May 2, 2024 • 18 mins
Discover the keys to unlocking your child's reading potential with Justine from New York, as she shares her journey through 'All About Reading: Level One'. Join us for an insightful exploration into how this comprehensive curriculum not only teaches the basics of phonics and vocabulary but also captivates young minds with interactive story-based learning. Justine's firsthand account with her five-and-a-half-year-old showcases the curriculum's ability to progress from the simple recognition of letter sounds to mastering complex phonetic teams. Imagine your child's delight as they manipulate magnetic letter tiles and witness words transform right before their eyes—a testament to the curriculum's engaging and tactile approach to education.
Since I used All About Reading: Pre-Reading with my son this year, we were able to compare and contrast the two levels, which will help you, the listener, decide which level would be best for your little learner to start with!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:48):
Welcome With us.
Today we have Justine from NewYork.
Hi Justine, hi Cheryl.
So Justine and I know eachother.
We kind of started out on ourhomeschooling journey together,
meeting in a Facebook grouplocally that were people
interested in homeschooling andmet up at the local library
because they have a homeschoolmeetup that.
We only went to that one timeand, even though it's an awesome
(01:10):
idea.
I always forget, so thank youfor being here Today.
We are going to talk about whatWe'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
All about reading level one.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, perfect, Because I did all about reading
the pre-reading.
Even though our kids are aboutthe same age, I obviously didn't
have enough faith in my son togo to level one, so I'm really
interested to see what you guysdid this year, you and your son,
and what the differences werebetween the pre-reading level.
So if you haven't yet listenedto that episode, that is the
(01:41):
first episode I did and, um, youcan go check that out.
So how, uh, let's see how oldwas your son when you did this
curriculum with him?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So we started in the in the fall of 2023.
So he was a little over fiveand a half when we started.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Okay, and then?
What subjects does it cut?
I mean, I know it's in thetitle all about reading, but
like, does it cover anythingelse?
Is it strictly reading?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
In the curriculum.
We look at blending, so theblending and I think it also
probably reviews what youlearned in the pre-reading.
So each lesson it does say, okay, we're going to learn these
four sounds for these lettersand then it'll get into blending
kind of once you've learnedsome of the letters.
And then along the way, onceyou get into reading the stories
(02:28):
, it'll go into a little bit ofvocabulary.
So if there's a, there was astory about a yak, so it
explained okay, before we readthe story, you know what is a
yak.
So a little bit of vocabulary.
And then along the way throughreading the stories it says,
okay, you know, after certainpage number, ask this question.
(02:49):
So it'll kind of get theirreading comprehension going as
well and also making predictionsmaybe what's going to happen.
Do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I like that.
Okay, yeah, we did not have thereading comprehension as much in
the pre-reading not like thatand it also sounds like there's
quite a bit of phonics mixedinto that and I only know that
from talking to a couple of themoms that I've had on the
podcast, like the phony makeawareness.
It sounds like you that it washeavily, it was heavily
(03:18):
intertwined into your curriculumwhere in the pre-reading we did
a very basic phonics Like Iwould say, because I did it
simultaneously with a differentphonics program.
Yeah, I, it was very light onthe phonics, which isn't a bad
thing.
It makes it so it's notoverwhelming for them.
So what did your day-to-daylook like with this curriculum?
(03:39):
You just talked a little bitabout the story with the yak and
the predictions.
What other things, um, like if,if you and your son sat down,
what could you expect to go overfor that lesson on a day-to-day
basis?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So, like I said in the beginning, maybe I don't
even know, maybe the first 15 orso lessons it goes through the
phonics of each letter.
You know what the sounds areand along the way it'll make
small words here and there.
So looking at a lesson, herewe'll have it's teaching.
(04:13):
The letter sounds H, k and R.
So in the beginning it'll havelittle.
It comes with yellow cards witheach letter on it and then
later, as we progress throughthe book, the curriculum, it'll
get into like they call themconsonant teams, so like T-H
makes or C-H or C-K, so thatsort of thing.
So we have yellow cards andthen you know we also have they
(04:38):
call them letter tiles.
So they're magnetic, so you canstick them to a magnetic board
or you can also download the app.
I chose the magnetic board.
It's free, they send it with.
They send it with thecurriculum, so I don't need to,
you know, go and and buy the app, which I think is around $20
for the app, so we'll learnthose sounds or new consonant
teams wherever you are at in thebook and then you'll kind of
(05:01):
get into.
The parent will first kind ofblend through a word.
So I'm looking here the firstword that we learned in this
specific lesson was rat.
So I would go through and, youknow, show him how the book
wants them to sound these wordsout and then you know it'll get
(05:22):
into him sounding out the nextword.
The next word was had.
You know this is lesson six.
So at this point you know we'vegone through a couple letters
so far and then it'll get intokind of playing, change the word
.
So we go from maybe the wordhad to the word ham.
You know, just changing oneletter showing that you can
(05:43):
change one letter will then makea whole new word.
And then within these specificones, these specific lessons
they also have sometimes there'sgames.
Each, each lesson will be adifferent game.
Maybe sometimes they'll repeatit and they also have in the
back of the book like anappendix which will show you
(06:04):
additional games if your childis struggling, or maybe they
just need something different toyou know, just different ideas
to give you to get them more,you know, want them to do it.
So that's the first type oflesson and then it gets into.
Then we also, along with theyellow cards, there are also
(06:24):
green cards.
So these are like the practicewords that you should have kind
of learned within this lessonwords that you should have kind
of learned within this lesson.
So this was like I'm probablylearning about.
You know the letter A and howthat sound is.
So rat hat rag had so soundingthat A for apple.
(06:45):
So, and then at the very endit'll get into this long sheet
of practice words, it'll getinto phrases and then practice
words it'll get into phrases andthen later on it gets into
sentences.
So before you finish the lesson, it's a good idea.
You know, my son had a littlebit struggle.
He didn't want to necessarilydo the entire sheet because some
(07:06):
of them can be long.
But I think it's very goodpractice for them.
It's reinforcing that ah, ah,that they should have learned,
and it's also going back and youknow, maybe they've already
learned, eh, that vowel as well.
So it's kind of going back andjust giving them lots of
(07:27):
practice along the way.
Basically, so a lesson.
Can you know, I feel like atthe very beginning it took us
maybe almost two weeks tocomplete a lesson.
Can you know, I feel like atthe very beginning it took us
maybe almost two weeks tocomplete a lesson and which the
book kind of recommends.
You know, it could take a day,it could take two weeks to
finish a lesson.
Um, now, I feel like maybe,depending on what lesson we're
doing, it takes maybe about aweek to finish a lesson.
(07:50):
So there's also along withlearning the letters.
Then, once you've kind ofgotten to a certain point in the
book, you learn either a newletter or a new consonant team,
which is again that CH or thatTH sound, and then it lets you
get into reading two stories perlesson.
So each of those stories,before you get into reading the
(08:12):
story, it will kind of go backthrough that practice sheet that
I had mentioned prior and it'llgive you the new words kind of
in that story so you canpractice it before you go and
read the story.
So it gives them a little, youknow, more confidence that they
know it when they go to read thestory.
And it'll go also give phrasesthat could be in the story as
(08:35):
well.
And then again it goes into thevocabulary and you know some
comprehension questions to askalong the way while you're
reading the story.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Okay.
And then thinking back to theall about reading, pre-reading,
that was 78 lessons, one lessona day is pretty adequate.
You know there was no.
Take this lesson and go over aweek.
You know it, really therewasn't that much to it.
So, um, those are some bigdifferences.
It sounds like and, and therewasn't like reading these
stories.
This was, uh, in thepre-reading.
(09:08):
It's much more um, pointed,with just the words and maybe
rhyming.
So those are some bigdifferences right there.
And then it's funny because Ihave recently started doing, uh,
teach your child to read in 100easy lessons I think that's the
title of it, and I'll do anepisode with somebody on that as
(09:30):
well, because that's beeninteresting to go through it and
it teaches like the a soundvery differently than what you
know.
This is teaching.
All about reading is teaching.
So, uh, I really liked the ideathat I had to do this
curriculum series because injust the three little, three or
four little things that I'veused for reading in this one
(09:51):
year, they've all had verydrastically different approaches
and it's so hard to know whatwould work best and how.
Would anyone know unless you atleast heard a 15 minute
conversation with somebody aboutit.
So thank you for being on theshow today and doing this.
How all right.
So you already said, one lessontakes about a week to complete.
Approximately how many lessonsdoes it have?
(10:12):
Like, the pre-reading has 78lessons, so it didn't quite
cover a full school year.
But if you had othersupplemental things, it would
not that it has to.
You know you can move along tothe level one whenever, but how
long do you think the level onetook to complete?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So there are 52 lessons.
I'm pretty sure it's 52 lessonsin level one.
We started, I think, inSeptember of 2023, and it is now
a month away, beginning ofMarch of 2024.
And we are only on Lesson 22.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Okay so it might take a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, I think it's going to definitely take
probably a full year for us tofinish this.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well.
So that's good for people torealize too, because if you
wanted to start with thepre-reading, that doesn't quite
take a year.
People to realize too.
Because if you wanted to startwith the pre-reading, that
doesn't quite take a year.
It's only 78 lessons.
That can all easily be done ina day.
You don't have to do five daysa week though with it, obviously
, but even still it doesn'tstretch out for quite a year.
So if you took one year to dothe pre-reading, and then you
(11:23):
know that's less than a year,and then another a little over a
year to do the level one,you're still averaging out to a
two year process.
You know, for, um, people whowere deciding which one to go to
do I do pre-reading or do I dothe level one?
Um, okay, so you did.
Do you remember how much thisone costs?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I believe I paid close to $200.
So you buy it comes with likethe activity book and like the
practice sheets, so that's onebook.
And then you get a teacher'smanual, which is another book.
And then they say the lettertiles that I had mentioned.
(12:02):
It comes with the letter tilesin a box.
That is a one-time purchase.
So it comes with the lettertiles, that a box.
That is a one-time purchase.
So it comes with the lettertiles that go all the way up to
I don't even know is it lessonor level four or five they have.
So that comes with everything.
So that's just a one-timepurchase.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And then can you use this with your other son when
it's time for him, or will youhave to purchase some of the
stuff new?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
No, so actually I didn't want to have to purchase
it again.
So I actually have been in the,in the, in the workbook, I'll
call it, with the practicesheets and like kind of the
games and sort of things.
You know they're perforatedpages, you can rip them out.
Some some activities have to becut out.
So I've actually, you know,kept everything nice and neat
(12:49):
and slipped it into folders, sonow I can go and reuse it for my
second son when he's, you know,at the age of reading, which
will be perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That was smart.
I didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
And you know now that you say that I I've heard of
people do like the TreehouseSchoolhouse.
Lady Lindsay, you take out theperforated page and put it
inside of like those clearsheets.
I can't think of the name now,but you know what I mean.
They're clear and then, as youwrite on it with the marker, you
can wipe off the marker afterthe lesson and then reuse it as
(13:25):
many times as you want.
Yeah, that would have been alot smarter for me to do.
Hey, I can't do it all.
I'm doing a podcast.
So you talked about the gamesand there are extra games in the
back of the book.
Was there any other fun littlestuff like that?
Crafts.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
No, we have not come across any crafty type things
yet.
I think it's kind of justlittle games, like you know.
They have like a picture of amonster, so I glued it to a
cardboard.
They say, glue it to a cerealbox.
I didn't have one, so I tooklike an Amazon box, I glued it
to it and so I've been lettinghim, as he reads his green cards
(14:05):
, which are like the reviewwords, him as he reads his green
cards, which are like thereview words, he's been, you
know, sliding the green cardsinto the monster's mouth as he
reads them.
He seems to like to do thatmore.
This isn't in the book, or, yeah, isn't in the book, but I kind
of he likes, you know, cars,trucks, motorcycles, whatever it
might be, bicycles, little toyones, and so I would just put a
(14:25):
bunch of words on the floor andlike let him drive his vehicle
or whatever it might be to theword and let him, you know,
sound out whatever word orphrase it was that he wanted to.
So I wasn't kind of forcingwhat he was doing.
Um, but there are plenty in theback of the book and that was
just kind of when I came up onmy own.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Oh, nice, yeah, you're crafty like that.
Okay, so you already talkedabout you can do this with
another child.
Could you do this curriculumwith two kids at one time, like
say, you had twins right now oryou had someone else's kids?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Um, I think you could , because you know, as you're
learning the, the phonetic cards, like each of the words or each
of the, the consonant teams,like the TH, you know, you could
probably make them both, youknow, sounded out at the same
time and then when you get into,like revealing the words, maybe
(15:24):
each child kind of alternatessaying a word when it gets into
reading the stories.
I feel like that part probablyhas to be separate because
that's something that a childthat you know, five or six years
old, definitely needs thepractice on.
So they're going to need toread a whole story to get that
practice.
So I think there's bits andpieces that you could do
together, definitely.
Your adjustments, yeah,practice on.
So they're going to need toread a whole story to get that
practice.
So I think there's bits andpieces that you could do
(15:45):
together, definitely.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Your adjustments.
Yeah, and then this isn't areligious program correct no no.
Yeah, I didn't remember therebeing any sort of religious
affiliations in this one.
Um, now, was there anythingthat you didn't like about this
curriculum?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Now was there anything that you didn't like
about this curriculum.
In the beginning, you know, Ithought that it was going to be
very boring and I had askedother people you know what are
some other curriculums out therethat might be more engaging.
But I got the response of it'sa great curriculum, don't change
.
And I said, okay, fine, likeyou know, I you know posted on
(16:24):
one of the Facebook groupshomeschool groups and everyone
said to use it.
So I said, okay, fine, I'lljust stick it out.
And you know what I, I reallylike it.
Now.
I I think it's been great.
I mean, again, we're only onlesson 22.
We kind of go at a slow pacebut he can any word I give him.
He can sound out like he'smastered.
He may be not mastered, youknow, seeing the word hat and
(16:48):
knowing it says hat, but he cansound it out Like no problem, he
can sound out any word.
So I think it's been reallygreat and I I would definitely
recommend it to anyone.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, People definitelyrecommended this one.
When I had put things onFacebook or Instagram about
curriculums, they were veryheavily.
You don't know if that's liketheir marketing, like do they
just the most well-marketedcurriculum around or do people
actually use it and like it?
But yeah, I agree it's.
Sometimes it's like justgetting in the routine and
(17:20):
getting your kid in the routineof like this is what it's going
to be.
And then they get more used toit, and we get more used to it
as we're comfortable with it.
So would you use this againwith you?
Have a younger son that will becoming up uh, you know doing
the reading, so would you usethis curriculum with him?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, I'll definitely use it again and you know, once
my oldest graduates from oncewe finished level one, then I'll
definitely move on to level two.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Perfect.
Well, thank you so much fortalking about all about reading
level one with us today.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Thank you, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my
Curriculum, a series where wetalk all about curriculum.
I've been interviewinghomeschooling families for over
a year now on my main podcast,the Homeschool How-To, but I
really wanted to zero in oncurriculum.
There's so much out there.
How do I know what would workbest for me and my child?
How do I know what works forone child would work for the
other?
I might like the curriculum I'musing now, but how do I know
(00:25):
there's not a better one outthere, especially if I don't
know all the curriculums?
And what about supplementalcurriculum?
Should I be using that too?
This series is to help youdecide just that.
I'm going to interview parentswho are using all the
curriculums so that you candecide the absolute best way to
unfold your homeschoolingjourney.
The absolute best way to unfoldyour homeschooling journey.
(00:48):
Welcome With us.
Today we have Justine from NewYork.
Hi Justine, hi Cheryl.
So Justine and I know eachother.
We kind of started out on ourhomeschooling journey together,
meeting in a Facebook grouplocally that were people
interested in homeschooling andmet up at the local library
because they have a homeschoolmeetup that.
We only went to that one timeand, even though it's an awesome
(01:10):
idea.
I always forget, so thank youfor being here Today.
We are going to talk about whatWe'll talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
All about reading level one.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, perfect, Because I did all about reading
the pre-reading.
Even though our kids are aboutthe same age, I obviously didn't
have enough faith in my son togo to level one, so I'm really
interested to see what you guysdid this year, you and your son,
and what the differences werebetween the pre-reading level.
So if you haven't yet listenedto that episode, that is the
(01:41):
first episode I did and, um, youcan go check that out.
So how, uh, let's see how oldwas your son when you did this
curriculum with him?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So we started in the in the fall of 2023.
So he was a little over fiveand a half when we started.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Okay, and then?
What subjects does it cut?
I mean, I know it's in thetitle all about reading, but
like, does it cover anythingelse?
Is it strictly reading?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
In the curriculum.
We look at blending, so theblending and I think it also
probably reviews what youlearned in the pre-reading.
So each lesson it does say, okay, we're going to learn these
four sounds for these lettersand then it'll get into blending
kind of once you've learnedsome of the letters.
And then along the way, onceyou get into reading the stories
(02:28):
, it'll go into a little bit ofvocabulary.
So if there's a, there was astory about a yak, so it
explained okay, before we readthe story, you know what is a
yak.
So a little bit of vocabulary.
And then along the way throughreading the stories it says,
okay, you know, after certainpage number, ask this question.
(02:49):
So it'll kind of get theirreading comprehension going as
well and also making predictionsmaybe what's going to happen.
Do you think?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I like that.
Okay, yeah, we did not have thereading comprehension as much in
the pre-reading not like thatand it also sounds like there's
quite a bit of phonics mixedinto that and I only know that
from talking to a couple of themoms that I've had on the
podcast, like the phony makeawareness.
It sounds like you that it washeavily, it was heavily
(03:18):
intertwined into your curriculumwhere in the pre-reading we did
a very basic phonics Like Iwould say, because I did it
simultaneously with a differentphonics program.
Yeah, I, it was very light onthe phonics, which isn't a bad
thing.
It makes it so it's notoverwhelming for them.
So what did your day-to-daylook like with this curriculum?
(03:39):
You just talked a little bitabout the story with the yak and
the predictions.
What other things, um, like if,if you and your son sat down,
what could you expect to go overfor that lesson on a day-to-day
basis?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
So, like I said in the beginning, maybe I don't
even know, maybe the first 15 orso lessons it goes through the
phonics of each letter.
You know what the sounds areand along the way it'll make
small words here and there.
So looking at a lesson, herewe'll have it's teaching.
(04:13):
The letter sounds H, k and R.
So in the beginning it'll havelittle.
It comes with yellow cards witheach letter on it and then
later, as we progress throughthe book, the curriculum, it'll
get into like they call themconsonant teams, so like T-H
makes or C-H or C-K, so thatsort of thing.
So we have yellow cards andthen you know we also have they
(04:38):
call them letter tiles.
So they're magnetic, so you canstick them to a magnetic board
or you can also download the app.
I chose the magnetic board.
It's free, they send it with.
They send it with thecurriculum, so I don't need to,
you know, go and and buy the app, which I think is around $20
for the app, so we'll learnthose sounds or new consonant
teams wherever you are at in thebook and then you'll kind of
(05:01):
get into.
The parent will first kind ofblend through a word.
So I'm looking here the firstword that we learned in this
specific lesson was rat.
So I would go through and, youknow, show him how the book
wants them to sound these wordsout and then you know it'll get
(05:22):
into him sounding out the nextword.
The next word was had.
You know this is lesson six.
So at this point you know we'vegone through a couple letters
so far and then it'll get intokind of playing, change the word
.
So we go from maybe the wordhad to the word ham.
You know, just changing oneletter showing that you can
(05:43):
change one letter will then makea whole new word.
And then within these specificones, these specific lessons
they also have sometimes there'sgames.
Each, each lesson will be adifferent game.
Maybe sometimes they'll repeatit and they also have in the
back of the book like anappendix which will show you
(06:04):
additional games if your childis struggling, or maybe they
just need something different toyou know, just different ideas
to give you to get them more,you know, want them to do it.
So that's the first type oflesson and then it gets into.
Then we also, along with theyellow cards, there are also
(06:24):
green cards.
So these are like the practicewords that you should have kind
of learned within this lessonwords that you should have kind
of learned within this lesson.
So this was like I'm probablylearning about.
You know the letter A and howthat sound is.
So rat hat rag had so soundingthat A for apple.
(06:45):
So, and then at the very endit'll get into this long sheet
of practice words, it'll getinto phrases and then practice
words it'll get into phrases andthen later on it gets into
sentences.
So before you finish the lesson, it's a good idea.
You know, my son had a littlebit struggle.
He didn't want to necessarilydo the entire sheet because some
(07:06):
of them can be long.
But I think it's very goodpractice for them.
It's reinforcing that ah, ah,that they should have learned,
and it's also going back and youknow, maybe they've already
learned, eh, that vowel as well.
So it's kind of going back andjust giving them lots of
(07:27):
practice along the way.
Basically, so a lesson.
Can you know, I feel like atthe very beginning it took us
maybe almost two weeks tocomplete a lesson.
Can you know, I feel like atthe very beginning it took us
maybe almost two weeks tocomplete a lesson and which the
book kind of recommends.
You know, it could take a day,it could take two weeks to
finish a lesson.
Um, now, I feel like maybe,depending on what lesson we're
doing, it takes maybe about aweek to finish a lesson.
(07:50):
So there's also along withlearning the letters.
Then, once you've kind ofgotten to a certain point in the
book, you learn either a newletter or a new consonant team,
which is again that CH or thatTH sound, and then it lets you
get into reading two stories perlesson.
So each of those stories,before you get into reading the
(08:12):
story, it will kind of go backthrough that practice sheet that
I had mentioned prior and it'llgive you the new words kind of
in that story so you canpractice it before you go and
read the story.
So it gives them a little, youknow, more confidence that they
know it when they go to read thestory.
And it'll go also give phrasesthat could be in the story as
(08:35):
well.
And then again it goes into thevocabulary and you know some
comprehension questions to askalong the way while you're
reading the story.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Okay.
And then thinking back to theall about reading, pre-reading,
that was 78 lessons, one lessona day is pretty adequate.
You know there was no.
Take this lesson and go over aweek.
You know it, really therewasn't that much to it.
So, um, those are some bigdifferences.
It sounds like and, and therewasn't like reading these
stories.
This was, uh, in thepre-reading.
(09:08):
It's much more um, pointed,with just the words and maybe
rhyming.
So those are some bigdifferences right there.
And then it's funny because Ihave recently started doing, uh,
teach your child to read in 100easy lessons I think that's the
title of it, and I'll do anepisode with somebody on that as
(09:30):
well, because that's beeninteresting to go through it and
it teaches like the a soundvery differently than what you
know.
This is teaching.
All about reading is teaching.
So, uh, I really liked the ideathat I had to do this
curriculum series because injust the three little, three or
four little things that I'veused for reading in this one
(09:51):
year, they've all had verydrastically different approaches
and it's so hard to know whatwould work best and how.
Would anyone know unless you atleast heard a 15 minute
conversation with somebody aboutit.
So thank you for being on theshow today and doing this.
How all right.
So you already said, one lessontakes about a week to complete.
Approximately how many lessonsdoes it have?
(10:12):
Like, the pre-reading has 78lessons, so it didn't quite
cover a full school year.
But if you had othersupplemental things, it would
not that it has to.
You know you can move along tothe level one whenever, but how
long do you think the level onetook to complete?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So there are 52 lessons.
I'm pretty sure it's 52 lessonsin level one.
We started, I think, inSeptember of 2023, and it is now
a month away, beginning ofMarch of 2024.
And we are only on Lesson 22.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Okay so it might take a little bit longer.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, I think it's going to definitely take
probably a full year for us tofinish this.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well.
So that's good for people torealize too, because if you
wanted to start with thepre-reading, that doesn't quite
take a year.
People to realize too.
Because if you wanted to startwith the pre-reading, that
doesn't quite take a year.
It's only 78 lessons.
That can all easily be done ina day.
You don't have to do five daysa week though with it, obviously
, but even still it doesn'tstretch out for quite a year.
So if you took one year to dothe pre-reading, and then you
(11:23):
know that's less than a year,and then another a little over a
year to do the level one,you're still averaging out to a
two year process.
You know, for, um, people whowere deciding which one to go to
do I do pre-reading or do I dothe level one?
Um, okay, so you did.
Do you remember how much thisone costs?
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I believe I paid close to $200.
So you buy it comes with likethe activity book and like the
practice sheets, so that's onebook.
And then you get a teacher'smanual, which is another book.
And then they say the lettertiles that I had mentioned.
(12:02):
It comes with the letter tilesin a box.
That is a one-time purchase.
So it comes with the lettertiles, that a box.
That is a one-time purchase.
So it comes with the lettertiles that go all the way up to
I don't even know is it lessonor level four or five they have.
So that comes with everything.
So that's just a one-timepurchase.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
And then can you use this with your other son when
it's time for him, or will youhave to purchase some of the
stuff new?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
No, so actually I didn't want to have to purchase
it again.
So I actually have been in the,in the, in the workbook, I'll
call it, with the practicesheets and like kind of the
games and sort of things.
You know they're perforatedpages, you can rip them out.
Some some activities have to becut out.
So I've actually, you know,kept everything nice and neat
(12:49):
and slipped it into folders, sonow I can go and reuse it for my
second son when he's, you know,at the age of reading, which
will be perfect.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
That was smart.
I didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
And you know now that you say that I I've heard of
people do like the TreehouseSchoolhouse.
Lady Lindsay, you take out theperforated page and put it
inside of like those clearsheets.
I can't think of the name now,but you know what I mean.
They're clear and then, as youwrite on it with the marker, you
can wipe off the marker afterthe lesson and then reuse it as
(13:25):
many times as you want.
Yeah, that would have been alot smarter for me to do.
Hey, I can't do it all.
I'm doing a podcast.
So you talked about the gamesand there are extra games in the
back of the book.
Was there any other fun littlestuff like that?
Crafts.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
No, we have not come across any crafty type things
yet.
I think it's kind of justlittle games, like you know.
They have like a picture of amonster, so I glued it to a
cardboard.
They say, glue it to a cerealbox.
I didn't have one, so I tooklike an Amazon box, I glued it
to it and so I've been lettinghim, as he reads his green cards
(14:05):
, which are like the reviewwords, him as he reads his green
cards, which are like thereview words, he's been, you
know, sliding the green cardsinto the monster's mouth as he
reads them.
He seems to like to do thatmore.
This isn't in the book, or, yeah, isn't in the book, but I kind
of he likes, you know, cars,trucks, motorcycles, whatever it
might be, bicycles, little toyones, and so I would just put a
(14:25):
bunch of words on the floor andlike let him drive his vehicle
or whatever it might be to theword and let him, you know,
sound out whatever word orphrase it was that he wanted to.
So I wasn't kind of forcingwhat he was doing.
Um, but there are plenty in theback of the book and that was
just kind of when I came up onmy own.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Oh, nice, yeah, you're crafty like that.
Okay, so you already talkedabout you can do this with
another child.
Could you do this curriculumwith two kids at one time, like
say, you had twins right now oryou had someone else's kids?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Um, I think you could , because you know, as you're
learning the, the phonetic cards, like each of the words or each
of the, the consonant teams,like the TH, you know, you could
probably make them both, youknow, sounded out at the same
time and then when you get into,like revealing the words, maybe
(15:24):
each child kind of alternatessaying a word when it gets into
reading the stories.
I feel like that part probablyhas to be separate because
that's something that a childthat you know, five or six years
old, definitely needs thepractice on.
So they're going to need toread a whole story to get that
practice.
So I think there's bits andpieces that you could do
together, definitely.
Your adjustments, yeah,practice on.
So they're going to need toread a whole story to get that
practice.
So I think there's bits andpieces that you could do
(15:45):
together, definitely.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Your adjustments.
Yeah, and then this isn't areligious program correct no no.
Yeah, I didn't remember therebeing any sort of religious
affiliations in this one.
Um, now, was there anythingthat you didn't like about this
curriculum?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Now was there anything that you didn't like
about this curriculum.
In the beginning, you know, Ithought that it was going to be
very boring and I had askedother people you know what are
some other curriculums out therethat might be more engaging.
But I got the response of it'sa great curriculum, don't change
.
And I said, okay, fine, likeyou know, I you know posted on
(16:24):
one of the Facebook groupshomeschool groups and everyone
said to use it.
So I said, okay, fine, I'lljust stick it out.
And you know what I, I reallylike it.
Now.
I I think it's been great.
I mean, again, we're only onlesson 22.
We kind of go at a slow pacebut he can any word I give him.
He can sound out like he'smastered.
He may be not mastered, youknow, seeing the word hat and
(16:48):
knowing it says hat, but he cansound it out Like no problem, he
can sound out any word.
So I think it's been reallygreat and I I would definitely
recommend it to anyone.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah, People definitelyrecommended this one.
When I had put things onFacebook or Instagram about
curriculums, they were veryheavily.
You don't know if that's liketheir marketing, like do they
just the most well-marketedcurriculum around or do people
actually use it and like it?
But yeah, I agree it's.
Sometimes it's like justgetting in the routine and
(17:20):
getting your kid in the routineof like this is what it's going
to be.
And then they get more used toit, and we get more used to it
as we're comfortable with it.
So would you use this againwith you?
Have a younger son that will becoming up uh, you know doing
the reading, so would you usethis curriculum with him?
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Yeah, I'll definitely use it again and you know, once
my oldest graduates from oncewe finished level one, then I'll
definitely move on to level two.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Perfect.
Well, thank you so much fortalking about all about reading
level one with us today.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Thank you, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
Please consider sharing thispodcast or my main podcast, the
Homeschool how To with friends,family, on Instagram or in your
favorite homeschool groupFacebook page.
The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it
going and the more hope we havefor the future.
Thank you for your love of thenext generation.
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