All About Reading Pre-reading Review

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Do you feel uncertain about what to work on with your preschooler to help them develop the necessary skills to begin reading? Are you looking for materials and a structured program for your preschooler to learn pre-reading skills at home? If so, you might want to consider the All About Reading Pre-reading program for your child.

With this program children will learn five key skills in order to prepare them to read. These five skills are: Letter Knowledge (i.e., recognizing uppercase and lowercase letters), Phonological Awareness (i.e., blending sounds, syllables, rhyming, beginning/ending sounds), Print Awareness (i.e., words on a page can be read from left to right), Listening Comprehension (i.e., answer questions and retell a story), Motivation to Read (i.e., recognize that reading is beneficial and an excitement to read).

We personally love the All About Learning Press products. We first started using All About Spelling Level 1 three years ago when Kellan was 4.5 years old. He was already a proficient reader at that time and since I had read so many great reviews about the All About Spelling and All About Reading materials on other blogs, I decided to give it a try with him. I have loved their easy to follow and hands-on curriculum and we’ve been using various All About Reading and All About Spelling materials ever since.

When our twin girls were three-years-old I wanted to begin some fun activities with them to help them continue to learn their letters and sounds. I knew there were a lot of free resources online, and that I didn’t necessarily need to purchase a preschool curriculum for them. However, I was new to homeschooling and had a lot on my plate so I wanted to use something that was already put together for me. Since I knew the All About Learning products were high quality I decided to purchase All About Reading Pre-reading for our girls. Since I was pretty certain we’d be using All About Reading Level 1 with them (and we will be!), I figured it would be a smooth transition when they were ready to move on to the next level.

We finished the program in about a year and a half because we took our time. You could certainly complete it in a lot less time but I added various supplementary activities and we read lots of books together as we made our way through the letters and sounds. The girls enjoyed the coloring pages, the activities and of course, Ziggy the Zebra puppet!

Materials included:

There are a couple of different packages but both include the teacher’s manual, the student packet (activity book, picture cards, letter sound cards, uppercase wall chart, lowercase wall chart, and progress chart), the hardcover reading books, divider cards and the Letter Sounds A to Z app.

If you purchase the deluxe package you also receive the tote bag, the Ziggy puppet, the activity box and the stickers.

How the lessons are structured:

The program is broken up into three sections: uppercase letters, lowercase letters and letter sounds.

Each of the uppercase and lowercase lessons follows the same schedule:

Sing the alphabet song with your child.
Read a very short story or poem to your child out of one of the hardcover books.
Have your child complete an alphabet coloring/craft page (this was one of the girls’ favorite things to do and Kellan even completed some of the pages ).
Complete an additional hands-on activity, such as going on a letter hunt, shaping the letter out of play dough, tracing the letter in sand or shaving cream, and others.
Work on a language exploration activity with your child, such as, practice rhyming, counting syllables, beginning and ending sounds and blending sounds. Ziggy the Zebra puppet comes out for some of these activities.
Read aloud to your child for 20 minutes.

The lessons on letter sounds are slightly different and begin with an introduction to the letter sound, completing sound activities, language exploration, tasty alphabet time and reading aloud to your child.

By the time we got to the third section, letter sounds, our girls knew all the letters and their sounds because I didn’t wait until section three to teach them the sounds. The whole time we went through the program we talked about the sounds of the letters so section three was really just a review for them. At the end of the program the girls knew all the letters and sounds and show many signs of reading readiness so I’d say it was a success! They will begin All About Reading Level 1 next month.

What we love about All About Reading Pre-reading:

It is so easy to use and follow. There are complete instructions for the teacher, including what to say, which means that very minimal preparation time is needed.
The art pages don’t require a lot of extra materials. Everything that is needed to complete the pages are materials that most people already have on hand.
You can easily work at your own pace and add relatable activities and books to the program.
It’s engaging and enjoyable for preschoolers.
Ziggy the Zebra is so much fun for the kids (and the teacher). 🙂
Provides a good foundation and flows well into the next All About Reading material.
The uppercase and lowercase alphabet art pages are a good keepsake (our girls love looking through the alphabet pages they completed!)
The materials are very high quality with hardcover reading books and fairly thick worksheet pages.
The materials (other than the workbook pages which can only be used by one family) have a good resale value so that you can recoup some of the cost.
It can be used for multiple children in the family (photocopying of the activity book pages is permitted for non-commercial individual household use).

Like most things, All About Reading Pre-reading is not perfect and there is one thing about the program that isn’t ideal: the cost. With so many inexpensive and free preschool resources available this program is pricey. You can absolutely pull your own materials together and spend next to nothing. However, if you have the money budgeted and want an already put together, structured, easy to follow program then All About Reading is definitely something to consider.

All About Learning Press did not ask me to review this product, nor did they provide the product to me or compensate me in any way. We purchased the materials on our own because we wanted to use the program. However, I am an affiliate which means that I receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you purchase through my affiliate link. That being said, I would whole-heartedly recommend this product without any possibility of compensation.