Bam! My Daughter Can Read!

 

My daughter stalked patiently waited for her All About Reading materials to come in.  Never have I seen the Monster so excited about school, and it hadn't technically started yet!   

Of course, I have to say, if there is one downfall to this program, this was it...

Yep.  Those are a zillion little stick on magnets for those letter tiles.

That's all the little flash cards, that I had to tear at the perforations.

But hey, really, if that's my only complaint, this system is WELL WORTH IT!

SIDE NOTE

If you're going to go for this system, the Deluxe Version with the swanky tote is pretty kick ass.  The tote holds everything and is super sturdy, making it perfect for us because we tend to switch from the dining room table to the kitchen table, because having both my kids in one room doesn't always work... plus, having that handy box for all those cards I carefully perforated just makes sense.

What has really made this so different for my daughter so far is that it builds slowly on what she knows.   Each lesson has a few letters to focus on, along with words that those letters can interchange to make.  This gives her a level of confidence that she didn't find previously with other programs.  Those pesky damn tiles?  Well, they're pretty damn awesome!  Having her slide them around to make words gave her something more fun than just practicing her handwriting over... and over... and over...

Plus, they are color coded, so blue is for consonants and red is for vowels,  a concept she picked up on first thing. 

The teacher's manual was intense, with step by step instructions for how to not fuck it up get the most out of the lesson, and with ways to liven it up a little, make it more fun.  The work sheets give her a fun activity, a little cut, paste, and color that makes it feel like art class.  Definitely more on that later. 

When it finally came time to read her first book, it was a roaring success!  Even though there were only a handful of words, they were all built with combos and letters she was comfortable with, so instead of growing frustrated, she grew more and more confident. 

 There was much cheering, and many, many re-reads.  Seriously, if I have to hear about the damn ferret and the pan and Bam! one more time, I might lose my shit. 



Still, I rate it more than worthwhile to see my daughter so excited to pick up a book and read. 

Part of the lesson is to read aloud to your student after each lesson.  Although we made that a part of our routine anyways, I love that All About Reading makes a point to incorporate it into the lesson plan. 

We're currently reading about the Warrior Cats, which has hooked my daughter on a whole knew level. 

We can plow through a few chapters of those adventures before she gets tired of sitting there.  Mostly because she's obsessed with the youtube videos based on them.  Eh, I'll take what I can get.