we did today. When I filmed our lesson that I will share tomorrow, we did the whole lesson in one day, but in two sessions. We did the lesson just before lunch and the fluency sheet after lunch. Since I was filming (and really wanted to be done), I pushed Bo a little more than I normally do. He said, "can't do it" several times, but I encouraged him on. Then we celebrated with ice cream that night. :) I made our lesson the next day (which I will share on Thursday) a very simple review - and did a reading game with Ziggy to make up for it. I was feeling bad that I pushed him so much (that's not how I want to encourage a love of learning), so I purposed to slow down and go at his pace. That's really what we want and it's totally doable with AAR.

      The next week when did our lesson, however, Bo's confidence was boosted because of it, and he flew through the fluency sheets much quicker. I will still continue to go at his pace though because even if it takes me 4 days to do two lessons working 10 minutes a day, it's still worth it to me to use this program.

      So, I would say, do what your child feels comfortable and offer a reward for their hard work. I think I will mention this in our video that I will post tonight, but I pay Bo 25 cents a lesson! It is highly motivating for him to get paid. The points and mints for the fluency sheet is a bonus to help him get through those. Plus, they are xylitol mints so good for his teeth. :D

      To make it even more simple, and to have a steady rhythm, I would simply work for 10 minutes a day and go as far as you can go (paying attention to your daughter - keep the love of learning alive!) and then read aloud for 20 minutes.

      I hope the rest of the week will help you see more of how AAR works in our home. :)

      Delete
    2. My son is also doing AAR Level 1 this year and right around Lesson 10 he started dreading the fluency sheets. There are great ideas on the All About Learning website to break up the sheets and turn them into games. He likes to cut them up and feed them to the Monster we made using the template they gave and a cereal box. Sometimes I write numbers next to the lines of words, phrases, or sentences and he rolls a die and has to read the corresponding line. He also likes to "fish" for the words, phrases and sentences. I write them on slips of paper or on the back of laminated sea creatures that I made. Then put a paperclip on each. We made a fishing rod out of a dowel rod and strong magnet. Then he fishes for them and reads whatever he catches. We also break up the fluency sheet over a few days and sometimes even move on to the next lesson for a bit then go back to the fluency sheet. He is on Lesson 37 now and actually likes to do the fluency sheets.

      Delete
    3. Those are all wonderful ideas!! ❤️

      Delete