Little Bug and I just completed the first lesson of All About Reading Level 1 and I can already say that I LOVE this program! What’s even better than me loving it is Little Bug is loving it too!

I was skeptical about starting phonics lessons with Little Bug because she is just a ball of energy and I wasn’t sure she would sit long enough for me to teach her phonics. I began AAR Level 1 with her knowing that I would stop instruction at any time that I felt she wasn’t ready developmentally to learn to read.

We completed lesson 1 in two days. Each day we spent about 15-20 minutes on the lesson. After reading the way Delightful Learning taught her daughter with AAR Level 1, I decided to do the same. Teach one lesson per week but teach the lesson over 1-3 days.

The lesson began with reviewing the sounds of four letters: a, p, m and s. Then we started making CVC words with those four letters. Little Bug was totally into this! She was forming words using the letter tiles, sounding them out and reading them. I was so proud of her!

The second day we started by reviewing briefly what we had done the first day. Little Bug pulled those four letter tiles out and we started making CVC words. But then, she wanted to pull down more letters, which was absolutely fine, until she was putting letters together that didn’t make a word. She was getting frustrated and I was trying to tell her to put –ap or –am together and make words from that.

When Little Bug gets an idea in her mind though, she cannot be swayed!

No matter what I said, she would NOT listen to me! This drives me to the point of complete frustration with her so I got up and just walked away and shut myself in the bedroom where Dave was working. I vented to him about what was going on, cooled off, and then went back to Little Bug who was still manipulating the letter tiles, trying to make words.

Upon my return and to my astonishment Little Bug announced, “Mommy! I need a vowel in the middle and then I can make words.”

She had made several words while I was gone and then she asked me to make five words for her to read by herself.

I am proud of my girl, proud of myself (for walking away when I felt my frustrations rising) and I am so thankful that we chose All About Reading for phonics instruction. The multi-sensory approach to learning is absolutely perfect for my kinesthetic learner. Those letter tiles draw Little Bug into the lesson. The consonants are blue and the vowels are red. I am pretty sure that helped Little Bug figure out she needed a vowel in the middle to create real words that she could sound out and read.

Lesson 1 finished up with a worksheet that was the perfect reinforcement for what she had learned. She cut out the four words (Sam, Pam, sap and map) and glued them to the correct picture on the page.

Sure, we are just one lesson in, but I have a very good feeling about this curriculum!

- Elaine