When our middle child was in Kindergarten, we spent four months struggling to use a reading program that was not working for us. At the end of those four months, he still could not blend the letter sounds into words. As I researched other programs, I came across All About Reading. I downloaded the samples and tried them out on our 5-year-old son. He actually liked them!
Ultimately, what convinced me to try All About Learning products is their Try-It-for-One-Year 100% Money-Back Guarantee.
“You have one full year to try out All About Reading [or All About Spelling]. Go ahead and use it! If it doesn’t meet your needs for any reason, simply return the materials within one year for a full refund of purchase price.”
So… I took the plunge.
Within two weeks he was reading.
Since then, our family has converted all of our phonics-based reading and spelling instruction to All About Learning products. We now also use All About Spelling for our fifth grader and our second grader (who was that Kindergartner), and we use the pre-reading program for our preschooler.
All About Spelling helped our fifth grader immensely with spelling. To eliminate gaps in his learning, he started with Level 1 last summer and completed four levels in one semester. He is now in Level 5, and our pace has slowed down significantly because it has become more challenging for him.
Some things I love about All About Spelling:
- My children’s spelling (and reading) have improved significantly.
- There’s no guesswork in spelling! There are rules to follow and just a few exceptions to those rules.
- The spelling lists correlate to the spelling rules. This allows the spelling rule to sink in as it is applied directly to new words. Even so, review is incorporated into the program so that they continue to use the words and rules from previous spelling lists.
- The higher levels introduce Greek and Latin root words and suffixes/prefixes, which also helps with vocabulary!
- The lessons include hands-on activities, which has been great for our active boys.
- You need not complete one lesson per day. The levels do not necessarily correlate with grades. You go at the pace needed. Sometimes we will do two lessons in one day. Sometimes we camp out on a lesson for a week. The goal is mastery of the rule so that it can be applied to new words when they are writing sentences.
- It is an open-and-go system. Aside from setting up the tiles and other materials, very little prep work is needed.
- Dictation exercises are included in the program. It has been very simple for us to extend these lessons into English grammar instruction.
- The box we use for our spelling lessons is similar to Simply Charlotte Mason’s Scripture Memory Work System. With the part-to-whole, phonics-based approach, the use of dictation exercises, and the focus on memorizing rules, this program fits our classical style of educating very well (but the program is not limited to the classical method!).
- Our children all look forward to their spelling and reading lessons!
The simple, systematic method in which each concept and spelling rule is introduced is laying a great foundation for my children to tackle words they have not studied. Honestly, I have even learned from this program. Even though I have always been a good speller intuitively, I lacked knowledge of syllable-division rules and thus divided the syllables of many words incorrectly.
All About Learning Press Freebies!
All About Learning offers several free downloads and helpful articles on their blog and website! Here are just a few:
20 Best Tips for Teaching Reading and Spelling
Teaching Latin Roots with Word Trees
ABC Snacks Cookbooks
Make Your Own Fabric Alphabet
Word Flipper Activity
For pre-readers, take a look at A-B-C Snacks: Eating Your Way Through the Alphabet. All About Learning shares these types of resources when you sign up for the free All About Learning Press Newsletter. You can also receive several other activities, articles, and resources:
Click here for our review of All About Reading, and download (for each level) free placement tests and samples from the All About Reading teacher’s manual, student workbook, and readers.