All About Reading

Little Wild Man has made a new friend...

...named Ziggy.

Yes, Ziggy is a Zebra.

A Zebra who wants to help your
Preschooler/Kindergartener
learn to read.

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Ziggy is a part of...

...All About Reading...

..."The program that makes reading a pleasure."

Developed by the makers of
All About Spelling,
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....

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We received the Deluxe package to review,
which includes:

*Teacher's Manual (208 pages)
*Student Material Packet
*My Book of Letters and Sounds Activity Book (192 pages)
*Picture Cards
*Letter Sound Cards
*Capital Letter Alphabet Chart
*Lowercase Letter Alphabet Chart
*The Zigzag Zebra: a rhyming alphabet hardcover book
*Lizard Lou: rhymes old and new hardcover book
*Divider Cards
(keeps the Picture Cards and Letter Sound Cards organized)
*"Letter Sounds A to Z" CD-ROM
*Ziggy the Zebra puppet
*an Activity Box to hold your kiddo's learning cards
*All About Reading tote bag to keep the components organized

This package is priced at $119.95,
which I believe is worth every penny.

There is a cheaper package,
The Basic,
($79.95)
but it does not include
the puppet, the activity box, or the tote.

(If you already own a Zebra puppet,
an index card storage box,
and a tote,
the Basic 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!)

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All About Reading uses games, sweet books, and art activities
to teach kiddos "The Big Five Skills" needed
for pre-readers to develop the ability to read.

The Big Five Skills are:

1. Letter knowledge
2. Phonological awareness
3. Print awareness
4. Listening comprehension
5. Motivation to read

All the lessons are clearly laid out...

...in the Teacher's Manuel,

Each activity highlights
which of "The Big Five Skills" is being focused on
during the lesson.

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The structure of each lesson runs as follows:1. Sing the "ABC Song" and point
to each letter on the Letter Poster as it is sung

(Ziggy usually joins us on this part-
he has SUCH a lovely voice!)

2. Read a short poem to your child that
focuses on the Letter of the Day

(We just ADORE the illustrations in the books...)
3. Decorate the Letter of the Day
using the Letter sheets in the learning activity book
My Book of Letters
On the back of the pages are suggestions for how to decorate
the Letter of the Day,
but the curriculum encourages creativity and ingenuity,
so if you do not have the supplies suggested,
do something else!

The POINT of these art activities is to work on
Letter Recognition-
not Art skills.

4. Complete one or more of the
"More Fun With the Alphabet" activities
listed in the Teacher's Manual

AGAIN, you can do what they suggest OR
use the ideas as a Springboard for your own ideas...

For the letter B, I had Little Wild Man
make a letter B using some plastic bears I had
instead of using the suggested toothpicks...

5. Play the game scripted in the teacher's manual,
which sometimes uses the Picture and Sound cards
included with program

In this picture,
Little Wild Man and Ziggy are working together
to match up pictures that rhyme...

(Just look at his face- he's smitten with Ziggy!)

Another game we played is called
"Out of the Wagon."

I placed three picture cards in our little wagon...

(the book had a picture of a wagon
you could put the pictures on,
but since I had the wagon, we just used it)

...and Little Wild Man had to decide which one did NOT
rhyme with the others.

He then used Ziggy to yell,
"Get out of the wagon!"
and take the picture out that did not belong.

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6. Read, read, and read some more to your kiddo! :0)

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So, click HERE to find out more about the
All About Reading program.

There's EVEN a few FREE down-loadable books
that contain reading fun for your kiddos,
so please head on over there and check it out...

...I bet you will discovery smiles like this

if you do!

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If you liked this review,
be sure to check out
The Happy Housewife
for other curriculum reviews...

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I received this product free for my
open and honest review.
I was not compensated in any other way.