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You’ve probably heard that we make it easy to customize our programs to suit your student’s needs, but did you know that All About Reading can meet your needs too? Watch the video below to see how!
Did you watch the video? Can you relate to Simple Samantha? Or are you more of a Weekly Wendy or Detailed Dorothy? Read on…and then leave us a comment and let us know what your style is!
Simple Samantha believes the entire point of an open-and-go program is, well, just that…opening and going. And she’s pretty open about it.
Um…what? Organize? I just open my Teacher’s Manual and start teaching. If there’s an activity, I cut it out while my kid reads to me. Or better yet, I have her cut it!”
Samantha knows that All About Reading is easy to teach right out of the box. All you have to do is take a minute or two to preview the lesson and gather the necessary activity pages, flashcards, and letter tiles. Then simply follow the script to teach like a pro! Gently scripted lesson plans ensure that you’ll know exactly how to teach every single lesson with no advanced preparation needed. Yep, you heard that right…none. Zilch. Zero.
If you prefer to keep things simple like Samantha, you’re in good company. This is the way All About Reading was actually designed to be used. We’ve done all the research and prep work so you can devote your time to teaching your child.
Although Weekly Wendy knows she doesn’t have to do major prep, she likes to take it up a notch. She prefers to prep things ahead, but in bite-size chunks, a week at a time.
I prep my lessons a week in advance. I look through the teacher’s manual to see what I’ll need for the week, then I cut out the activities and zip-bag it all. You can never be too prepared.”
If you’re like Wendy, you like to be prepared, but you don’t want to spend all summer doing it! A little bit of planning ahead helps you feel prepared and ready to face the week. And that’s definitely not a bad thing!
Detailed Dorothy loves to get it all done ahead of time…way ahead of time. Her favorite part of teaching is preparing and organizing her curriculum months in advance. It’s incredibly fun and supremely satisfying to know that everything is ready to go when she needs it. And when she’s all done prepping, she lets out a big sigh of satisfaction…
Ahhh…all ready for lesson one!”
As part of her detailed preparations, Dorothy laminates everything—activity pages, fluency practice sheets, and flashcards—and organizes it all in a great big binder. (Dorothy’s laminator is by far her favorite homeschool organizational item!)
By the way, Dorothy is teaching multiple kids and just loves knowing that everything is prepped and organized in a way that makes it easy to juggle all the levels and lessons every day, all year long. And we totally get that!
If you’ve ever spent time over at our All About Reading and All About Spelling Facebook Support Group, you likely discovered a wide range of ways to prep and organize your AAR materials, and a lot of lighthearted discussion about which method is “best.”
But you know what? There is no best way! All the organizing styles above fit perfectly with All About Reading. While AAR is a scripted, open-and-go program that doesn’t need to be prepped in advance, you’re free to be you. And if that means laminating everything, go for it! But if not, that’s fine too.
All About Reading is an adaptable, approachable, and adjustable program…no matter how it’s prepped. So organize (or not!) to your heart’s content. Because no matter how you prepare and organize your lessons, All About Reading will do exactly what it was designed to do…make reading easy to teach and easy to learn. And that’s the most important thing!
Are you a Simple Samantha, a Weekly Wendy, or a Detailed Dorothy? We would love to hear about it in the comments below.
Julia
says:I love to prep it allllll!!!! Saves me time and frustration!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceJulia,
I love your enthusiasm about prepping materials!
Julia
says:It’s me….detailed Dorothy! It just makes our days run smoother and quicker!
Holly
says:Oh, I’m so glad you asked.
I prep the day before. I read the lesson, look at the activities = maybe 5-10 minutes, and then sometimes-to-often add my own touch to the activity to match it to my grandson’s energy level (high, high, high) = ½-2 hours, no kidding. For instance, we recently had an activity for “ea” saving seals from a snowstorm. The given activity was to turn over snowflake cards to reveal a seal with an “ea” word to read. I hung the snowflakes from the ceiling with strings, blew a fan at them (gently enough not to knot them up) and had my grandson jump and snag the snowflakes to read each one. What fun! For fluency words and phrases once, I made an indoor “parkour” course with the words/phrases on chairs, walls, under tables, above doorways… We have tossed words weighted with paperclips off the deck, from the landing of the inside stairwell, into labeled baskets, and threw labelled balls at targets on the garage door; read in trees; pulled words in like clothes on our Brooklyn-style clothesline; sprayed words on the driveway with a cleaner-type spray bottle; tossed water balloons with syllables to the syllable type in circles below; chalked on sidewalks and doors and carpets and walls; markered on mirrors and windows and linoleum; biked a course of words to read; run or jumped from word to word; and snuggled in bed or our cozy cubby. Yeah, high energy, for both of us. And it is SO worth it. I love creating “super lessons” so much, it really doesn’t matter if my grandson loves it or not; I have so much fun creating, it’s like that is an end in itself.
Now, there are many days the lesson I plan does not match the energy of the day. In that case I either ramp it up or calm it down On The Spot. Now that is sporting!
Even with so much thought and planning and made-to-order FUN lessons, it is still hard for my grandson to “step over the threshold” from whatever he was doing to “Nanaschool.” We have a system by which my husband is responsible for “delivering” an open learner to me, so my energy can be focused on the lesson itself. Once we begin, my grandson 90% of the time gets into the spirit and by the end will say, “That wasn’t so bad,” or, music to my ears, “Can we do that again?”
I must say, I have every confidence that the lesson of the day designed by All About Reading will be appropriate and complete Just As It Is, and I rely on the given design any time I feel like it or the circumstances call for it. Both my grandson and I are committed to All About Reading and we see immense growth in him as a reader!!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceHolly,
Your grandson is so blessed to have you! High energy indeed! But what fun you both have!
Thank you for sharing many of your very active ideas for making reading practice made your grandson’s energy level. You might like our blog post on 20 Activities for Kinesthetic Learning, although from the sound of it, they may all be things you have already thought of.
Lizbeth
says:I have a combination of all 3 ! 😆 LOL
Robin
says: Customer ServiceLizbeth,
Interesting! I love that you found an organization system that works for you.
Courtney
says:It’s our first year using AAR, and we are loving it so far! It took about a week for me to find my organizing groove, but now it works best for us if I go ahead and prep the next day’s lesson either right after we finish up for the day or once the kiddos are in bed. It only takes a few minutes and I find it relaxing to cut and paper clip it all together in a folder ready to go for the next day!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceSounds like you found your own perfect method, Courtney! Thank you for sharing it.
Kandra Smith
says:I find it relaxing to prep stuff so I did two levels of AAR and one AAS in page protectors and binder and it is so easy to get going with lessons.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceKandra,
It can be so relaxing and rewarding to work on something like preparing materials!
Lauren Buckley
says:I’m a plan ahead person, just a little bit at a time so it’s not overwhelming!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGreat approach, Lauren!
Brittany
says:This is our first year with AAR and AAS and we have loved it so far. A much more fitting curriculum for our family than what we chose last year.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGreat to hear that All About Reading and All About Spelling are working out so well for you, Brittany!
Albany
says:This is our first year homeschooling, kiddos are 3rd, 1st and 3 years old. We are using all about reading and spelling 1 with our first grader. She likes it so far. I organized everything before the school year started. Hoping for a great year! I think this program will help contribute to our success :)
Robin
says: Customer ServiceWelcome to homeschooling, Albany! Glad to hear All About Reading and All About Spelling are working out well for you.
Nicole N
says:Love these ideas! I do have a cute teal rolling cart in my online shopping bag and I’m getting ready to order it plus a couple more little organization items.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceSounds like it’ll be a great set up, Nicole!
Emily B.
says:I like to have everything organized ahead of time. Especially since I have a toddler to entertain too, any extra time at all spent preparing the lesson can mean the difference between a good school day and a bad one.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceEmily,
I’m glad you found a way to help ensure your school days are good ones!
Mary
says:My kids expect me to be a “Detailed Dorothy”. I surprise them every day after naps with new worksheets set out to do together.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceWhat a lovely after-nap surprise they get each day, Mary!
Jacqueline Felix
says:This is such a helpful blog post! Thank you for it, it has helped me be more organized with my easy cart organization with my children. Love this!!!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this was helpful for you, Jacqueline!
Patricia Freeman
says:I like having everything ready so we can focus on the reading and not the getting things set up
Robin
says: Customer ServicePatricia,
Having everything reading can be a nice peace of mind!
Becky
says:Thank you for sharing your ideas!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Becky!
Amber
says:I love this blog post. There has been wonderful posts on the Facebook support page on how to go about prepping this curriculum like a Detailed Dorothy, but I appreciate that this post celebrates that parents don’t have to laminate and prep for hours if that’s not their thing. Everyone thrives in their own way and organizational techniques and that is the best way. Personally, I’m a lite version of Detailed Dorothy. I tear out all the activity pages but I do not cut them out until the day of the lesson. Each page goes in a page protector and in a binder. Easy to grab and prep for the day. Thank you AAL for giving ALL organizational techniques love!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGreat point, Amber! I completely understand. I am a Simple Samantha, and if I was looking into using All About Reading for the first time and thought all the extensive laminating and prepping was required, I would look elsewhere. I LOVE the open-and-go! (I even had my child do most of the cutting each day.)
Lisa
says:I’ve been so interested in this program and you make it seem easy to do it my own way! Thank you
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Lisa! Our team has worked hard to make Reading and Spelling Easy to Teach.
Jessica Wilcox
says:I’m combination of these! I like to cut everything out before the school year starts, but then I’m basically open and go. I love that feature of this program!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad you found a way to make it work for you, Jessica!
Valerie
says:Simple Samantha here! I’m happy to read this article and learn others are also this way! Each day I just open my book and begin.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m a Simple Samantha too, Valerie! I loved that I didn’t have to put off Monday’s lesson if I didn’t get around to prepping.
Kris a
says:I’m definitely a weekly Wendy. I like to prep a week in advance and let wiggle room for other crafts or ideas. Sometimes the students recommend a new way doing at a lesson. Which I welcome with open arms.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceSounds like a great way to approach learning, Kris! Thank you.
Jamye
says:Thanks for the tips!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Jamye!
Kristina Epps
says:I need all the help I can get when it comes to organizing 🤪
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI understand that, Kristina!
Fatima
says:I am definitely a Detailed Dorothy 🙂 I like to have the entire curriculum organized ahead of time since I am currently using more than one level. It saves me so much time when it is time to teach the lesson.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThen it’s great that All About Reading works out for you to have it all laid out well in advanced, Fatima!
Meaghan
says:Thanks for the tips!
Lisa Dominy
says:Love the organization
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThanks, Lisa!
Tracy
says:Love all these tips!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Tracy!
Emily
says:This is awesome thank you
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Emily.
Tasha Rodden
says:I love this! We just started on Level 1, so this has helped me get organized!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m so glad that this helped you organize as you start Level 1, Tasha!
Beverly
says:My style is definitely Simple Samantha!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceMe too, Beverly!
Georgette H
says:I desire to be a Simple Samantha, but current circumstances require me to be a Weekly Wendy (at least) or Detailed Dorothy (ideal) if I hope to get anything done during this season of life!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGeorgette,
Great way to keep it in perspective, “this season of life.” Our abilities to approach things do change and fluctuate. I have been homeschooling for 21 years, yet I find I still need to adjust our routines from semester to semester, and sometimes from week to week!