Exciting News from All About Learning Press

It's Here!  It's Here!
That's right, All About Learning Press, the makers of All About Spelling are launching the first installment of of their new learning to read program aptly named All About Reading and it's now available Here





Here's a picture of the Pre Level 1 program.

This picture shows the deluxe program kit.

The Basic Package is $79.95 and includes everything you'd need to teach the program
The Teachers manual/student materials pack
Letters sounds CD rom
Divider cards
The Zigzag Zebra: alphabet rhyming book
Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new book 
These last two are quality hardcover books


The Deluxe package is $119.95 and includes all of the items in the basic kit plus
Zebra Puppet
Activity card box to hold all your student cards
All About Reading Tote Bag.


If you order before either of the above packages before March 7th, you'll also receive free of charge the audio book versions of The Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou, a $20 value.


All items are also available separately, 
please click here, then click on products and then click on the yellow sunburst to see individual component prices as well as samples (Scroll to the bottom of the product page for the samples)

All About Learning Press is also currently offering these two free ebooks.

Click here to receive your two free All About Reading Pre-Level 1 ebooks

Free E-Book #1: In the Kitchen with the Zigzag Zebra 

The Zigzag Zebra is in the kitchen cooking up a storm, and your child can help! And while your child is helping Ziggy, he or she will be absorbing critical pre-reading skills. The activities in this e-book focus on rhyming, identifying the first sounds of a word, oral blending, and clapping syllables--all designed to reinforce phonological awareness.

Free E-Book #2: Safari Stories with the Zigzag Zebra

We're on safari with the Zigzag Zebra, and your child can come along! The activities in this e-book focus on listening comprehension, which is a precursor to reading comprehension. You can foster listening comprehension by discussing stories and characters, expanding vocabulary, and exposing children to a wide variety of activities. Sequencing activities--such as those found in this activity book--are also great for improving comprehension. 

Weekly Review -- February 21-25, 2011

This week started out with a fun day of enjoying the gorgeous weather.  Matt was off of work Monday so we spent the day playing out in the yard with the kids and then took Lucas to gym class.  The rest of the week we hit the books and had fun with some new curriculum I bought.

Everett...

completed the rest of Step 17 and all of step 18 in All About Spelling level 2. Saxon math 7/6 lessons 15-17 and Test 2 were completed. Penmanship with Handwriting without Tears Cursive is going really well.  The biggest changes came when I pulled out Writing with Ease level 3 and First Language Lessons level 3.  He truly enjoyed the Writing with Ease lesson, he wrote a summary of The straw, the coal and the bean by the Brothers Grimm and did such a wonderful job.  He also did his first dictation in WWE and I was so impressed at how well he did and easily he handled remembering the passage.  First Language Lessons level 3 was also well received.  We're only 2 lessons in, but so far so good.  After this first dictation and FLL lesson he exlaimed, "I love being homeschooled.  Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise are awesome"  This was such a wonderful boost to my confidence, I just hope he continues to enjoy them.

Annika...

started Explode the Code Book 4 and completed pages 1-4.  She was happy to see the elementary writing lines are no longer in the ETC books.  She finished step 12 in All About Spelling level 1.  Saxon Math 3 lessons 27-29 were completed. After lots of hemming and hawing over what to do for grammar I decided to check out the Peace Hill Press website and realized that First Language Lessons Levels 1 and 2 were just what I was looking for.  She completed lessons 1 and 2 in FLL level 1 and had a fun time with it.  She's having a blast learning to memorize The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti.  I also pulled out Writing With Ease Level 1 and we started with week 5, I was so excited when she rocked the first narration exercise.  She really enjoyed the story and was able to dictate a whole page summary back to me.

Lucas...

finished pages 42-47 in his Get Ready for the Code book. He completed lessons 12-13 in Saxon Math K. 

Science and History
This was a History week so we brushed off our copy of The Story of the World Volume 3 and jumped in.  We read chapter 6 about the puritans, who left England for Holland, and eventually left Holland for the New World.  The kids enjoyed the reading and did a great job on the map work.  I also found some paper models of a windmill and Dutch step house that we'll be working on over the weekend.  


As many of you who follow my blog will have noticed, I decided not to use the Funnix reading program.  After viewing more of the lessons and thinking it over, it just didn't seem like it would be a good fit over the long haul.   I've decided instead to keep Annika working in Explode the Code, practicing her reading (she doesn't know it yet but we're getting her a Kindle this week) and All About Spelling.  I've also come to the conclusion that phonics doesn't need to be complicated, so I'll be using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading for Lucas and any remedial brush ups Annika may need.
We're also looking forward to next week, as the Virginia Zoo is finally getting ready to open The Trail of the Tiger exhibit and is offering a sneak preview for zoo members.  Annika can't wait, they've been working on this exhibit for so long, and her favorite animals, the tigers, have been off exhibit the entire time. 

Weekly Review-- February 7-12, 2011

We were able to buckle down this week and got quite a bit accomplished.  We were also able to go on a field trip to the Aquarium.  It was an ok field trip, but a little hard to see all we wanted because of all the school groups that seemed to be lacking adult supervision.

Everett...

finished writing his story The Owl That Cried Crow, completing his first story sequence assignment.   The Owl That Cried Crow
He also completed step 16 and half of Step 17 in All About Spelling level 2. Saxon math 7/6 lessons 12-14 were completed. We began Handwriting Without Tears cursive from the beginning to hammer out some issues we have with letter formation.  Pages 7-11 were completed and he's really enjoying it.  Grammar will be coming back next week, I sure hope he's ready for it.

Annika...

completed pages 92-106 in her Explode the Code 3 workbook, which means Book 3 is finished.  I gave her the Funnix placement test and we'll begin Funnix 2 next week.  We will go back to ETC once she gets into All About Spelling level 2, and I can coordinate some of the lessons from ETC 4 and up with it.  She finished step 11 and half of step 12 in All About Spelling level 1. After reconsidering shelving Growing with Grammar level 1, I've decided that we'll bring it back and just take it nice and slow.  She can easily do the work, but because of her slow moving in reading some days are really tough, but it does give her extra reading practice which is a good thing. Saxon Math 3 lessons 24-26 and Test 4 were completed.

Lucas...

finished pages 32-41 in his Get Ready for the Code book.  I had him do Funnix Beginning Reading lesson 1 and he really enjoyed it, so we'll be starting that in earnest next week.  He completed lessons 10-11 in Saxon Math K. 

Science and History
This was a Science week and we've stuck with REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry.  This week we set up our element books, and worked on our first group.  We had some fun with sodium, by using table salt to make salt water and show how it improves buoyancy.  To do this we floated an egg in a glass. They also completed their element book group one page, highlighting the elements Hydrogen, Lithium and Sodium.  We took a field trip to the Aquarium, but I told you about that in the very beginning of the post. 

We will be going back to Story of the World, the kids miss it. Time Travelers is fun, but not their cup of tea. As you can see it was a full week, and we had lots of fun. I hope next week is just as full and fun.

Weekly Review-- January 31 - February 4, 2011

This week had a few hiccups due to some appointments and the crazy weather.  We were fortunate to not be in one of the states hit with huge amounts of snow, but Wednesday was like a perfect late spring day with temps in the mid 70s, so the kids spent most of it outside, we'll call it PE day.  Then on Thursday we had to meet Matt at the Naval base so Everett and I could get new ID cards.  After our appointment we headed to the base bowling alley for lunch.  I know it sounds weird but they have really good food and it's ridiculously cheap.  We were able to feed a family of 5 for $20 there, after lunch Matt headed back to the ship for meetings he needed to attend and the kids and I stayed at the alley and bowled a few games.  I think I'll count that as another PE day. We still managed to get some other work done as well.  Here's the rundown of what else we did.

Everett...

started typing up his final drafts of the story he wrote for his Story Sequence unit.  So far so good, he should finish it up soon.  He completed step 15 in All About Spelling level 2 we've started stretching out the lesson to make sure we do most of the dictation phrases and sentences.  Saxon math is still going well.  He took Test 1 and passed with a 90%.  He also completed Investigation 1 and lesson 11.  On Monday he asked if it would be ok for him to work on his typing using our Typing Instructor For Kids.  He really enjoys the program and is excited to be up to 11 words a minute, not bad for a kid who's only been working on typing for about a week.

Annika...

Completed pages 80-91 in her Explode the Code 3 workbook, she should finish this book next week and we'll probably take a break from Explode the Code for a while.  I know that book 4 has some heavy duty work with syllables, and she's not quite ready for that.  I'll most likely have her take the placement test for Funnix 2 and use that for a while to help build her reading confidence and fluency. She finished step 10 in All About Spelling level 1 and did lessons 7-8 in Growing with Grammar. I have decided to shelve Growing with Grammar for now, as it's just to much of a struggle with her reading issues.  We'll still go over some simple grammar, but not with a workbook format.  Saxon math is still a hit with her.  She completed lessons 21-23 in Saxon math 3.

Lucas...

had a rather simple week because he got ahead of schedule last week.  This week we did a few things in our books, but spent a lot of time playing and having fun.  He finished pages 24-31 in his Get Ready for the Code book.  He really enjoys the series and is doing great with it.  He completed lessons 8-9 in Saxon Math K, he truly loves this curriculum and I'm so happy to have found something fun that he looks forward to. 

Science and History
It was history week and we completed Lesson 2 in our Time Travelers Explorers unit study. The kids had fun reading about the lives of explorers.  For our hands on project we bought a wide variety of dried fruits and the kids tried them.  They were not a big hit, my kids love fruit, but prefer it fresh to dried. 
I took a short video of them after we'd tried about 12 different kinds of dried fruit.

They've also requested that we not do the animal lapbook, because what they'd been trying to tell me is that they want more field trips, not a break from our chemistry program.  Field trips I can do, so look for more pictures from those in the future.