5 Awesome Reasons Why Homeschool Mamas Love All About Reading – Pre-Reading for Little Kids

I was the little girl who always had her head in a book. I mean, to the point of sneaking books upstairs and reading with the light from my alarm clock until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I’m sure my mama was less than thrilled about it at the time, but you know what? I grew up with a love of learning so insatiable that even now I spend more time reading than just about anything else.

Fast forward to having the little guy and I knew that I wanted the same for him. You see, teaching little kids to read kinda scares me a little bit. Truth be told, it scares me a lot. Reading is so very important and pre-reading skills are the foundation of it all. Talk about a really quick way to freak out a first-time homeschool mama.

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A huge thanks to All About Learning Press for providing us with All About Reading – Pre-Reading for free in exchange for sharing our experiences with the program. As always my opinions on awesome stuff for little kids are 100% my own.

The little guy and I had the opportunity to review All About Reading – Pre-Reading from All About Learning Press and this program is awesome. I’m talking like take a huge weight off my shoulders because everything’s going to be okay awesome. Yep! It’s definitely going to be okay. He’s already made so much progress with pre-reading skills and a lot of it’s thanks to this program.

What is the All About Reading – Pre-Reading Program?

All About Reading – Pre-Reading is meant for little kids in preschool or kindergarten. It’s a fun, multi-sensory approach to build a strong foundation for learning to read.

This programs teaches five very important pre-reading skills. According to the All About Learning Press Blog, these are The Big Five Skills your child should master before you begin formal reading instruction.

• Letter Knowledge
• Phonological Awareness
• Print Awareness
• Listening Comprehension
• Motivation to Read

Each lesson includes games, crafts, and stories, which means that just like everything else we’re doing, it’s curriculum without the feel of curriculum. The little guy is learning while he plays and that’s the most important thing at his age.

When we started All About Reading – Pre-Reading, he could recite the alphabet song, recognize capital and lowercase letters, and tell me what sound each letter makes.

What’s Included with the All About Reading – Pre-Reading Deluxe Package?

We ended up with the deluxe package, which of course includes Ziggy. The little guy loves Ziggy. That silly zebra is probably his favorite part of the whole thing. Why am I not surprised?

• Teacher’s Manual (208 pages)
• Student Packet
  • My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
  • Picture Cards
  • Letter Sound Cards
  • Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
  • Progress Chart
• The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
• Lizard Lou: a collection of rhymes old and new hardcover book
• Divider Cards (to keep your Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized)
• “Letter Sounds A to Z” app
• Ziggy the Zebra puppet
• Activity Box to hold your student’s learning cards
• Adorable Animal Stickers for the progress chart
• All About Reading tote bag to keep your components organized

If you’re not sure, go with the deluxe package. It’s totally worth it. It includes the extras that make this program so awesome for little kids. The biggest one being Ziggy. I mean, sure. You could probably find a zebra puppet somewhere else, but there’s just something special about this one and it’s definitely high-quality. As much as the little guy plays with Ziggy, you’d never know it.

What Does a Typical All About Reading – Pre-Reading Lesson Look Like?

All About Reading – Pre-Reading is separated into three sections. The first 52 lessons teach capital and then lowercase letters in alphabetical order. After you’ve gone through the alphabet twice, the next 26 lessons focus on the sound that each of the letters makes.

Capital and Lowercase Letters

• Sing the Alphabet Song with your child.
• Read the corresponding pages in either The Zigzag Zebra or Lizard Lou.
• Locate the letter in the text. I’ve been asking the little guy to find the letter elsewhere in the studio too.
• Have your child do the alphabet craft sheet. We’ve been using our craft sheets to make our own alphabet book.
• Choose one or more activities and complete them with your child. The activities include things like sticking magnetic letters on the refrigerator and finding the letter of the day or shaping clay, modeling wax, or playdough into letter shapes.
• Play a game with Ziggy. This could be anything from a rhyming game to counting words or clapping syllables.
• Read aloud to your child for 20 minutes.

Letter Sounds

• Introduce the letter sound.
• Read the corresponding pages in either The Zigzag Zebra or Lizard Lou.
• Have your child do the sound matching sheet. And bonus points if you let your little kids cut out the pictures for each of the letters. It’s great for their fine motor skills.
• Play a game and/or do an activity with Ziggy. Some of these activities are riddles and others are activity sheets. There are also snack ideas to explore each letter sound.
• Read aloud to your child for 20 minutes.

Why Do We Love All About Reading – Pre-Reading?

There’s no need to prep lots of stuff ahead of time.

I spent more time unpacking the box that it came in and oohing and ahhing over it all than I did getting things ready to use. Isn’t that the truth! If you’re a homeschool mama, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. I looked through each of the books and separated the picture and letter sound cards. That was really about it. After that, we were ready to roll.

It’s teacher-friendly and that includes homeschool mamas too.

It literally tells you exactly what to say, which means it’s kinda impossible to mess up. The Teacher’s Manual also gives you tips and tools to use as you work through the program with your little kids. Every lesson tells you the objective as well as what you need and then everything that you’re supposed to do is listed with detailed instructions.

Lessons only take about 15-20 minutes.

And while we’re on the subject, each lesson teaches only one letter or sound. That means that All About Reading – Pre-Reading is anything but overwhelming. We did 2-3 lessons each week, but keep in mind that we started before he turned three, so that ended up working out really well for us. And we were also already in the habit of reading for at least 20 minutes every day.

Ziggy the Zebra. Need I say more?

With the All About Reading – Pre-Reading, Ziggy really is what it’s all about. The little guy loves him and he adds so much to our lessons. He’s both a teacher and a friend. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the little guy go over and get Ziggy just to hang out. It’s seriously the cutest thing in the world. Like I said, he loves that silly zebra.

The My Book of Letters is all kinds of awesome.

He loves making stuff and this was so easy to use. The pages are perforated and each page includes an alphabet craft sheet or activity sheet on the front and instructions on the back. We tore out each of the craft sheets as we finished it and made our own alphabet book.

The little guy loved it and learned a lot. 

When it’s all said and done, the only thing that really matters is the little guy and I can assure that he loved it. When I pulled out the Teacher’s Manual and sat down at my laptop to write this post, he asked me if we were going to do reading. You know, because there’s nothing better than hearing, “Are we doing reading, mommy?”

All About Reading – Pre-Reading really is awesome for kinesthetic learners like the little guy. Everything from Ziggy the Zebra to the letter and sound cards and even the cute animal stickers and progress chart are perfect for hands-on little kids. This program includes everything from coloring and cutting activities to rhyming games and riddles that encourage both fine motor and problem-solving skills.

I’m head over heels in love with All About Reading – Pre-Reading and I can’t recommend it enough. We’ve reviewed letters and letter sounds, learned how to identify the beginning and ending sounds in a word, and so much more. I definitely couldn’t ask for more from a pre-reading program. And of course now it’s just a matter of putting it all together.

Don’t forget to stop by next week if you’re interested in seeing what we’re up to with preschool homeschool!