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How to schedule an All About Reading lesson
When the boys entered Kindergarten I spent hours researching the perfect reading curriculum, and then it failed horribly. Part of the way through their 1st grade year they came out with All About Reading 1, and it was love at first sight. There are a lot of components in All About Reading, and after using it for 4 years, I think I’ve finally worked out our All About Reading schedule.
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First, let’s talk about what makes up an All About Reading* lesson.
- A game, I always do this at the end of the lesson because it’s the most popular component.
- A story, this is not every lesson, usually every other lesson.
- Another shot of the game, there’s a wide variety of them.
- Making words with letter tiles, we use the spelling board I made.
- “Flash cards,” words that review the sound learned that lesson.
- Reading page, I couldn’t find a picture of my kids doing this, so no picture.
- Reviewing previous words from other lessons. I’ll admit I do not always remember this one, but we will review old games from previous lessons.
Scheduling All About Reading LEVEL 1
For AAR1* I set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I stop. My daughter was able to do 15 minutes, but my boys really could only handle 10 minutes.
Each day I would complete part of a lesson. I would alternate what parts were completed, but almost every day we included the game for the lesson. It made the day go smoother. So one day we would read the flash cards, then a section of the reading page, and finally the game.
Some important things to note for AAR1:
- The reading pages are LONG, break them down into sections. If I only required 1 section I got less frustration.
- You might take 5 days for a lesson, or longer, it’s better to take it slow than to hurry, especially at this stage.
- Do not worry if you take 2 weeks for your child to read a story. It will get faster.
On days we read it a story it was especially important to set a timer, my boys would get frustrated if we took longer than 10 minutes, and it was a struggle then to read the stories.
Scheduling All About Reading Level 2
With AAR2* their attention span is a little longer. With this level I increased the timer up to 15 minutes. We still had lessons that might take several days (that first open syllable lesson comes to mind, they really struggled with that). In level 2 I expected them to be able to read 2 of the sections on the reading page once we started working on that at the beginning of level 2. By the end of level 2 I was expecting them to read the whole page.
It really helped the pages were shorter and more broken up. I think All About Learning Press took feedback that level 1 could be overwhelming, and adapted. I’ve been impressed by the improvement from level to level as it’s come out.
For reading stories I still kept the timer at 10 minutes, BUT we might spend a few extra minutes at the end playing a game together. I found scheduling All About Reading level 2 much easier than level 1.
Scheduling All About Reading level 3 and 4
Somewhere towards the end of AAR2 and the beginning of AAR3* my kids reading just exploded. Planning lessons at this point became a breeze. At this point most days we can fit in all of the elements of a lesson with no problems. The lesson flows smoothly, partially because they know what to expect already.
Side note, I also think All About Learning Press took another note because these lessons were printed slightly differently making it easier to prepare the lessons ahead of time. I’m happy to note AAR4* also had easy to set up lessons.
At this point my kids’ attention is sufficient I can schedule 20 minutes for a lesson if I need to.
I’ve also discovered, for us at least, somewhere around the middle of AAR3 we can change from scheduling 1 All About Reading lesson to covering 2 lessons in one day. Not ever day, but most days they’re already familiar with the concept, this just firms up what they were figuring out.
Superman is really eager to finish 3rd grade reading, so he’s pushing to cover 3 lessons a day. That’s a bit ambitious even for me, but I’m glad he wants to do this.
Other All About Reading posts and Reading Resources
All About Reading spelling board
Organizing All About Reading lessons
Teaching Reading to Multiple Kids
Comments
16 responses to “How to schedule an All About Reading lesson”
EXCELLENT modifications with this program! I REALLY hope we get to meet on your trek across the USA- I could gain a LOT of ideas from you!!! :0)
I can’t wait to get together, it’s going to be so much fun!
Great tips!! We just finished Level 2 today!! Woohooo!! We will be re-reading the stories and a some other books through the summer and starting on Level 3 in the fall. Like you said Sammy’s reading exploded about 2-3 weeks ago and he was really able to plow through the lessons and finish up today. I think its the age and the awesome foundation that All About Reading gives them! I love their reading (and spelling) program!!
Congratulations on finishing level 2!
Isn’t it amazing when the turning point is reached? It looks like AAR really worked out for your kiddos.
It really is. I saw it happen over and over again when I was teaching, but it’s even more amazing when it’s your own kid.
I love when I figure out how to really make something work like this!
Me too! It always makes things go smoother, apparently it just takes 3 years into homeschooling to have most things figured out. Well, there’s still a few things I’d like to get better at…
Hi! I just discovered your blog through Pinterest and I Love it so far! I’m so looking forward to diving in and learning more and getting more homeschooling ideas!
We are about to start studying U.S. Geography and History and I found your blog through a pin of your U.S. State studies. I’d love to know where you got the coloring pages you used for each state. I’d like to use something similar for our studies.
Thank you and God Bless!
ChristinaIt really depended on the state study. I know Crayola has some, and I believe the ones I used are from Montessori Tidbits. I’ll see if I can dig it up for you.
Thank you for posting this, it is so helpful! I’ve been using level 1 with A5 for the past six months and it is slow going, so I’m pleased to here that one lesson isn’t meant to be completed in a day. Thanks again!
It’s so refreshing to read this. I did not see this post when it first came out:) YOu IMMENSELY helped me a year ago when it came to organizing all about reading. I too have 3 kiddos I am using it for and I thought I would lose my mind at first:)
I unfortunatley gave it up for awhile for my youngest. He is 8 and STILL has not completed level 1 (we’ve been working on it for 2 years!!) Yes. He is probably dyslexic. So we are focusing on all about spelling and just reading other types of books for awhile. I was frustrtated because the scope and sequence was keeping him from reading other simpler books because the simple one syllable long vowel sound words were not going to be taught so far down the road. My oldest 2 still use it. I might dabble in it again with him because this is reinspiring me:)
I do have a question. My oldest is in 5th but has a ton of learning issues so she is just finishing up level 3. How much do you have them read outside of all about reading time? FOr my girls I’ve been tellign them 15 minutes (they are 5th and 3rd) since they already spend 20 minutes a piece with me.
Anyway…sorry for going on and on . IT’s really really frustrtating when you have kiddos struggling so much with reading.
Thanks for the great blog!
Don’t worry about going on and on, I do all the time.
To answer the question, I’m an introvert and not a morning person and need some quiet time before interacting with the kids in the morning, so over the past year I’ve slowly trained my kids to read for an hour every morning. They split the time up into 3 separate times: whatever I want to read, the required reading book for our book and a movie, and their Quiet Time. For your 8 year old since he’s still struggling with level 1, I might not have him do that whole time of reading. (I got this advice from another older homeschooling Mom who does this with her kids and its’ been great for improving their reading).
Gah! Thank you for acknowledging the non morning person thing! I am an extrovert but hate mornings! lol I have to change something because I am getting quite cranky for reading time….I do it first thing now so we can get done ….I feel like it takes me FOREVER to get through 3 kids at 20 minutes a piece…somehow it always turns into more time. Till we are done it’s 9:30 or 10 and then when math it’s done its 11. Then we have basic grammar, bible and helping answer questions. This barely leaves time for a read aloud or history or anything fun!!! After lunch We do spelling…which takes me another hour to get through. the kids free journal during htis time. I just feel like I need to make changes. With struggling learners, I NEED to make changes…they need more hands on and I don’t know why but I never get to it.
ANYHOW..I love your idea of reading for an hour. to clarify… are they reading 2 books at that time independently? Meaning…a book of your choice (ie something to go with history? ) and then their “movie” book plus their quiet time? When do they take turns reading with you? Sorry I am confused. I guess I’m feeling burnt out because I feel like I’m doing it all wrong:/ My oldest daughter reads fluently and reads through the majority of aar 3 really easily…she just has NO comprehension skills:( So one can read but can’t comprehend…one can’t read…and one falls somewhere in between…lol Thankfully my oldest (in 7th) is independent for the most part!
I’m going to give you a quick answer here and then send you a much longer and detailed answer in an email:
They are reading two books at a time independently. Their own pick is often picture books or whatever caught their eye, and then the movie book. I haven’t quite figured out how to work in a book related to their history while we work through AAR lessons.
I just want to second this blogger’s descriptions, as I find them almost exactly how I have run AAR lessons for Levels 1-3. At this point, I’ve on my third child starting AAR, and I do the same flexible graduating up that this blogger describes. Super helpful post for beginning users of AAR!
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