The Reading Program that Works : Half a Hundred Acre Wood

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Our four-year-old bounds out of bed to find me right away. “Can I do my schoolwork now? Can I do my schoolwork?” The only reason he even went to bed last night was so he could wake up first thing this morning to start another reading lesson. As he lugs his “schoolwork” towards me, I smile. I haven’t even finished my first cup of coffee yet. Our four-year-old’s enthusiasm for learning to read brings me great joy. But teaching reading hasn’t always been like this.

Early in our homeschooling journey, there was nothing more intimidating to me than teaching a child to read. It struck within me such anxiety and fear that I believed that I may just really actually ruin my children forever. (This fear was almost as bad as the thought that maybe our toddlers would never be potty-trained.)

This fear only mounted when, after four months of phonogram work, our second son still could not blend letters into words as he approached his sixth birthday. In panic and desperation, I researched many other curricula and methods to conquer this foreboding task I knew little about. Although I balked at investing in, switching to, and learning how to use a new curriculum mid-year, what convinced me was All About Learning’s Go-Ahead-and-Use-It 100% Money-Back Guarantee. I thought, “Well, I’ll give it a shot. What is there to lose except maybe a little sanity?”

David learning to read 7 years ago:

We took the plunge, and within just two weeks he was reading.

Fast forward 7 years, and that child – now a teenager – is my most avid reader. It’s an understatement to say that teaching him to read was a major milestone. It was my most victorious moment as a homeschool mom.

Now our youngest is embarking on this grand adventure with the same exact program that we’ve successfully used to teach two of our children to read – only this time, we’re using a new color edition of the books and activities we completed years ago…

Isaac learning to read now:

Same exact lesson. Two completely different children. I can’t even put into words how precious this is to me.

So why is All About Reading a program that works? After reviewing multiple reading and spelling programs over the past decade, I’ve come to recognize some features of All About Reading that have contributed to our success. In short, All About Reading provides…

Simple, easy-to-understand, open-and-go lesson plans
Systematic phonics instruction and decoding practice
Engaging and enjoyable multi-sensory activities
Amusing and relate-able stories that introduce advanced vocabulary
Syllable division rules and fluency practice
Interesting discussion prompts that aid in comprehension
Lifetime support through real live people – great customer service!

The most important factor, though, has been that my children have enjoyed learning to read, and I have enjoyed teaching them. Without these two elements, even if a course of instruction is well-designed, it will likely not fill the need for us. (In our home, that means either Mom avoids it, or child avoids it, or we both avoid it.) In short, All About Reading inspires and equips me to teach my children to read. Not only that, but it also inspires my children to learn to read, and that inspiration lays a foundation for becoming a lifelong learner.

What is All About Reading?

All About Reading is a scripted, open-and-go reading program that makes reading instruction simple, enjoyable, and engaging for both the teacher and the student. Each level of the program includes a teacher’s manual, an activity book, readers, and cards. (The basic tiles are included in the corresponding interactive kit.) The full color teacher’s manual is fully scripted with helpful tips and ideas and is laid out in a simple-to-follow format.

Each lesson starts with teacher preparation notes and a phonogram and word review. “New Teaching” includes the introduction of new phonograms, blending exercises with letter and syllable tiles, games to practice rhyming and building words, instructions for activity sheets, reading practice with word cards, and fluency practice instructions.

Our children have loved the reinforcement activities within the activity book, and now they’re in full color which makes me even more excited to take another child through the program!

All of our boys have thoroughly enjoyed the readers, so much so that they’ve often gathered together to hear the stories again as their younger brother reads.

Although I’ve always loved the black-and-white versions of the readers, the new color edition is vibrant and beautiful!

You can try the first three lessons for free by downloading the Level 1 sample! Click here to download samples and/or placement tests for each level. You can also download a variety of other activities and reports to read and try out for FREE!

All About Reading in Action

All About Reading Level 1 does not require any previous phonics instruction. It teaches letter sounds, phonograms, consonant teams, blending, syllables, consonant blends, plurals, compound words, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Sometimes we use more than one day to complete a single lesson. We simply adjust the pacing according to the student’s needs.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a glimpse of what it looks like in real life…

Letter card and/or tile practice

Interactive phonics/reading activity

Word card practice

Fluency practice with a hand-dandy viewfinder bookmark

A glimpse inside the readers

Glimpses inside the activity book

These word-flipper activities are excellent! You can download one to try out for free by clicking here or on the image below.

Although the program is an investment, it has definitely been worth the cost for us. It doesn’t require extensive upfront study for a parent to use and eliminates those overwhelming feelings of inadequacy as it equips the parent to teach a subject that seems elusive to many.

Any drawbacks?

The only thing our children have ever disliked about the program are the fluency practice pages.

Fluency practice is too important to drop from the lessons, but when our older children were young, I would reduce the intimidation factor by placing a sticker next to the last word in the list that I wanted them to read. We would also play games to read through the lists. After level 2, however, the fluency practice pages no longer intimidated them. I plan to use the same techniques with our youngest son.

We’ve attempted to use other reading programs, but by far, All About Reading has provided the most complete, effective, and enjoyable experience for our family. Most importantly, it has instilled a love of reading in our children as they learn to read fluently and accurately while improving in comprehension and expression.

Free Resources!

All About Learning Press provides a ton of great free activities, articles, and reports to read and try out, so be sure to take a moment to check them out!

Now it’s your turn!

Have you run into any difficulties with teaching reading? Does teaching reading intimidate you? Are there any questions about All About Reading that we can answer to help you out? Jump down to the comments to leave a message or question for us. We’ll be glad to help in any way that we can!