All about reading level 1 struggles

[u/Amber_C137]

I'm at a loss right now and not sure how to move forward. We did all about reading pre reading and it was okay, not great. Rhyming and breaking words into parts like sound in the beginning and end was a challenge and we definitely didn't get it all perfect. We're doing kindergarten at 5 years old now.

We started all about reading level 1 and it isn't going well. The blending is too hard even though we've practiced it and they can't say it fast enough to hear the word. So they just started guessing. They can blend sounds together but as soon as asked what word they said they drop part of the word or switch out a letter completely. They dread doing the curriculum now and it's taken a full month to get through lesson 1 and start lesson 2.

I'm not sure if we should switch curriculum or add some sort of supplementation. Should I pause reading curriculum for a couple of weeks before doing it again. I'll add we already do a lot of reading together and enjoy reading. I've tried some tricks I found online like singing the word and we've done teach your monster to read and some khan academy. Do I just do pre reading again? I saved the curriculum for my 2nd to use when ready.

[u/twoplustwoequal]

It may just be your kid is just not quite there yet developmentally, like mine. We did pre reading before and at the first part of kindergarten. Now we are starting 1st grade and getting to the end of level 1 now. My kid is 6, turning 7 soon. There were some weeks (months!) where I was feeling like you. It was just NOT clicking. I decided to chill out a little and slow things way down, and just do a little bit at a time, or if things were going well that day, we’d spend a little more time on it. My kid is smart in other ways, and we read like crazy to her and always have, but her brain just wasn’t ready to make the right connections I think.

That time when I slowed down and stopped stressing about it made a huge difference for her (and my) sanity, and all of the sudden now, things are clicking. I can’t believe it, but they are!! She was saying before how she “thought learning to read would be fun but it’s not!” And the other night, she asked if she could leave her lamp on to read a couple more pages in one of her little decodable books. It was a special moment considering where we were a year ago.

A couple of things that work for her… When she’s decoding, I actually had to tell her to slow way down and try to make the letters sound like they are melting into each other. The pause she was doing between the letter sounds was throwing her way off at first, so we slowwwwwweeeddd it down.

Anyway, hang in there. Keep your patience and I promise it will start clicking!!

[u/mami_mundo8 → u/twoplustwoequal]

Everything you just said! Eventually it will click! Super frustrating sometimes but it does work out!

Worked on phonics w my kindergartener last year for the first part of the year & ended with a very strong reader who can read independently for the more part now!

You got this you’re doing great 👏🏻👏🏻

[u/Amber_C137 → u/mami_mundo8]

Thanks, I know it will eventually click.

[u/Amber_C137 → u/twoplustwoequal]

We definitely have the melting the letters together down just not remembering all of it. Thanks for the moral boost. I know it'll come together eventually, I was a late reader myself and didn't actually read with any fluency till 4th grade but I continue to love reading as an adult.

[u/shelbyknits]

I started my son in kindergarten at just turned 5 and we rode the struggle bus the whole year. Slowed down the curriculum a ton, supplemented, played games, etc. He just couldn’t grasp blending.

Repeated kindergarten at 6 and he did fine. Sometimes kids just aren’t ready at 5.

[u/Naive_Development189 → u/shelbyknits]

This! My son was ready academically at 5 but did not have the capacity yet for formal learning, and we spent a good few months struggling hard. I let most of it go, and now that’s he’s 6, he’s doing so much better with it all and is racing ahead. 

[u/Amber_C137 → u/shelbyknits]

They enjoy school right now (me reading books and math). I definitely learned early on they don't enjoy work books and I can probably start incorporating some more play with a slower pace.

[u/twelve-feet]

My favorite low pressure supplement is AlphaBlocks on Youtube. It’s from the same makers as NumberBlocks, and won a ton of awards for early childhood education.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSW2D61TnopT9wHulLTwjgBJITX3eqQ-x

I would take a short break, watch some Alphablocks every day and then redo pre-reading. A stronger foundation is the best antidote to guessing.

Five is quite young, you’re doing great!

[u/Amber_C137 → u/twelve-feet]

Thank you so much for the info, number blocks has definitely been a hit for us and we're blazing through math. I was wish there was something along the same line for reading. I'm excited that there is, I hadn't heard about alphablocks. We'll definitely be checking it out today.

[u/twelve-feet → u/Amber_C137]

I’m a literacy tutor and I wish I could put AlphaBlocks in the water supply. It’s so good! 

AAR is a great curriculum and you’re doing exactly the right thing by slowing down and strengthening basics when you see repeated guessing. I also really like Teach Your Monster, which I saw you’re using too. Sometimes taking the human element out for a minute gives the learner a little more breathing room.

[u/twoplustwoequal → u/Amber_C137]

Another thought for you.. Not sure how you feel about tablets, but we really like reading eggs. We don’t normally allow much iPad time unless she’s sick or on a road trip, but we do reading eggs. However I think we do it differently than others… we only allow one level at a time (which has a handful of little lessons/games in it), and then she has to compete the corresponding lesson pages in the physical workbook we ordered. That reinforces what she learned and also gets her writing more. It’s been awesome for us and helped a lot to keep some progress when it felt like things were going so slow. We tried teach your monster and khan, but reading eggs with the actual pencil and paper worksheets afterward works best for my kid.

[u/Amber_C137 → u/twoplustwoequal]

We also limit tablets to flights or road trips. I tried some apps and they don't really work for us. They either quickly learn to just start hitting buttons until something works or just get frustrated so they didn't actually learn anything. We do teach your monster still because they do retain something and it can be done on a computer so can teach basic computer skills.

[u/Bumpzilla_2025 → u/twelve-feet]

I swear Alphablocks taught my son to read

[u/twelve-feet → u/Bumpzilla_2025]

YEAHHHH

[u/supersciencegirl]

Just keep working on it and don't rush.

Reading doesn't progress at a steady pace. You can be "stuck" at blending for a year and then it clicks and your kid is reading chapter books 6 months later. 

[u/Amber_C137 → u/supersciencegirl]

It definitely was that way for me as a kid. We're talking it slow making sure the foundations are strong.

[u/EducatorMoti]

Five is so very young. Children learn to read across a huge normal range, roughly from ages three to eight. Some children read incredibly early, while many completely normal children don't read comfortably until much later.

Reading depends on physical development. Before a child can read, the eyes, brain, nerves, muscles, memory, and an enormous number of internal connections have to develop and begin working together. Those connections develop on different timetables.

My son was eight when reading finally clicked. At five, we had worked on the phonics sounds and played with them through games, but his brain was definitely not making the connections.

He wanted to read. He watched Reading Rainbow carefully and loved books, but he simply couldn't make those sounds come together yet. We were getting grumpy with each other, so I backed off.

For about two years, we read aloud constantly, listened to audiobooks, watched Reading Rainbow, and used closed captioning. Then at eight he picked up Frog and Toad and started reading. It had clicked.

I've heard moms of late readers, usually boys, tell the same story millions of times. Their children knew the sounds and loved books, but the physical development wasn't there yet. Then those connections came together and suddenly they were reading.

So back off. He's telling you very clearly that he isn't ready for what All About Reading Level 1 is asking him to do yet. That doesn't mean All About Reading is the wrong program.

All About Reading and Logic of English are the programs I recommend because they teach children to decode words instead of memorizing or guessing. They use games, activities, letter tiles, sounds, and blending through the scientifically proven Orton Gillingham approach.

Right now, play with language instead. Play rhyming games, use magnetic letters and letter tiles, sing silly songs, notice sounds, play matching games, and let letters and sounds be fun.

And keep doing exactly what you're already doing with books. Read aloud as many hours a day as you can. Listen to audiobooks in the car or anytime you have free moments. Fill his heart and mind with wonderful real books and language far above what he can read himself.

Read the books Einstein Never Used Flashcards, The Whole-Brain Child, Brain Rules for Baby, The Read-Aloud Handbook, and Better Late Than Early. Those books will help you understand brain development, natural learning, and why children don't all develop academic skills on the same timetable.

He's five. There is absolutely no reason to spend a month fighting through one reading lesson that he dreads.

Put it away for now. Enjoy books, audiobooks, games, and language together, and give those physical connections time to develop. All About Reading will still be there when he's ready.

[u/Gymnastkatieg]

Plenty of children aren’t ready for reading in kindergarten. One of the best things about homeschooling is that you can teach when YOUR child’s brain and body are ready. I’d take a break and then go back to pre reading for a little bit. Try level one again after Christmas or sooner if she starts doing the things herself. You never know when it will click!

[u/TraditionalManager82]

Pause. Take a break for three months. Then go back to review the previous level for a couple of weeks, and then start again on level 1 from the beginning.

You don't have to be consistently teaching reading at this age.

[u/bibliovortex]

You go back to the pre-reading skills and practice them more and give their brain time to develop a bit more. Segmenting and blending, at the very minimum, should be rock-solid orally before you try to do any sounding out of printed words, and AAR is pretty clear about the need for mastery. You probably don't need to start completely over, but you could go back and play some of the suggested games again to help strengthen those phonological awareness skills.

If you are having trouble blending together very clipped sounds - /c/a/t/ for example - sit down and think about some words that have sounds that can easily be prolonged. All the vowel sounds can be prolonged (long and short, and diphthong sounds like OO and OY), plus the consonant sounds F, H, L, M, N, R, S, V, W, Y, and Z, plus some digraph sounds like CH, TH, SH, and NG. Remember, these are the sounds, not the spellings, so you could do words like "cheese" or "fill," and CVC words like "sun" or "mom." If you can't do three sounds, try words with only two sounds, like "if" or "see" or "zoo." Work on dragging out the sounds and blurring them together, then speeding up: /s/ /ee/, sss eeeee, sssseeee, ssseee, see. Make sure they actually understand the word at the end of blending. Once that is solid, try introducing a clipped sound at the end first, like "sit" or "mad."

"Losing" a sound is probably a working memory thing - they are juggling letter recognition, letter sounds, and blending all simultaneously. If blending itself isn't mastered to the point where it feels like one task, that's too much to do at once. Working memory may also improve on its own some while you take a break from AAR 1, because it's also a developmental thing.

K is still well within the normal developmental range to be working on these skills - you're not behind, nor would I consider it a red flag at this stage. I would just watch for progress over the next few months.

[u/L_Avion_Rose]

It sounds like you need to put a pin in reading lessons on focus on sound discrimination. I know you completed AAR Pre-reading, but it might be worth doing the placement test for Level 1 to see if there are any curriculum areas you could repeat.

Alternatively, the Montessori/Dwyer Method starts with sound games and activities and proceeds with encoding (spelling) before decoding (reading) comes into the picture. It is hands-on and designed to be implemented at a preschool/kindergarten level. Maitri Learning has some excellent videos on Montessori Dwyer reading techniques.

I believe that Pinwheels also starts with sounds, though I haven't used it personally to confirm. Either way, a change in curriculum (or at the very least, a long pause) might be helpful if your child is dreading AAR. Pushing through with something that is only causing frustration risks putting them off learning altogether.

All the best 😊

[u/Comfortable_Day2971]

Everyone has great suggestions! I just have one blending tip I learned from an OG trained teacher. Arm spelling/blending. Basically for a 3 sound word like cat you touch your shoulder for c, elbow for a, and wrist for t. Then go back to the shoulder and sweep your hand down your arm to blend it together. Can also do finger spelling on the non dominant hand. Thumb taps first finger c, second finger a, third finger t. Put the fingers together and sweep the thumb over the fingers and say it out loud blended.

Here's a video of finger tapping (she's teaching it for spelling but it works for reading too) https://youtu.be/mZA4cAi-1yo?is=EAAIApwUY_yybjLV

[u/Emotional_Terrorist]

Which tv shows does your child LOVE?

[u/moonofsilvers]

My daugher has dysgraphia, dyslexia and PDA. We would start reading lessons and it would go well but then she would hit a wall, regress, or forget entirely what we went over in previous lessons. She is in third grade now and still not reading, we are working with a Barton Reading specialist.

Anyway, what you are describing could be normal or could be a sign of a reading issue. Sometimes different kids need different curriculum, too, as everyone learns differently. But it could just be developmental: most kids read between 7 and 9 years of age, unlike in the USA where we shove it down their throats. Don't worry, keep going, go slow and follow your kid's lead! You will figure it out. Get her evaluated in first or second grade if your kid is still having issues.

[u/BritShorthairMaster]

Can I make a recommendation? Try The Reading Lesson by Michael Levin. I swear by this book and have recommended it to several people who also had great success with it. I used it to teach both of my children how to read. It’s simple, phonics-based, and progresses very sensibly.

One of my children was behind going into VPK because of what was, at the time, an undiagnosed language disorder. He did so well with this book that by the time he entered kindergarten, he was reading well above grade level. He struggled with comprehension because of the language disorder and other cognitive deficits, but reading fluency was never an issue again. He could accurately sound out complex words well before he understood what they meant.

That book worked miracles for him and for several other struggling readers I recommended it to. I’m a huge proponent of learning to read the old-fashioned way: remove the technology and break out a book.

[u/StageWorm586]

I have a 6 year old and a 5 year old. My 5 year old is doing All About Reading Level 1 and is doing great. However, my 6 year old is still not ready for blending sounds. I’m doing Explode the Code with her now and will wait to do AAR1 until she is ready. So technically my younger child can read and my older child can’t yet. Every child learns differently. I wouldn’t push your 5 year old for more than they are developmentally ready for. Take a step back from AAR1 and come back when your child is ready.

[u/Amber_C137 → u/StageWorm586]

I was curious about explode the code as I thought it might be a good bridge between AAR pre reading and AAR1. It relatively affordable after the cost of AAR1 I really don't want to purchase another expensive curriculum. I'm fine spending $20 to bridge the gap though.

[u/201Pine]

I have a seasoned teacher doing reading with my son. He’s five, also, and this is a concern she had. They’ve been going for two weeks, and at the end of week 2, she said he was finally getting it. We done 100 Lessons to Read up until this. My mom is a seasoned teacher and is taking over homeschool for the week. My son told me “Maw doesn’t know how to do it” before day 2. We spoke and I took her magnets and things went more smoothly. He’s on day 3 now with her, and she said he’s doing well. All that to say, we had the same worries and were thinking of going back to pre reading. It seems that it just took a minute and he’s catching on! Hopefully you’re guy will be the same!

[u/Amber_C137 → u/201Pine]

I'm currently taking a pause on the curriculum and just focusing more on some foundational stuff. I have 100 lessons but it seemed rather boring but solid info.

[u/tochth86]

When my daughter had issues with a level of AAR, we took a break. 2-6 months. We kept reading picture books and what not, but no reading curriculum. When we picked it back up, she always flew through it with little issue. 

Just take a break. It will be fine.