Level Pre-1
Level 1
Testimonials for All About Reading Level Pre-1
A wonderful guide for teaching and learning 
Posted by Joy Stott on 10th May 2011
My son Elijah struggled with letter knowledge and phonological awareness. He knew the letters but constantly mixed them up and put them out of order. Since receiving All About Reading, it has guided me and held my hand as I try to help an unnatural reader become more fluent and comfortable with the idea of learning how to read. My little guy has low self-esteem and gives up if he feels that he can’t do it. I love the step-by-step instructions in the teacher's manual. We love the intricate pictures in the books. They are so beautifully drawn with such incredible detail! And Ziggy the Zebra has revolutionized our home by motivating the children to do their schoolwork without grumbling. Elijah LOVES doing his lessons with me for All About Reading because Ziggy helps him out.
I love this program, and I can’t wait for my younger son to start school so I can do this with him! My older two kids retorted: “No fair! Elijah gets to learn how to read the fun way!” :)
One of my "Top Picks" of the year!
Posted by Erin Ulrich on 10th May 2011
I have a five-year-old who wants to read but is just a bit too busy to put in the time to learn. All About Reading Level Pre-1 has been the very thing we needed to meet her needs! The quality of everything I received is excellent, and I think the Deluxe package is definitely worth the price! I am including this one in my “top picks” for the year!
The highlight of the lessons for us is always Ziggy. Ziggy is a bit confused, you see. She always says the wrong word, or leaves off the beginning sound, or some such silliness. I don’t know if my daughter even realizes that she is learning because she is so busy helping Ziggy say the right word. Now she begs to “do Ziggy” every single day!
And if you have ever seen any of the All About Spelling readers, you know how incredible they are. I could sit and look at the illustrations for ages. The two Level Pre-1 readers are filled with poetry and alliteration. They captivate my busy little girl, who struggles with sitting still long enough to read.
A+++ for quality!
Posted by Jesse Lovelady on 8th May 2011
I am really impressed with the quality of the materials. They are expertly done, the illustrations in the books are adorable, and I'm a sucker for tote bags and cute boxes ;-), so from a purely aesthetic point of view, All About Reading gets an A+++. The quality doesn't stop with the content, either. All About Reading introduces skills in sneaky and unsuspecting ways that are crucial to learning to read, especially in the "Language Exploration" activities. My daughter’s favorite activity is "Get Out of the Wagon" where we place three picture cards in the wagon, and she would say the name of each. After determining which didn't fit, she would toss the misplaced card out of the wagon, squealing "Get out of the wagon!" I have also included my six- and nine-year-old sons in some of the language exploration activities, because they are the best I've seen in teaching children to really listen and hear sounds and how those sounds work in words.
The lessons are pure joy to my daughter...
Posted by Jill Stanish on 7th May 2011
I really cannot think of anything we don't like about All About Reading Level Pre-1. This comprehensive program systematically teaches all letters and their sounds and uses games and word cards to work on the skills necessary to begin reading. My daughters love using the cards for rhyming games and memory games, and they of course LOVE the zebra puppet. Some of the games with Ziggy Zebra have my daughter laughing uproariously—the lessons are pure joy to her.
This program has one of the most user-friendly teacher guides I've ever used. It lists the program components and the craft supplies needed. It then has a very helpful explanation of the Big Five Skills related to pre-reading. Each individual lesson in the guide indicates the materials needed and gives a very clear step by step guide for teaching that particular lesson. There are so many wonderful little games and ideas included in the guide. Everything is completely spelled out—even offering a "script" of what the teacher says to the child.
I personally love the graphics used on the poster and in the readers. The illustrations remind me of vintage drawings from old school books—incredibly detailed and very realistic. It's nice to have a program with illustrations that aren't so childish that an older learner would be embarrassed by them. Sometimes a full-color production can be a visual distraction so I like that the illustrations are all in black and white. When we take out the reader for each new letter, my daughter always asks to start from the beginning of the book, which helps serve as a great cumulative review of letters.
With such a variety of materials (teacher and student books, readers, audio CDs, and puppet), having the tote bag to store it all is marvelous. We can grab it to go in the car, and my daughter can follow along in her reader while listening to the CD as I drive. The tote ensures that everything stays together and helps keep the puppet safe, reserved just for our All About Reading lessons. That extra little touch of having a puppet really made lesson time extra special. I plan to purchase the next All About Reading level as soon as it becomes available.
It really does make reading a pleasure!
Posted by Amber Hockman on 3rd May 2011
I can TRULY testify that this program "makes reading a pleasure." I mean, in the FIRST lesson, my son was in a fit of giggles after doing a rhyming game with Ziggy. I believe the Deluxe Package is worth every penny.
If you already own a puppet, an index card storage box, and a tote, the Basic Package is all you would need—but, trust me: you NEED a Ziggy the Zebra! The puppet really makes your child EXCITED to do reading time!
So fun and gentle—it doesn't seem like work!
Posted by Beth Morris on 3rd May 2011
My four-year-old daughter Skye LOVES books; she has a book in her hand half the day. When I told her she was going to start learning to read…well let me tell you, I have never seen a more diligent child out there stalking the UPS man until All About Reading finally arrived! We realized that Skye had some difficulty in understanding rhyming words. One of the games in this program is called “Get Out of the Wagon!” You place three picture cards in the wagon, and the child picks out the word that doesn’t rhyme and tells it to get out of the wagon. At first this game drove Skye crazy; she just didn’t understand the concept of rhyming words. With each lesson we have practiced her listening skills, and it is now her very favorite game to play, with Ziggy Zebra of course!
Also, Skye was never a very vocal child. Now she wasn’t a quiet child by any means, but she only talked when she needed to. Since getting hold of Ziggy, she has started talking a lot more. She has to talk to make Ziggy come to life. This was an added bonus to using All About Reading that I never would have thought of before.
All About Reading is a very gentle program—my daughter is having so much fun, it doesn’t seem like work at all to her. She asks to do “her school” first thing every morning. All in all, this is the most enjoyable reading program we have ever used. I highly recommend it, and I will be using it with my two-year-old when she is ready to begin reading. More levels will be coming out soon, and we will be continuing with Level 1 as soon as we finish this one!
My children beg to do the lessons!
Posted by Angel Morris on 1st May 2011
I love everything about this program. I intend to use it through every level with my three younger children, assuming the levels are ready when we are. The approach is perfect for what I believe my children need. It is simple, fun, and engaging. My children beg to do this; if I am busy, they will talk their fourteen-year-old brother into doing a lesson with them. In fact, the teacher’s manual is so clear and easy to implement that their older brother or their Dad have no problem just picking it up and doing a lesson with the girls. There is no preparation involved at all.
About the zebra...I wasn't sure at first if I would use the zebra puppet because it seemed a little silly, but then I discovered that the zebra is a must! Ziggy Zebra is such a good teacher for my little girls—they love him and never tire of listening to what he has to say. Before Ziggy began teaching, I was never able to hold their attention for so long.
I have been so impressed by this program that I will be recommending it every chance I get!
Covers all the skills you need
Posted by Michelle Smith on 1st May 2011
I am so impressed with this program! Not all pre-reading and reading programs cover all the skills that All About Reading does, and this program offers the ability to address every single one of them in a fun, easily implemented manner. The set up for the parent was extremely easy, and the scripted lessons lead the parent easily through every step of the lesson. Really, AAR is that simple in its procedure. Marie Rippel has done a great job coming up with a variety of games to reinforce pre-reading skills. The hardcover books are once again delightful. A short, fun poem and wonderful sepia illustrations bring each daily (or weekly) letter alive. And the best part is that this program can be completed on your child’s timetable. You can spend one day or an entire week on each alphabet letter—it’s up to you and your child.
Mrs. Zebra (aka Ziggy Zebra) was a huge hit in my household. Although an “optional” component of All About Reading, for my children she wasn’t. She was necessary. She makes the program for my own five-year-old, and will be the factor that draws in my three-year-old in another year or two when I use it with him. Even now, thanks to the zebra, he paid attention on some days! It has truly been a delight to use this program.
Laid-back, simple, and fun—even for my two-year-old
Posted by Amanda Bowen on 1st May 2011
My daughter is only two, so I wasn’t sure she’d be quite ready for All About Reading. Well, Miss Priss once again proved her mettle when she decided to take it upon herself to bring me the activity box so we can go through the alphabet sounds. Having never taught this level before, I’ve found AAR to be a great way to introduce gentle, formal lesson time. And my daughter absolutely adores this program. For example, she never lets me read to her, EVER. She would rather take the book and go hide in a corner all to herself than sit still and listen to me read. After a few days of looking at the alphabet rhyme book, she began bringing it to me so I could show her the words, and has actually begun letting me read to her!
Laid-back, simple, fun lessons invite the child to repeat the same lesson over and over just because, and it progresses in steps, with each level building on the last, so pre-readers can go at their own pace. I love how low-prep it is (more like zero prep once the cards are separated and put into the box) and how easy it is to use—just grab the bag and go. The step-by-step Teacher’s Manual is very easy to understand. And of course the plush puppet is already a treasured friend here! I am very pleased with this curriculum and can’t wait until we start flying with it full speed ahead!
I'm impressed
Posted by Trish Rock on 29th Apr 2011
I have tried a number of different teach-to-read programs that are "bells and whistle type," and this was one of very few that I am impressed with. This a great program for children who still need to learn their letters and sounds or for children who need more work in this area. It is a fun and very sweet introduction to pre-reading that all children will delight in—and parents and teachers will enjoy the ease of lessons and the layout of the program.
The Level Pre-1 Teacher's Manual is user-friendly and laid out to make teaching easy on parents and teachers alike. It has an explanation of the Big Five Skills and how they relate to pre-reading and all the components and supplies needed are listed. Every lesson in the guide gives a list of materials needed, a step-by-step guide for the lesson, and if you need it, a script is offered to help a teacher know what to say to the children. There is nothing that would stop someone from feeling confident that they could teach this course!
Ziggy, a wonderful zebra puppet, brings such joy to children and encourages interaction with words, phonics, and many of the language activities. He was our children's favorite. When the box arrived, they fought over who would play with him first. He definitely was a great addition to reading times. Even my older daughter, who is beyond this level in reading, enjoyed listening to the lessons with Ziggy.
Part of the lessons include reading aloud each day. There are two readers to read from, The Zigzag Zebra for capitals and Lizard Lou for lowercase. They are both beautifully illustrated in realistic black and white pencil drawings, one of my favorite mediums for art. Just beautiful! The first reader is an alphabet rhyme; the second reader is a collection of poems and rhymes for each letter. These books are worth owning even if you don't purchase the entire program.
My son loves this program!
Posted by Briana Jeffers on 28th Apr 2011
My son was delighted with this program! He loved everything we did each day and quickly caught on to the alphabet song and letter names. He enjoyed his daily craft page. I thought the crafts had a nice variety of activities and turned out great. I also appreciated that they were simple and used items most people with children have at home. There wasn't any teacher prep for me which is always a plus. My son adores the zebra puppet, and we found other ways to work him into lessons so we could let him visit almost every day. My son directed me to use a boy voice for Ziggy, which was interesting and funny. The whole package is color coordinated in black and yellow. It has a sophisticated look that is appealing to children and their instructors. I think this program would work for most children since each lesson uses so many teaching strategies. It appeals to the child's imagination by using the puppet and stories. There are hands-on activities to be completed with each lesson for children who learn by doing. The auditory learner will listen to a story to go along with each letter that also contains rhyming words to find. The visual learner will be able to point out the letters on the chart as the alphabet song is sung and look for the new letter in the book. All of the components are well thought out without any extra fluff to waste your precious teaching time. Our lessons take 15-30 minutes per day depending on how much my son works on his craft page. The word games the child plays with Ziggy are easy to learn and reinforce those important pre-reading skills. They train the child's ear and mind to get him ready to learn phonics successfully and without struggle. I think All About Reading Pre-1 sets a strong foundation on which to build a positive phonics experience.
A fun, gentle, and flexible approach
Posted by Michelle, homeschool mom to 3 on 27th Apr 2011
This is the perfect pre-reading program for those looking for a gentle, easy approach. It is a very easy, open-and-go type of curriculum that does not require a lot of prep time and also takes very little time to teach. The zebra puppet is so soft and adorable, all my kids want to play with it. My daughter made sure everyone knew it was HERS! So it lives on top of her workboxes—and she loves all the rhyming games Zig-Zag plays with her. The activities are fun, engaging, and they actually teach kids the letters and their sounds! My daughter knows most of her letters already but really needed to review them all and make sure she could recognize them. So, this program was perfect for her to go through the letters quickly. On the days that I knew she knew the letter, we would do two or three letters if she wanted to. The program is so flexible! I really enjoyed the All About Reading Pre-1 program and having something for my young daughter to do to help her get used to "school work"—and she enjoyed her own special time with Mommy.
A beautiful program...
Posted by Kristi Winings on 24th Apr 2011
I think All About Reading Level Pre-1 is a BEAUTIFUL program. I think the lessons of rhyming and beginning and ending sounds are ones that my other programs have been weak in, and I think both my boys could benefit from the super silly Zebra. :)
Incredibly organized program!
Posted by Homeschool mom of 4 on 23rd Apr 2011
Here’s why I love this program: -It is so organized. -It is pretty much prep free, just grab the bag and learn. -It is so organized. -It really appeals to children. -It is so fun, for both of us. -Everything is planned out and right there for you. -It is so organized. -It is designed to go at your child’s pace. I never felt rushed to get through a lesson, or like a lesson took longer than needed. My favorite thing is the organization. Everything fits in the tote bag. The box with the lesson cards is divided into lesson numbers. The books are easy to read and find your way around in. I struggle with organizing things on my own, so this program is such a breath of fresh air.
Really high quality
Posted by Terri Burkherts on 23rd Apr 2011
My twin boys were all over this program the moment it arrived. The Ziggy Zebra puppet is adorable, and they take it all over the house, talking with him about rhyming things and looking for letter sounds of words—it’s pretty cute! They are always asking, “Can we do the next letter, Mom?” They are eager to explore what is next and always want to do more. I have also been working with them on some speech difficulties that they have, and it’s quite interesting that when Ziggy asks them to do something difficult, they try harder!
All About Reading Level Pre-1 has been very productive with my five-year-olds—and it’s been a lot of fun, too! The program is put together well, and the products are very well made so it’s possible to use them with more than one child. All you would need to replace is the Student Activity Packet.
Making it FUN to learn!
Posted by Debra Brinkman on 20th Apr 2011
Working with All About Reading Level Pre-1 has been FUN! My daughter knows most of her capital letters, and the rhyming was pretty easy. But the rest of the phonological awareness activities have been a little more necessary for her. She has adored the little crafty letter activities, and the games have been fabulous.
Solid and useful
Posted by Kellyann Walker on 17th Apr 2011
I think All About Reading Level Pre-1 is a very solid and useful program, especially for a younger child who has yet to learn most of her letters and sounds.
A gem of a program!
Posted by Crissyanna, homeschool mom to 2 on 16th Apr 2011
I guess you could call me a Teacher’s Manual snob. I used to teach school (K-4 through 2nd grades) and I thought I had seen every form and variety of teacher’s manuals. I have definite likes and dislikes in layout and implementation for them. I know what I want in the “perfect” teacher’s manual, and All About Reading’s is as close to perfect for what I want that I have ever seen. It lays out the lessons, in order. It tells you what to do, gives you activity options, and is written in such a way that it can be used as a spring board for more ideas that you may come up with on how to teach the material. I didn’t feel bad if I chose to do an activity that wasn’t listed in the book (unlike some TMs that are written in such a way that I get guilt if I don’t do exactly what it says to do when it says to do it). The TM also doesn’t tell you how many pages to do, how many days a week to do it in, or try to dictate exactly how to use the material. They leave that up to you, the parent/teacher. I like that. It tells me what to do, how to do it, but let’s me make the decision on how to best make it work for my family, which can be different depending on what day of the week it is at times. I cannot say enough good things about this teacher’s manual.
The day our All About Reading Deluxe package arrived, the girls were smitten with Ziggy the Zebra puppet. In fact, he is currently AWOL somewhere in this house. He has become a favorite friend not only for school time, but also for play time. They love having Ziggy help with the lessons (he can be rather zany), and it seems that they do retain more of the information that is imparted to them when Ziggy is a teacher’s aide. Ziggy has even been taken and cuddled in bed at night. You could say he is well loved!
I love the books that came with the program (The Zigzag Zebra by Marie Rippel and Donna Goeddaeus and Lizard Lou by Marie Rippel and Renee LaTulippe). They are small enough for my daughter to hold comfortably. The illustrations are very intricate pencil drawings. I mean very intricate. I haven’t seen this quality of art in any phonics/letter instruction curricula before, and I have seen a lot of reading curricula. Most of the illustrations and art work in other programs are bright, colorful, borderline garish, and highly distracting. These are simply lovely.
The student book is simple for a young child to use. It has pictures of each letter to color, additional craft suggestions, and the pages get more involved as the lesson progress. You start with just coloring the letter and an object/animal and progress to matching letters and sounds by the end of the book. On the back of the coloring pages are extra craft suggestions to do with the paper. I like how easy it is for a beginner to use and how it builds on itself as the lessons continue on. My daughter really likes the pages, and she isn’t one to really like using crayons—but she will willingly color these pages.
All About Reading is a fun program to use. My younger daughter loves the rhymes, books, and coloring pages. She loves doing the activities in the program (and having the time with Mommy). She is absorbing the information, and it helps her feel important too, rather than left out when big sis is doing her school work. I have been delighted with All About Reading Pre-1, and I much prefer it for pre-school learning over anything I have taught in the past. It is easy to use, you probably have the supplies suggested for the crafts and games on hand in your home, it is put together very well, and is teacher- and child-friendly. It’s a gem of a program!
A winning combination...
Posted by Tristan RowLee on 12th Apr 2011
This is the perfect program for a child who still needs to learn his letters and letter sounds. It is a fun, gentle introduction that emphasizes reading to your child, along with crafting and playing games together—a winning combination. My three-year-old actually knew most of the letters and many sounds, which made half of the program pretty easy for him, while the games—especially those centered around rhyming—were both challenging for him and a lot of fun. We’re still working through the first two parts because he’s learning those more challenging rhyme skills, and because he wants to. We also found the rhyme games to be perfect for my five- and six-year-olds to join in. I wish I’d had this program when my older son was around age four or five!
Testimonials for All About Reading Level 1
This product will be released in August/September 2011.