Skip to content
All About Reading Level 1 Full-Color Edition
More Views:
Level 1:
All About Reading Level 1 will gently take your child from not knowing how to read, to skillfully reading the included fun chapter books. Using dozens of activities and games, plus 52 integrated and fully decodable phonics-based stories, All About Reading Level 1 takes the guesswork out of beginning to read. Children will learn letter sounds for A-Z, plus some consonant teams such as TH, NG, and more. Stories start very simple, “Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap the jam,” with illustrations providing explanation and humor. They systematically build to more complex words and plots, “‘Gumpdrops? Pop? The list had buns and milk,’ said Mom in shock. ‘I lost the list, but I got lots of stuff,’ said Finn.”
All About Reading
All About Reading (AAR) is the multisensory, mastery-based program that you’ve been hearing so much about. Suitable for all ages, and with activities that benefit all learning styles, AAR teaches phonics, decoding, fluency, and comprehension in a fun and engaging way. Moving at a gentler pace than other more intense reading programs, with AAR only one new concept is taught at a time. Their precept-upon-precept program works with all kids and AAR’s built-in review system helps learning to stick. The progressive introduction of letters introduces vowels with consonants in a way that will allow your child to begin reading almost immediately. We particularly like how AAR integrates phonics instruction and phonics readers into a single comprehensive program, so they correlate directly with each other.
And you will be thrilled to know that no prior training is needed; AAR has lightly-scripted and illustrated “open and go” lessons that make your job easy and stress-free. Lessons are taught in short, manageable chunks, as the author recommends students spend no more than 20 minutes a day learning to read, plus another 20 listening to a read-aloud. Based on the Orton-Gillingham Approach, 97% of English words can be learned according to phonetic rules, leaving only 3% to be learned as sight words. The student activity books add a lot of variety to the lessons and provide additional support. The phonetic readers are the best we have ever seen – beautifully illustrated hardcover books with finely detailed full-color drawings. The complete AAR program consists of five levels from PreK through third grade.
Our Level 1 Deluxe (with Tiles) Set:
The All About Reading Level 1 Deluxe Kit is our recommended set. It is the All About Reading system containing all the components required for teaching Level 1 with letter tiles and magnets added, as well as a sturdy reading tote bag. These physical letter tiles and magnets can take the place of the Letter Tiles app that we recommend for users of our app-dependent kit. For families who prefer a less technological, more tactile approach, the AAR Level 1 with Tiles Set may be the perfect choice. Find more information and comparisons below.
The All About Reading Level 1 Deluxe includes the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Student Packet with Activity Book, three readers, the Reader Divider Cards, and the Reading Review Box, plus Letter Tiles, Magnets, Tote Bag, and the supplementary Phonograms Sounds App. You may also want to add a magnetic whiteboard, which is recommended but not required.
Our Level 1 App-Dependent Set:
The All About Reading Level 1 App-Dependent Set contains all the essential books and review box required for teaching Level 1, but no Letter Tiles. Instead, your family will purchase the Letter Tiles app, available for tablets on various app stores. The Letter Tiles app is an innovative, phenomenally effective, and incredibly convenient way to implement hands-on learning and practice with All About Reading. Find more information and comparisons below.
The Level 1 App-Dependent Set includes the Level 1 Teacher's Manual, Student Packet with Activity Book, three readers, the Reader Divider Cards, and the Reading Review Box. You’ll also need to add the Letter Tiles app, available on iTunes, Google Play, and the Kindle app store.
App-Based vs. Magnetic Tiles
For our Timberdoodle curriculum kits, we’ve opted for the Deluxe Set that includes the Letter Tiles. This provides the hands-on aspect of real tiles, and equips you to teach with no requirement of access to a tablet or additional purchase of an app. However, since the Letter Tiles app allows for incredible ease of use and storage, if convenience is your top priority, the App-Dependent Kit may be the choice for you.
Here is a brief comparison of the two options:
With the physical letter tiles (Deluxe):
With the Letter Tiles app (required for the App-Dependent Kit):
All About Reading Level 1 Deluxe includes:
Level 1 App-Dependent Set includes:
Already own the Letter Tiles or App, Reading Divider Cards, and Reading Review Box?
You can get the Student and Teacher Materials Only option, which includes:
(Requires Letter Tiles or App & Review Box + Divider Cards):
Teaching Multiple Students?
Each additional student will need an Extra Student Set, which includes:
Already own the Letter Tiles or App, Reading Divider Cards, Reading Review Box, and Teacher's Manual?
You can get the Student Pack Only option, which includes just the Student Packet (activity book, flashcards, and stickers) - Download an activity book sample PDF here.
Please note: You do need the Letter Tiles app or the physical Letter Tiles, the Reading Divider Cards, the Reading Review Box, and the Teacher's Manual in order to be able to use this set. If you do not have these items, please purchase the Deluxe or App-Dependent Set.
Level 1 Placement and Skills
Not sure if this is the right level for your student? Download the placement test.
What will my student learn in Level 1?
Your student will learn exciting new concepts, including letter sounds, phonograms, consonant teams, blending, syllables, sight words, consonant blends, plurals, compound words, and much more. Every component of reading is taught: decoding (phonics and structural analysis), vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Below is a sampling in each area.
All About Reading Level 1 Scope and Sequence.
Publisher: All About Learning Press
Faith-Based?: No
review by Joyful Wife Life
”All About Reading is one of those classic materials that tend to be a favorite amongst many homeschoolers. It's no wonder why, this curriculum makes teaching a child easy and makes learning to read fun for the child.”
Read the Review
review by Mama Smiles
”Parents and children reading books together is such an important piece of developing literacy! I was thrilled to see that this program has children read as part of each lesson.”
Read the Review
review by Fil-Am Teacher Mommy
”Our family has yet to find another program that packs so much quality content and materials to be a comprehensive reading program.”
Read the ReviewWe love this whole kit! I am not very creative and find it overwhelming to find activities to match learning different subjects so the beautiful pictures and games are a quick, amazing part of this curriculum. To be honest, we had a rough go of the first 10 or so lessons but only because my daughter is extremely strong-willed and had no desire to read. She has since zoomed ahead and finished 25+ lessons in about two and half months: Mom is super excited and she is feeling extra confident in her ability to learn to do her favorite activity (read!) by herself and to her younger brother. Another thing that I loved was that All About Reading gets the students learning almost from the first lesson! The only minuscule drawback is that you do have to cut out a lot of activities but they are already provided and explained so that's fantastic. I have learned to limit the lessons (AAR recommends 15-20 minutes) as some lessons have lots of information to cover and others not a whole lot. The app for the sounds of letters is especially helpful :) Love, love, love it!
We got this in our Kindergarten kit when it was not in full color. We found my daughter was not ready and shelved it while we worked through Pre-Reading level. When we did start this, she did well in it. She did not like that the readers were black and white so the full color version would have helped there. She did learn really well with this program and we are finishing level 2 now and plan to use it all the way through level 4. I got the app for this level and continue to use it. We are on the go quite a bit and I like that I can use the app and do lessons outside or while traveling with ease.
I was really nervous to teach reading bc its a lot. This kit really got her attention and had all the guidelines to follow. It had the cutest little games for many lessons that my daughter loved to play and would do on her own after school time. Def continuing with this program!
I LOVE AAR! I’ve tried two other reading programs and they just didn’t work for my daughter. AAR is our Goldilocks reading program! I love the multi sensory approach, it’s a game changer.
Our family LOVES AAR. It makes reading so much fun with all the bright colorful pages and little activities. There is some parent prep when you initially get the program but the day to day prep is very little (mostly cutting which my kids love to help with). Great for visual learners. I have several students using AAR and everyone happily does their daily reading lessons. Love everything about it!
