Review of ABeCeDarian Reading Program

I think one of the hardest things to do as a homeschool mom is to teach a child to read.  I have struggled with this over the last nine years, but luckily I am teaching my last child to read right now.  Just as we got started I was asked to review a wonderful reading program and it is exactly what I have been waiting for.

 The ABeCeDarian Reading Program is a research-based, comprehensive, multi-sensory decoding program that addresses the key areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency.  A great tool for teaching reading to your children.  It is also a great resource for children with learning disabilities or struggling readers.  

Key Features (listed on the website)

• Explicit, comprehensive, multisensory phonics instruction
• Sound blending and segmenting explicitly taught and practiced
• Letter/Sound correspondences taught in the context of reading and spelling words
• Letter sounds taught before letter names
• Code knowledge organized by sounds with engaging sorting activities
• No rules!
• Precise practice routines and error correction procedures
• Integrated handwriting and spelling instruction
• Expert oral reading fluency practice

What we recieved:

• Student Workbook A1 $12.25
• Student Workbook A2  Sample $12.25
• Storybooks for Level A (Set of 10) sample $21.50
• Teacher Manual A1    $28.50
• Teacher Manual A2     sample   $28.50
• Student Workbook B1 $10.25
• Teacher Manual B1  sample  $25.50
• ABeCeDarian Aesop  $2.50 

Books in Level A are for Kindergarten through mid First grade and Level B is for mid First grade through Second grade.  We started with the middle of book A2 since he already knew his sounds and lots of words.  Level A1 is for non-readers or very beginning readers.  Each lesson includes sound blending, sound segmenting, learning letter/sound correspondences and reading and spelling words.  Once a child finishes Level A, he should be able to read over 100 words.

Letter tiles and word cards

How we use it:
There is lots of information that needs to be read through before you start. I do suggest taking some time to prepare to start the lessons.  Like I said, we started in the middle of book A2 because Evan already knew all  his sounds. He was able to work through a lesson or two each day, he was able to work really fast through the workbook.  There is a lot of free supplements that you will want to print out.  There are letter tiles, work cards, fluency word lists, etc.  This really enhanced the lessons and made it really fun.  We are getting ready to start the Level B1 book and I'm really looking forward to getting started with that.

What I thought about it:

I absolutely love it!!!  Yes, there is a lot as a teacher that you have to read through to get started, but it is really worth it.  If I had this when my daughter was younger, I believe teaching her to read would have been so much easier since she has Non-verbal Learning disability.  This is a great way to help the struggling reader as well as the new reader.   I am so impressed with how quickly Evan picked up the material and how much fun he had doing it.  It doesn't take long to do the lessons which is a great thing.  The only thing I am disappointed about is that I don't have anymore kids to teach to read!!!