Programs that teach thoroughly, so your child can succeed amazingly
We’re putting the finishing touches on All About Reading Level 2! It should be available at the end of September.
Here’s one of my favorite activities from the activity book. Feed the Anteater is in the first lesson, and it’s a great way to review the words from Level 1 before we start in on new concepts.
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Today’s guest post comes from Merry Marinello, a homeschool mom who uses All About Spelling with her own kids and is part of our Customer Care team.
As a Customer Care rep for All About Learning Press, I think I have one of the best jobs in the world – talking to other moms about teaching their kids how to read and spell.
Moms often ask me what a typical day with All About Spelling is like. I thought it might be helpful to show what happens in our homeschool and give you a peek inside our lessons.
Right now we’re in Level 6, and a step (lesson) usually takes us a week to complete. (In the early days, a step often took only 1-3 days. We went through Level 1 in about three weeks because my kids were older and already had all the words memorized – they just needed to learn the concepts.)
Here’s how we divide up our week:
I actually set a timer for the lessons: 15 minutes for my seventh grader and 20 minutes for my ninth grader. Each day starts with 2-5 minutes of review. Here I am trying to review the Phonogram Cards with my jokester.
After the review, we begin the New Teaching section. This section is scripted, so I know immediately how to demonstrate new concepts with the letter tiles on the magnet board.
When my kids were younger, we set the magnet board against the wall or couch because I didn’t have room to hang it in our school area. After the first year, I realized I could reorient the tiles vertically, so now the magnet board hangs on a nearby closet door.
I make sure that the new material we covered yesterday is totally understood, and we do our 2-5 minutes of review. Then it’s time to meet the ten new spelling words.
I dictate the new spelling words and several sentences that contain the spelling words. After the dictation, I put the new Word Cards behind the Daily Review tab in the Spelling Review Box so we can review them tomorrow.
All About Spelling has a philosophy of “we don’t just teach it and forget it,” which I totally appreciate. I mean, after I put in the time to teach my kids something, I want to make sure that they remember it later, and that’s where the built-in review really helps.
We review older flashcards with just a couple of the new ones mixed in, because I like to spread the new ones out over a few days. Then we quickly review the new concept we’ve been studying, followed by reinforcement words from the More Words section and more of the dictation exercises. If my kids miss any of the reinforcement words, I make Word Cards for them and put them behind the Daily Review tab.
Here’s where we fit in the Writing Station activity (which starts in Level 3 of the program.)
In the Writing Station, students make up their own sentences with words that are dictated to them. Sometimes my kids like to make a little story using the words, sometimes they try to be funny, and sometimes they try to squeeze all the words into just one sentence! Here’s one that my daughter wrote:
This exercise makes a nice bridge between dictation and longer writing assignments that kids will do outside of spelling. I love how AAS gradually prepares kids for writing.
Whatever we don’t get done on Days 1-4, we complete on Day 5.
If my children misspelled words in the dictation exercises during the week, I tucked those Word Cards behind the Review divider. If any concept needs to be re-taught, now’s the time to do it before we move on to the next step of the program. All About Spelling is mastery-based, so if my kids are confused about something, we fix it before moving ahead to the next lesson.
So that’s our typical week with All About Spelling. You may go faster or slower depending on your child’s needs and ability…and that’s the beauty of using a fully customizable program!
What about you? Are your days with AAS similar to mine?
Let the games begin! Adventures in Reading with the Zigzag Zebra is here! (And it’s on sale for $16.95 for one week only, through April 9!)
We’ve heard More Ziggy, please! on a daily basis, so I’m excited to share this beautiful book with you! This is a supplement to Level 1 of the All About Reading series, and it’s a fun way to provide additional practice for your beginning reader.
Here is the “Blast Off with Ziggy” game from the book. You simply remove the perforated game pages and paste them into your own file folder.
To play, choose your game piece.
If you need an extra player, Ziggy is always a willing participant. The Zigzag Zebra is already a familiar face to users of our pre-reading program, but if you’re just meeting Ziggy for the first time, you’ll soon discover that he is a young zebra who is learning to read right along with your student. He is a supportive friend for beginning readers, and he likes to have a good time as he learns. And if you don’t own our plush Ziggy puppet, don’t despair! We’ve included a paper Ziggy in the book, and you can paste his likeness onto a file folder and prop him up to play along.
When you are done playing, store the instructions and game pieces in the front pocket that is included in the book.
It’s pretty cool: Ziggy travels to each continent and practices his reading skills. Here he is teaching sheep in New Zealand how to read.
And here Ziggy goes to the beach in Cape Town, South Africa.
Other destinations include Paris, a Caribbean island, Mongolia, and the South Pole. The book includes a map so your child can keep track of the places visited.
You can store your reading games in a file drawer, between two bookends on a book shelf, or in a plastic storage bin. Your kids will want to take them out again and again!
Have you ever used games and reading activities to motivate or teach your beginning reader? Please share in the comments below! We can all learn from each other!
This week’s giveaway
Enter to win the supplemental Adventures in Reading book of file folder games and a Ziggy the Zebra puppet to play along with your child!
The full-color book Adventures in Reading with the Zigzag Zebra contains nine file folder games that reinforce the skills taught in All About Reading Level 1. The games take your student on reading adventures through all the continents and outer space!
And what would an adventure be without a worthy travel — and reading — companion? Enter Ziggy the Zebra, ready to play all the games along with your child! Ziggy is a plush, high-quality hand puppet destined to become your child’s best reading buddy.
What better way to keep your child interested and learning at the same time?
Permanent learning is a common theme here at All About Learning Press. When you take the time to teach your child something, you want it to stick. You want to make a difference. You want them to remember the concepts years from now.
Today I went to visit Ginger, a darling pony mare I used to own. I haven’t played with Ginger in about a year, but she remembered everything we used to do together, in spite of the fact that she hasn’t done any of her tricks since last spring.
Our Spanish walk…
According to experts, the average dog knows approximately 160 words. My previous experience with family dogs (a clever and fun-loving Australian Shepherd and an ultra-intelligent and bossy Welsh Corgi) easily supported that figure. Then one day, along came Gracie the Whippet puppy. She arrived with boundless puppy energy, an enormous wellspring of love to share, and a vocabulary consisting of—nothing!
It was a bit unexpected to realize that our bright and vivacious puppy did not recognize even the simplest of words. During her first two days with us, we attempted to find some grounds of verbal communication with her. “Come, Gracie, come,” yielded a blank stare and a bit of a tail wag. “Go outside? Go for a walk?” No reaction. We tried a slew of food words, looking for something that she recognized: “Are you hungry? Eat? Dinner? Cookie? Treat?” All of these words resulted in the same uninterested gaze.
