All About Reading Level 3 review for Timberdoodle

All About Reading Level 3

A review for Timberdoodle

All About Reading Level 3 was sent to us by Timberdoodle to use and review. I was really excited for this experience since we have had a hard time finding a Language Arts curriculum that has worked for us.
Here is what you get with the Deluxe Kit in the All About Reading Level 3:
*Teacher's manual
*Student Activity book
*2 reading books
*Flash cards/ review cards
*Box for review cards with dividers
*Letter Tiles with magnets
*Tote Bag for easy storage
*Phonogram Sounds App

So, it's a lot of stuff and honestly it was a lot of prep to get it all set up. The flashcards come printed on sheets of cardstock and it all had to be cut apart. If I thought about it better, I would have used a paper cutter instead of hand scissors. Then all of the Letter Tiles had to be torn apart with a little magnet square added to the back. All together it took a few hours to prep all of the tiles and flash cards.
This set is included in the Grade 2 Curriculum kit. It is a great resource for reading, language arts and phonics awareness.
There is an assessment in the link of the AAR product that you can give your child to see if this is the right level for them. I actually had a hard time deciding if this was the right fit for my 2nd grader. Turns out, it wasn't. Mr A is 8 and in second grade, but he's probably more of a first grade level reading. He could read all of the words on the assessment, but slowly and the number of pages or amount of words on a page gives him anxiety.

This is a page from one of the reading books and this was way too much for him. He's gaining more confidence now, but I still have to read to him when there are pages with this many words on them. We do love the stories in the readers though.
I have noticed however, that this curriculum has been better suited for us to use the pieces individually than as a daily lesson. We use the readers for reading before bedtime. We take the Letter Tiles and a magnet board in the car to build words. The flash cards/ review cards we pull out randomly for review, but now that my kindergartener is starting to learn letter sounds, we use them more for him in phonics review.

We do love the Letter Tiles. We used a cookie sheet to stick them too for awhile, but it was heavy and luckily I found a smaller one that is better for travel. I would say a word and Mr A would use the Letter Tiles and try to spell it.

Here is a page from the Teacher's Manual. It is easy to follow and layed out nicely, but I haven't used it much. I personally, am not attracted to the book since it's all black and white. I do better with colorful pages. I get a general idea of the lesson and wing it. I think Mr A, my 2nd grader is the same way. He hasn't been willing to do the activities in the activity book, unless I color them first.

This one above, was one that I colored first. It had review words on the strip and we tried to read them as quickly as possible. You can see in his body language and facial expression that this isn't his favorite thing.

There is a of variety of activities in the Student book. This one above is a little flip book that we haven't done yet to practice the suffix ending -ness. 

The flash cards have been a great tool for practicing words, letter blends, phonics of individual letter, vowel teams etc. I love the storage box and the dividers. It's easy to find what was mastered, needs review and what is up-coming. I have been using these on occasion with the kindergartener too for letter phonics. He struggles with Language Arts, so any practice helps. 

But, like I've said before, we do love this curriculum, but as individual components. I think that is what makes learning at home worthwhile. That, you can use what is available in any way that you see fit. The daily structured lessons don't work for us as a family. We take what we are given and use it in ways that fits us. The kids are learning what they need in a way that is special for them.

Mr A says that he likes the Letter Tiles the best because "I can spell the words without writing with a pencil."

My advice also is, be careful choosing the level of curriculum for your child. Mr A was overwhelmed with the amount of reading that he wasn't quite ready for. He can read the words in Level 3, but its also too much. We are finding our way through the curriculum and adjusting accordingly.