Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook {Review}

My second student is a bit different than my first, reading is a challenge. She focuses more when things are hands-on (coloring) and vibrant (colorful) and my old reading primer of black and white discussion text just doesn’t cut it for her. The Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook (36-week Curriculum) from The Crafty Classroom, however, seems to be right up her desire path! Through the Homeschool Review Crew, we were blessed to receive a PDF download of both the Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook (700+ pages!) as well as the R.E.A.D. Review Pack  (28 Early Readers that Correspond with R.E.A.D. Notebook) which I’m told can be used as a stand-alone product, if you are not wanting a full curriculum. We are definitely on board to Learn to Read!

After getting my hands on this, and printing a few things I am seriously considering getting the Bible ABC Curriculum Notebook (26-week alphabet curriculum) for my almost three-year-old son and the USA Activity Bundle for my third-grade daughter studying States & Capitals this year. For this review, we are using the Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook for my Kindergarten/nearly First Grade daughter who is not yet reading fully. The Kindergarten material is written out to a 4-day per week schedule.

Learn to Read

My daughter has been begging to be able to continue using the Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook into the next school year after the review product time period is over and that is saying a lot, especially from this picky spirited student! There are so many elements to this material. Some weeks have completed every page and activity. Some other weeks, we have just picked out her favorite things to do.

It is all in a huge digital file, and thus I can just print and go at my leisure. I have had a few technical issues with the size of the large file and my computer, but after a bit of trial and error, I am able to go forth and access the material. It might be something to consider making multiple smaller files, rather than one large file. It is a huge wonderful resource!

Digital Curriculum

It is a lot of pages, and what we are doing is printing a week or two at a time. That way she is excited to see the new, but not overwhelmed. The general overview is as I said scheduled for 4-day weeks for 36 weeks. The students will work to master one word-family per week, 2-3 sight-words per week, beginning blends loop every fifth week, and there is an interactive language arts notebook activity at least twice a week. The Interactive Language Arts Notebook is something new to me, but something that I keep seeing all over Pinterest when I am searching for one thing or another and this has been a perfect introduction for me to the concept.

At the top of the page, my daughter sees a visual supply list of materials to gather. Then she brings it to me and I read the instructions to her. With this child, I really have to do one step at a time, otherwise she gets out of order and overwhelmed. She also is not quite cutting circles, but big sister is happy to help in that regard. She is the able to work through the activity on the page, and will glue or double-sided tape it to the inside of a composition notebook that we have picked just for this “class”.

In the Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook file, there are pages for a daily warm up review and things to include discussion over calendar, weather, and more “morning time” such activities. These are great printables, but nothing something we specifically are putting into routine as we do these in a relaxed fashion, but it is great for every once in a while getting her to really sit down and own charting the temperature and date. Overall, a schedule is provided, however, for us, we really just pick and choose the next activities in the file and not on a specific daily schedule. Some days she will do one page, some days she will do ten. It really completely varies on her attention span at the time.

There is rhyming, handwriting tracing, following the line with pronunciation the letter sound, sounding it out, interactive notebooking activities, coloring, cutting, pasting, searches, mazes, game worksheets and more. There are a routine of activities but they change with the word families and keep it interesting with the varied graphics. Some people would be surprised that something just black and white could be so captivating. Yet, the bold-line coloring image worthy pages make it perfect for my daughter’s interest. Honestly, for years I have been downloading and using preschool materials from PreschoolMom, KindergartenMom, and The Crafty Classroom and similar sites. This Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook has everything in one place, where it is nearly as simple as click and print! In my case, probably blame my computer, I do have to pick and choose which pages to print, as it will not automatically switch from landscape to portrait mode in printing and there are pages of both variety. But that isn’t a big deal, and I do only print a week or two at a time.

Honestly, for years I have been downloading and using preschool materials from Valerie through PreschoolMom, KindergartenMom, and The Crafty Classroom. This Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook has everything in one place, where it is nearly as simple as click and print! In my case, probably blame my computer, I do have to pick and choose which pages to print, as it will not automatically switch from landscape to portrait mode in printing and there are pages of both variety. But that isn’t a big deal, and I do only print a week or two at a time.

The fine motor skills details that teach and enforce patience, such as dot painting with a q-tip swab are perfectly adapted and a great skill for my daughter to work with. Read and Response page sections are excellent for her reading comprehension and she is building knowledge. Working with Letter Tiles starts with cutting them from the page, but has continued into play time when she gets out our plastic ones and is making basic words, happy to show of to the daddy Enginerd her new skills. She works on Nonsense words that make sounds, but do not have full meanings, but would fit well in comic books that her sister spends hours reading.

Truly, what I have mentioned so far is just barely touching on what all is available and worked on. One of the things that I really love is that everything can be colored. For this specific child, this is a wonderful thing! The graphics chosen are cute and attractive to work with, with some being quite silly. There is so much more added to this Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook rather than just reading. There are sequence activities, early writing responses, science topics, some social studies and more. This is an excited plethora!

The second file we were gifted is a Review Pack including 28 early reader booklets. These booklets are a similar format to the readers we work on each week. They are working to reinforce phonics and sight words. The booklets are labeled to match up with lessons from the Learn to Read Curriculum Notebook. We have been working with the ones from Lessons 1-4. There are several pages. More big bold lines prime for coloring. Although, one could print these on colorful paper too to skip the coloring.

 

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