We used the very old curriculum called Rod and Staff for my son for first grade. It’s faith based which we loved. It’s a bit outdated but the phonics portion is excellent and my son is able to read so well, we’re very impressed! I’m planning to use that for first grade for my 3 girls so they get the same solid foundation my son did. I’m planning to switch to the good and the beautiful moving forward because the open and go concept seems like it will really help me stay on top of all the things.
All About Reading is the one curriculum that highly recommended to everyone! It does exactly what it is designed to do. My 1st grader is on level 2 & I’m very impressed at her reading abilities. She’s very confident & has started reading those chapter-picture books already. We only focus on reading, once we master all levels of AAR, we’ll move on to a LA curriculum. For math, my 4th grader is doing Teaching Textbooks. My 1st grader is using Math w/ Confidence, which I have not found my groove with yet. We currently have 97 books checked out from the library. These are a mix of social studies books & a ton of readers. Daily reading is mandatory in our homeschool.
Love all your encouragement and real life talk! Blesses my heart! PS where did you get your motherhood is my ministry shirt?! What a great reminder to wear throughout the day!
I think sometimes when a child is a more reluctant reader, all the fluff in TGTB actually bogs down the learning process. TGTB has worked well for two of mine but not the others.
Oh my goodness, thank you for this video! I have four kiddos homeschooling (4th, 2nd, k, and pre-k in the fall) and my 2nd grader has done TGTB since preschool and is really struggling with letter blends and reading. I have been considering trying all about reading for the next school year and I have been struggling to make the decision. I'm so glad to watch this video as it's giving me some confirmation that it's okay to make the switch! Will also look in to the language arts curriculum as well!
I'm combining Learning to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and The Reading Lesson right now with my daughter as sort of a summer reading boot camp. We do about 20 minutes a day in each book. We're 3 weeks in and I'm truly impressed. She's already gone from not being able to tell the difference between b and d to reading three syllable words. I highly recommend it if you need to supplement AAR.
We loved all about reading!! We also supplemented with reading eggs, which is an app, hope you have a great year! Thank you for sharing your curriculum!
I have an upcoming 2nd grader as well. I will have a 12th grader, 10th, 8th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, K and then a 4 and 2 year old. ❤ You made some great choices!
I think you will love AAR. We did level 1 in kindergarten and then tried to do TGTB level 1 this year for 1st. We ended going back and doing level 2 AAR. I feel AAR does a more thorough job at teaching reading, especially with teaching them how to break down multiple syllable words. Plus tons of review! We finished level 1 TGTB but used it more for review and the grammar/writing.
Oh my gosh I'm so glad i just stumbled across you today. I'm in the same boat with my 2nd grader. He really struggles to read and it's been such a battle. I also question some very slight possible dyslexia issues but I'm not fully convinced thats what is going on. He's such a math and numbers kid like his engineer dad and he just hates trying to read. I'm totally going to copy you and step away from good and beautiful and try all about reading. 🤞that it works for you and for us!
The answer key part made me laugh, I definitely need the answer key too, especially for math! We’re planning to buy the math 2 by the good and the beautiful for my second grader this upcoming fall as well. I’m really looking forward to switching to their curriculum. Also, thanks for sharing about the copy work, I’m going to buy that one for my son as well 👏🏻
Great video! I hope your little guy makes great progress with All About Reading. I know it can be frustrating for both of you when reading feels hard! I wonder if there’s a podcast devotion you could find for him to listen to and draw what he’s learning?!
I am in the same boat with my daughter. I also feel she has a mild form of dyslexia. She knows all her kindergarten sounds but struggles with all of the 1st grade components. We went in with 1st grade TGAB, and although I think it is a beautiful curriculum… it’s not working for my daughter who’s a struggling reader. She also gets overwhelmed by so many words in one page. I wish I knew of AAR. I’d love to change now but it is so expensive. Anyone know if they do monthly payments?
