Detailed All About Reading Level 1 Review ~ The Organized Homeschooler

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I recently purchased the reading curriculum for my new kindergarten homeschool class. I chose All About Reading Level 1 for multiple reasons. I know choosing a kindergarten reading curriculum can be a bit overwhelming, so I thought it might be helpful for me to walk you through All About Reading. I homeschooled my own children for 15 years. When my youngest began college classes at 16, I returned to teaching kindergarten professionally. My experience as both a homeschool mom and a classroom kindergarten teacher gives me a unique perspective on kindergartenhomeschool curriculum.

All About Reading is a full reading curriculum designed to teach children how to read through systematic, explicit instruction in phonics and other foundational reading skills. It uses a multisensory approach, so children learn by seeing, hearing, saying, and doing rather than simply completing worksheets.

The multisensory activities are an important part of this program. Children will see a letter or word, say the sounds, listen to the sounds, and use letter tiles to build the word. This helps children connect letters, sounds, and words. Lessons also include hands-on games so that children are reinforcing skills while having fun.

All About Reading uses an Orton-Gillingham-based phonics approach to reading instruction. The Orton-Gillingham approach is a structured way of teaching reading that emphasizes explicit, systematic instruction. Children are not expected to figure out reading patterns on their own. Instead, they are directly taught the sounds represented by letters and letter combinations and then given plenty of opportunities to practice applying those skills.

All About Reading Level 1 Review

What’s Included in the Program?

All About Reading Level 1 is made up of a few components:

Teacher’s Manual
Student Packet
Readers
Letter tiles
Flashcards
Reading review box

All About Reading Level 1 Teacher’s Manual

The teacher’s manual is quite detailed. It will equip you to teach your child how to read, even if you are not a trained teacher. The lesson plans will guide you through the instruction, step-by-step with scripted lessons.

Each lesson page begins with a section just for the teacher. Read through the section with a beige background before the lesson. This is where you will see the lesson objective, what you need (for example, which activity book pages and which word cards, and ‘before you begin’. The before you begin section is a quick review or teaching tip to help the lesson flow smoothly.

The lesson will always begin with a review of phonogram cards and word cards.

After the review, you will move on to the new teaching section. Depending on the lesson number or where you are in the lesson, you might learn new phonograms, blend sounds with letter tiles, decode words using letter tiles, complete the activity sheets, practice reading new word cards, practice fluency, teach vocabulary, or read a story in the reader.

Every lesson ends with read-aloud time and tracking your progress. The lesson plans say to read a story or poem to your student for 20 minutes, but that can happen anytime, not just during your ‘school time’. It totally counts if you want to read aloud at another time of day. I used to read aloud to my kids during lunchtime.

All About Reading Level 1 Student Packet

All About Reading Level 1 student activity book written above a few of the hands-on activities

The student packet contains multiple items:

Blast Off to Reading student activity book
Phonogram cards
Word cards
Viewfinder bookmark
Progress chart
Stickers
Completion certificate

The student activity book is full of activities to make learning to read fun. There are activities such as bingo, matching pictures and reading the words, building sentences, matching words to pictures, and reading comprehension activities. There are also fluency sheets with words, phrases, names, and sentences to practice together before reading a story in the reader. This helps increase fluency and confidence.

I teach children to read by gliding their index finger under the word they are reading, but I like to keep the viewfinder bookmark close by in case a child needs it. If they are struggling to decode a word, isolating the word from the rest of the page can help them focus. I do not always use it, but I keep it near my reading table.

All About Reading Level 1 Readers

All About Reading Level 1 comes with three readers:

Each phonics-based reader contains a collection of short stories. The stories get longer as students progress through the program. For example, the very first story in Run, Bug, Run! contains only 3-letter CVC words and no more than three words on a page. By the middle of The Runt Pig, stories contain words with up to 5 letters, and there are multiple sentences on a page. The last story in Cobweb the Cat contains words with up to 5 letters, there are up to 6 sentences per page, and the story is 15 pages long.

The readers first appear in lesson 3. I have seen young readers immediately develop a sense of buy-in when reading moves beyond sounding out individual words to reading a book. When I was a classroom kindergarten teacher, my favorite day of the year was the day that I passed out reading books for the first time. All of a sudden, every child considered themselves a reader. I love that it happens early in All About Reading Level 1.

All About Reading Level 1 Flash Cards

The flash cards are included in the student activity packet. There are two types of flash cards:

Phonogram cards (yellow)
Word cards (green)

Every day, you will review previously taught phonogram and word cards until they are mastered. The back of the phonogram cards tells you the sound, any related hand motions, and an example word.

The flash cards are organized in a file box with tabbed dividers. If you purchase the All About Reading review box, the divider cards are included. I used an index card box that I had on hand from when my kids used All About Spelling, so I purchased the dividers separately.

The tabbed dividers are:

Phonogram cards review
Phonogram cards mastered
Phonogram cards future lessons
Word cards review
Word cards mastered
Word cards future lessons

All of the flash cards start behind the future lessons section for their card type. Once you have introduced a card, as directed in the lesson plans, you will store it behind the review tab. After a child is consistently and immediately saying the correct sound or word, it will move behind the mastered tab. I like to still review a few mastered cards at a time every once in a while, just to make sure they truly are mastered.

All About Reading Letter Tiles

The letter tiles are a one-time purchase. You only need one set for your entire household. The letter tiles are designed to be used with every level of All About Reading and All About Spelling.

You can choose physical letter tiles or the All About Learning letter tiles app. I chose the physical letter tiles because my kindergarten homeschool program is screen-free.

The physical letter tiles come in sheets of heavy-duty laminated paper. To prepare them, you punch out the tiles along the perforated edges. Then peel off the backing of the included sticky magnets and stick a magnet on the back of each tile. There are letter tiles that you won’t need until later levels of All About Reading. I just put those in a bag and put them somewhere safe until they are needed.

All About Reading Level 1 Progress Chart

At the end of every lesson, students get to put a sticker on the progress chart. This helps young children visualize the progress they are making. If you misplace your progress chart, reading log, or completion certificate, you can download and print a new one from the All About Reading website.

We want to keep reading lessons short enough that young readers are not reaching a point of frustration or fatigue. Learning to read is hard work! Ideally, the focused portion of reading instruction will be about 20 minutes a day. That means that it takes more than one day to finish a lesson. That is okay, though! There are 53 lessons in All About Reading Level 1 and a typical school year lasts 36 weeks. We can complete 53 lessons in 36 weeks if we average 1.5 lessons per week.

My Thoughts as a Professional Kindergarten Teacher

When I decided to open a kindergarten homeschool program, my first priority was choosing a reading curriculum. I compared many popular homeschool reading curriculum options, researched traditional classroom reading curricula, and even briefly considered creating my own reading curriculum. Pretty quickly, I chose All About Reading Level 1.

I wanted a few things from a reading curriculum:

It needs to be effective
It needs to include direct instruction
It needs to include hands-on activities
It needs to have daily systematic review built into the lesson plans
It needs to include readers
It needs to work for multiple students at one time
I wanted a focus on phonics and reading instruction
I wanted a mastery-based program

I decided to invest in All About Reading because it meets all of those requirements. I strongly believe that an intentional mix of explicit instruction and hands-on activities helps kindergarteners learn in an age-appropriate way. Explicit instruction removes confusion and gives children the skills they need to be successful. Hands-on activities give students opportunities to practice their new skills. They also make learning fun.

Every lesson begins with a consistent review pattern. That will help me determine if my students understand the phonics rules or patterns or if they would benefit from repeating some of the activities.

The readers are great. They are just the right size for small hands and contain color illustrations. It is a small thing, but I like that the student stories are divided among three readers. This keeps each reader a kid-friendly size. It also prevents a child from being overwhelmed when they are handed a huge, thick book.

All About Reading Level 1 will be easy to use with multiple kindergarten students at the same time. The kids will take turns with the flash cards and letter tiles. That might mean we spend a little extra time on that each day so everyone gets a turn. They each have their own student activity book so they can work on the activities at the same time.

I really want my kindergarten reading block of time to focus on developing strong foundational reading skills. We only have so much time together, and I want to help them learn to read. While we will work on a bit of kindergarten writing, science, and history, my goal is to create a strong foundation in reading and math skills. There wil be time for other language arts skills in later grades.

Honestly, I also realized that I don’t have time to adapt a curriculum created for a classroom or to create my own program. My family had a good experience with the All About Learning spelling program, so I trust that my sweet kindergarteners will have a good experience with All About Reading.

I chose All About Reading Level 1 instead of the pre-reading level because Level 1 most closely matches my kindergarten teaching experience. Many kids learn letter sounds in preschool and are ready to begin blending sounds and decoding words in kindergarten.

FAQ

How much prep time is required?

There are a couple of components to All About Reading prep time.

Letter tiles – Punching out the letter tiles and applying the magnetic backing takes about 10 minutes. It only needs to be done once.
Phonogram and word cards – The phonogram and word cards need to be torn on the perforation and filed behind the tabbed dividers. This only needs to be done once per level. It took me about 15 – 20 minutes.
Activities – Most of the lessons have a few pages to tear out from the student activity book. I would say that most of the lessons have at least one page that requires cutting. This is roughly 5 – 10 minutes a lesson.
Review before the lesson – Ideally, teachers will spend a minute reading through the lesson before beginning each day. That is not unique to All About Reading; it is just part of being prepared to effectively teach a lesson. This only takes a minute or two each day.

I recommend preparing the letter tiles and cards before beginning the program. I did this step as soon as my box of curriculum arrived. It didn’t take very long, and I listened to a podcast while doing this step.

I made the choice to prepare all of the activities before beginning the school year. It did take me quite a while because:

I prepared 4 student activity books at a time, one for each of the students in my kindergarten homeschool program
I chose to laminate every page

This would have been much faster if I didn’t laminate, but I want to be able to reuse the materials, and I am hoping that laminating the pages will make them more durable. This step is optional.

My process was basically: tear out all of the pages for multiple lessons, laminate them, cut the edges off of every laminated page so it will fit in my paper protector, cut apart any activity pieces and store them in snack- or sandwich-size baggies, and put everything for a lesson in a labeled page protector (that goes in a labeled binder). If you are doing this for one student, it takes 5-10 minutes per lesson.

It is my personal preference to prep the entire year before starting school, but you don’t have to do that. It is okay to prep one or two weeks at a time. Remember, we only need to complete 1.5 lessons per week to stay on track to finish the level in one school year. So, if you prep 2 lessons every weekend, you can do that while watching an episode of a favorite show.

All About Reading Level 1 Organized in a Binder written above the student workbook pages laminated and organized in paper protectors in a binder

Who is All About Reading Best for?

All About Reading is a good fit for a family who:

Wants systematic research-backed reading instruction
Wants a multisensory program
Is comfortable moving at their child’s pace instead of trying to complete a lesson every day
Is willing and able to dedicate 20 minutes to reading instruction and an additional 20 minutes to read-alouds 5 days a week
Wants a structured approach with lessons already planned

How Does All About Reading Handle Sight Words?

All About Reading primarily teaches children to read by decoding, but they do say that some words need to be memorized. These can be either high-frequency words that don’t follow normal phonetic patterns or words that contain phonetic patterns that haven’t been taught yet. All About Reading calls these words leap words. In All About Reading Level 1, there are 11 leap words. The word cards for these words have an illustration of a leaping frog to remind students that they are special words.

Is All About Reading worth the cost?

I think so. I purchased All About Reading Level 1 at full price for my homeschool kindergarten partnership program with my own money. I understand that it is pricey, but there were a few reasons I decided All About Reading was worth the cost:

Supported by research – Children learn best through an intentional blend of direct instruction and hands-on activities.
Matches the reading expectations of a private school where I taught kindergarten
Specifically designed for homeschool parents
My family used All About Spelling with success

Cheaper curriculum options don’t always save money long term if they aren’t effective.

What grade level is All About Reading Level 1?

All About Learning Press intentionally does not assign grade levels to their curriculum options. Level 1 is for beginning readers who know letter sounds. Depending on the child, they might be in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or even second grade.

I highly recommend giving your child the free placement test.

Is All About Reading Level 1 too Difficult?

‘Too difficult’ is subjective. Some kindergarten students begin the year reading fluently. They might fly through Level 1 and begin Level 2 by January. Other kindergarten students begin the year without a firm understanding of correct letter sounds. The placement test will help you determine the correct level for your child.

In my experience as a kindergarten teacher, All About Reading Level 1 matches the kindergarten expectations at many schools. When I see parents online saying that All About Reading Level 1 is too hard, I would encourage them to reevaluate their placement. The All About Reading Pre-Reading program might be a better fit because children need to master letter sounds before they can blend sounds. If the placement tests indicates that Level 1 is the correct curriculum, then I would encourage parents to make sure reading lessons are part of every homeschool day, but take your time completing the lessons. It is okay to reteach a concept or reread a story in the reader multiple times.

Can I use it with multiple children?

Yes, you can use All About Reading Level 1 with multiple students. I chose this reading curriculum for my Strong Foundations Homeschool kindergarten program and will use it with up to 5 students at a time.

Each child will need their own student packet, but you only need one teacher’s manual. I hope to use the curriculum for multiple years, so I laminated all of the resources in the activity book. You can prchase additional student packets separate from the full curriculum set.

Do we have to use the All About Reading Readers?

The All About Reading readers are an important component of the curriculum. They give children practice opportunities that target the specific skills they are learning in their lessons. Some of the lessons include activities that refer to the stories to assess reading comprehension.

If your child doesn’t love the readers, read plenty of other books during the day, but don’t skip the readers.

What skills are taught in All About Reading Level 1?

Some of the phonological awareness, decoding, and other foundational reading skills taught in AAR level 1 include:

Isolating sounds in 3 – 4 letter words
Phonograms A-Z, plus digraphs th, sh, ch, ck, ng, nk, ff, ll, and ss
Reading words with initial and ending blends
Plural words
Compound words
Vocabulary
Reading fluency
Reading comprehension

To see the full list of what is taught, scroll to the bottom of the All About Reading Level 1 landing page and check out the See What’s Taught button.

Do we need to use Level 1 before using All About Reading Level 2?

If you think your child is ready for All About Reading Level 2, give them the placement test. If your child used a different curriculum to learn foundational reading skills, they might be able to place directly into Level 2. The skills are the prerequisite, not All About Reading Level 1 specifically.

I hope this honest All About Reading Level 1 review helped you decide if this is the best reading curriculum for your children.

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Detailed All About Reading Level 1 Review