All About Learning Press Curriculum Review
All About Curriculum to the rescue!
We had the hardest time finding out what curriculum to use to get reading to click for my kids. We had tried The Good and Beautiful, Abeka, and Memoria Press with really no luck for my kids to grasp onto the reading train.
I did so much googling that I ended up overwhelmed with all the options and realized that I made things worse for myself because there was to much information to unpack in every curriculum I looked at.
I think the only suggestion that was helpful through all of my digging was to look at how each one of my kids learned and then chose a curriculum from there. So I did. I took a step back from all of the planning and prepping and just watch…and guess what I found out that my kids need a mastery, hands-on, and parent involved approach.
After so much prayer and asking for guidance from the Lord because I still had no idea what kind of curriculum could fill those giant shoes I just specified, a friend of mine mentioned All About reading and I had never heard of it. I came home and looked it up and wouldn’t you know All About Learning Press hit all of those main points.
Sometimes our kids aren’t struggling because they can’t learn or that we can’t teach them. Sometimes we just haven’t found the curriculum that works with the way they learn.
Our Honest All About Learning Press Curriculum Review: What Finally Clicked for My Kids
I took a chance and reached out to the All About Learning Team and asked if they would consider doing a partnership with me, The Mamasteader and GUESS WHAT…they said YES! The graciously sent me the All About Reading Pre-reading, and Level 1 along with the All About Spelling Level 1 and their NEW All About Math Levels 1, 2, 3, and 5 to use and review for each of you!
I am beyond blessed that they said yes to a mama who is on a tight budget and want to share all about my love for homeschooling with all of you.
Disclosure: All About Learning Press provided us with curriculum to try. As always, I am sharing our honest experience and opinions based on how the curriculum has worked for our family.
What Ages Do I Homeschool
Currently I am homeschooling my three children who are 6, 8, and 10. They are in “grades” 1st, 3rd, and 5th. I say “grades” lightly because in our homeschooling we do not follow the typical grades we follow how the child is progressing and take our time when needed just as working ahead when needed. Thats the beauty of homeschooling.
What All About Learning Press Curriculum will I be reviewing
All About Reading
- Pre-Reading
- Level 1
- *They have not sent me the rest of the Levels yet, if you want a review on them comment down below.
All About Spelling
- Level 1
- *They have not sent me the rest of the Levels yet, if you want a review on them comment down below.
All About Math
- Level 1
- Level 2
- Level 3
- Level 5
- *They have not sent me Level 4 yet, if you want a review on that comment down below.
What we used before All About Learning Press
We started our homeschooling journey with The Good and Beautiful which I honestly think is pretty common because most of the people I have met say thats what they started with. At the time I did not understand why that curriculum never suited us well but looking back I realize its because of the spiral program base. None of my children learn that way. This is in no way saying that this is a “bad” curriculum it just simply didn’t suit us. However I still LOVE their bookshop and my kids love reading the books as well as participating in their summer reading program.
When I noticed that both my older kids were struggling to learn to read I switched to Abeka and I feel like it worked in the beginning but then when they didn’t understand something or it felt to heavy, because the workload is A LOT, they began to lack confidence and said things like “im to stupid to learn” or ” I hate reading.” I knew I didn’t want to raise kids who hated reading because almost everything in life requires it and the beauty of reading Gods word is so important. So I went back to the drawing board again.
When I finally came across Memoria Press and I did like their reading program as well but again for some reason my kids just couldn’t get a handle on it and then we found that with changing all the curriculums we had a gap in their learning somewhere and needed to find a fix.
I will be honest I had lost all hope by this point and figured maybe I was the problem that maybe the way I was teaching it was causing too much confusion for them…but this was not the case.
What Started Clicking for us
Finally we heard about All About Reading and they sent us all that beautiful curriculum to review and I didn’t really have high hopes after all the failed attempts. But it WORKS! After years of struggling to read my two oldest children have taken off and my youngest is right behind them.
The oldest children can read and understand what they are reading. Their confidence came back overnight and I no longer have to fight them on doing their work or reading. They are asking me if they can read before bed and how to sound out and pronounce words that are still too big for them yet. But it’s night and day from where we started.
And while my kids have always excelled at math we gave the All About Math a try and they actually are having fun while learning their math instead of just doing drills and getting done with their workbook. They are using their games to play “math” even when lessons are done.
We haven’t used the All About Spelling yet because they recommend using it with the All About Reading Level 2, my kids are about to be in that level but I haven’t ordered it yet or reached out to ask to review it. It will be coming soon though, after looking the All About Spelling over I have high hopes that my kids will catch on quickly to spelling so maybe I can take a break from “hey mom, how do you spell…”
All About Reading Curriculum Review
Pre Reading
My youngest loves that they have a coloring page every day for the letter and that he can tell me what the sound is several times through out coloring it. Teaching it to him can be daunting because he picks it up so fast he is almost board but there are some fun hands on activities that they recommend in the appendix. We have started going around the house and finding things that start with that letter sound and he really enjoys that.
I do wish that the pre-reading came with some sort of copy work just to give him a little more pencil grip and writing practice. I think for preschoolers and maybe young kindergartners would love this, my son is almost in first grade so this was almost too basic for him.
Level 1
I had my older two kids start with level 1 even though they only needed half of it we started from the beginning because like I said previously they both had a gap and we could not figure out where so we played it safe and started at lesson 1. That being said when you work with curriculum it is recommend to set a timer for 20 minutes and sometimes the lessons are ment to stretch over multiple days with my kids knowing most of the first half of the book we sometimes did several lessons within that 20 minutes.
I loved the fact that this curriculum is multi-sensory because it kept my kids engaged and not frustrated with learning the material they already knew which is usually a struggle since they despise a serial program but instead they had a friendly competition for each lesson until we got to the places they needed to slow down to understand. This curriculum surprised me by how much it gave my kids their confidence back because they could understand why a phonogram rule was a rule. For example the silent e at the end of a sentence makes the vowel say its name.
I do wish that this curriculum offered a small grammar section for each lesson to tie in where ever possible. They may offer it in the next levels I am not sure but I would have loved to see a small copy work section and a small grammar section mixed into the reading concepts.
I recommend this curriculum to ANY struggling reading because if it can give me peace and hope about teaching my kids and then give my kids the confidence and love of reading it could do that exact thing for your family.
All About Spelling Curriculum Review
Level 1
We haven’t used All About Spelling yet because they recommend waiting to use it when your child is in All About Reading Level 2. But from looking through it and reading the teachers manual I am so excited to get started and see how fast my kids learn to spell. This is one of their major struggle points right now so I will update this after we have used it. Comment down below if you have used All About Spelling I would love to hear your thoughts.
All About Math Curriculum Review
Level 1
The level one math is perfect to get the kids acclimated to the math with its hands on activities, manuplatives and games. My youngest loves that there are so many options to learn the same equations and it gets his mind working on how it can work in everyday life. For example learning how to fast group has helped him when he is trying to see how many rocks he is collecting when we are on a nature walk.
Level 2
My daughter loves that I can participate with her on some of the lessons because she loves when we can play games together. The open and go well scripted teacher manuals make it simple to switch from one level to the next with multiple children. My daughter has gained a lot more confidence in her math skills because the breakdown gives multiple examples of the same lesson.
Level 3
My oldest son is one who despises learning something multiple times which is why spiral programs do not work for him but with the workbooks being more of an activity base he doesn’t mind doing the work even if it repeats a teaching. He also loves that he can move as fast as he wants because math tends to come very easy to him.
Level 5
I haven’t started Level 5 yet since we are in Level 3 currently with my oldest but this is their newest level and it is set up just like the others so I have no doubt this will work well for my kids. I will update you when we have used it. One of my favorite parts is the manipulative box is good from the very first level all the way up to level 5 making it a one time investment per household versus per student.
**If you want to see a review of Level 4 comment down below**
What we Love from All About Learning Press
We love that all of the All About Learning Curriculum is a hands on mastery program. That each of their programs are open and go with scripted teacher manuals making it easy to teach and easy to learn for the kids. They suggest only 20 minutes a day per program making that the peak attention span for kids but it also makes its easy to continue as fast or slow as necessary and not harsh deadlines to meet. Plus with their Learning Tiles they offer an APP and a screen free magnet option which is what we prefer for at home but when we are on a work trip or traveling the APP comes in handy.
What I wish was Different
As much as I LOVE this curriculum there are a few things I wish were different.
- First since there is a lot of prep time I would love a loose leaf option for the student books to make prepping them simpler and with teaching multiple children I would love a PDF version of their Student Packets.
- For the pre-reading I wish that the craft books came with the bundle I now you can buy them separate but a bundle price option would be nice.
- I also wish they have the Card boxes to hold multiple sets of the same cards again for multiple children because having one box would make housing the cards more manageable.
- Finally I wish the Student Bundles came with an extra set of reading books for a bundle price.
Who do I think this Curriculum is good for
Anyone. The beginner homeschool mama, the seasoned homeschool mama and anyone in between. Be prepared for a large initial prep day but then it’s smooth sailing after that. Don’t let the prep scare you away for this amazing curriculum.
All About Learning Press Curriculum is for the kids who struggle to stay engaged, sit still, and need to keep hopping from one exciting detail to the next. If they need a confidence boost, a helping hand or a different way to learn this may be the winning ticket. Plus with All About Learning Presses one year money back guarantee what do you have to loose?
Key Takeaways
After trying and failing with three prior curriculums and having my kids and myself feel stuck for so long it’s a breath of fresh air to find a curriculum that finally clicked for my kids.
I hope you know that you are doing a great job and that you just haven’t found what works for you and your child. I am forever grateful for you finding this page and your trust and support.
Follow our homeschool journey
We’re going to continue using All About Learning Press and I’ll be sharing updates as we move into the next levels. If you’re considering this curriculum for your own homeschool, follow along because I’ll be sharing what works, what doesn’t, and how we’re actually using it with our kids.
