What I cut out was me yelling at the children to please let the dog out. LOL. It's like the totally tune it out! That bell system is genius though! Glad to hear this was helpful to you! Thanks for sharing!
I like that it is a more complete program, we are about to finish AAR2 and 2 and wondering if we start with pinwheel 2 if we will be ok since we didnt start with the program from the beginning?
I do not have experience with AAR past level 1. In Pinwheels Year 1 they cover pretty much all the basic phonograms. Year 2 starts with a little bit of review and they give you all the information you would need from Year 1 if you are starting at Year 2. So I think you could absolutely make the switch. And the ladies over at Rooted in Language are amazingly helpful if you have any questions.
Would you say that after you printed and set up the whole program like this that it was pretty much open and go from there? I think I've settled on this program for my incoming kindergartener an love the way you organized this. Definitely taking pointers from your video!
Yes! I use it very open and go now. Year 1 I do kind of have to look ahead at the beginning of each week and decide which activities we may want to do but having all the "extras" in one binder makes it super easy to just grab that and my teacher manual and go. I highly recommend.
A lot of times we will use Bananagrams as our tiles. You could probably use the ones from All About Reading as well. But it wasn't too bad cutting prepping them. But the Bananagrams are our favorite if we are not working on double letter sounds.
@storybookschoolhouse With my oldest I went to Micheal Clay Thompson. She was older than the recommend age, but struggled with reading. Once it clicked she went from not reading to 4 grade level in one year. For my younger two I will most likely do the Wand program from Rooted in Language as well before moving them on to Micheal Clay Thompson.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! All About Reading is a great program, but alas, we hit a wall and were not able to move forward. We also love Brave Writer. We have been using Pinwheels for a full week no struggles!! Let me say that again..... FULL WEEK NO STRUGGLES!! My oldest is 6.
I think the writing portion is sufficient. And they provide blank lined paper for extra practice! And since it is a digital download, you can always make extra copies of the writing pages for more practice as well.
You’ve really got me thinking 🤔. We used teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons and it went well but I know my son needs more to fill those gaps. We are in I think lesson 24 in AAR level 1. It’s ok but I feel like it’s not going to work long term. It goes from just a few 2 consonant blends one at a time but then all the sudden it’s so many new ones at the same time. It’s throwing us off a bit.
I can totally see that. I personally did not love AAR (and my kids did not either). What I love about Pinwheels most is that everything is included. Not just phonics. I and I like that it is in bite size pieces so that we can do as little or as much as my child needs. Hope that helps! Good luck!
Does the program walk you through setting up all those binders? Where did you get the colored pouches you have in her binder? We're using LOE right now, but my son really does not like it. Thank you!!
Yes ma'am! There are very through directions on setting up the binders. The colored pouches are from Office Depot, but I will say the zipper parts broken on most of them within the first year. We used LOE with my oldest. I liked it, but I LOVE Pinwheels. LOL. Hope that helps!
Once Pinwheels is all put together, would you say it’s open and go? Also, how long would you say the lessons take each day? Is it easy to speed it up for typical learners who are catching on to reading?
If you set it up well, it is open and go. It is a good idea to look through it before you do it, but I just do it right before I call her over to do it. Pretty simple. It is very easy to speed up! Since my daughter is slightly older we typically move very quickly through the lessons. Levels 1 & 2 the units are meant to take about a week or a little more. We would do one in about 1-3 days. For level 3 they have it broken down into days. We typically do 2 days at a time. If I feel like it is too much writing, I will just have her skip repeat pages.
I'm here for all the questions! I don't mind at all. Currently there is Level 1 & 2 (year 1) and Level 3 & 4 (year 2). After that you move into their Wand Program. I am not aware of a Pinwheels year 3 at this time.
I’m using The Happy Cheetah right now with my almost 6 year old. I incorporated The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Reading too. I felt like THC wasn’t helping her sound words out. I’m really considering switching to this. It seems to have it all. Are you familiar with the two programs I’m using? I’m not sure where to start.
I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with the programs you are currently using. But I can tell you that this program really does cover everything! It's a one stop shop for sure. I love this program for that reason!
THANK YOU! We came from AAR and it was not a good fit. Similar story, I heard about Pinwheels and am currently setting it up for my rising 1st grader. The set-up is incredibly overwhelming but it's still a better fit than AAR. This video made me more secure in what I'm trying to do over here.
Which level of Pinwheels did you decide to go with? We've completed Logic of English A and are now halfway through AAR 1. My daughter (also a rising 1st grader) passed placement into PW3, but I keep reading a lot of people start at 1 to fill in gaps.
@@amies8203 We're starting at 1 for that very reason. Just too many missing skills. My Pre-Ker will tag along as well, so level 1 Kindergarten is a good fit right between the two. I plan to go all the way through level 4 and then do Wand and then switch to Brave Writer with some of the grammar instruction from Rooted in Language.
@@amies8203 I do not regret our decision to start with level one bit! We finished it in about a month, but man on man what progress she has made in that month! I'm happy we started at the beginning. It really helped her to fill in any gaps, and it really helped me to learn how to use the program to our benefit.
I have an Epson Ecotank. It took me more than 2 years to go through the bottles of ink that came with the printer, so I don't really include ink in my price. But it did take about 1.5 reams of 24lb paper and almost a whole ream of 28lb and card stock. Plus binding. I feel like the cost of printing plus the cost of the curriculum was comparable to other learn to read programs available. But if you have multiple children, it is easy to reuse many of the materials.
@@brigittedavis899 I printed and bound it myself. I have a spiral binder hole punch at home. But before I purchased it (on Amazon Prime Day), I would take it to Office Depot to get it bound. It was around $5-ish per binding.
@@brigittedavis899 amzn.to/3BpqX9r This is the I picked up. It was like 30% off during Prime Days. I love it, but you honestly don't need the electric coil inserter. I have yet to get it to work well and it is the only part that uses electricity, so I typically just coil everything by hand (which sounds a lot worse than it is. LOL) So if you can find one that is just the binding part for cheaper that would work great too. My last trip to Office Depot for binding before I got this was $50. I was able to convince hubby that doing it myself was going to save money in the long run. LOL
We typically do it 4 days a week. We attend a co-op one day a week. Sometimes we only get in three lessons. I would say it takes us no longer than a half hour. Most of the time less. We just keep going until she starts to lose focus. For level one we did close to a unit every 1 - 2 days. But she had already had some reading instruction, so a lot of it was review. The course is laid out to complete levels 1 & 2 in a year. Then 3 and 4 the next year. We recently started level 3 and they have the units broke out into days. We seem to be following that for the most part. Sometimes we can get through a day and a half in one session. I'm thinking it will take us most of the year to get through level 3 and 4. We may add in some arrows from Brave Writer, so we might slow down a little bit.
@@Homeschoolology Thank you so much! I was worried with so many moving parts and covering so much info it would take more time per day & I wasn't sure how that would go for us. This is helpful!
I'm so glad it was helpful to you. That is my goal. It does have lots of parts, but everything has a reason! I hope you guys like it. Feel free to come back and update us!
I just bought this curriculum because of your videos! I'm super excited to give it a go. I'm a first year homeschooler and I didn't realize how difficult it would be to teach phonic to my 6 year old. I'm working on printing it all off now. I was wondering if you think I should think single sided printing is better for the student workbook or should I double side it like the teachers manual?
I did double side for the teacher manual and student workbook. I even did double side for some of the resources too, but you have to look and see what needs to be single sided. Hope you guys love it as much as we do!
This was SO helpful in my decision, thank you! I had no idea from the samples there were so many tactile elements (flip book, color tiles for each sound) and that's exactly what my daughter needs, so we'll be giving it a try! As a side note 😄- is that an erasable marker/pen your daughter is using? If able, do you mind sharing the link to those? I think they would really help my daughter with handwriting. Thanks again!
@@amies8203 smile.amazon.com/dp/B075XFYWZG/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_Q2YM7P2CZ8ADV0T56RV3 These are the specific ones she is using in this video. We love them so much! The only thing you have to watch out for is if the paper gets too hot the ink will disappear. So don't leave your work in the car 🤣 I've read you can put it in the freezer and it will come back, but never tested it ourselves. We just don't use them for anything going in a portfolio.
How many pages is the student workbook? Is typically one page completed a day? Honestly my son is a struggling reader and has some problems with letter formation. No matter how many times I try to teach him he consistently tries to form the letters from the bottom. Is it possible to do this program at an accelerated pace to briefly cover mastered skills? My son is 7 and according to traditional school standards he would be entering second grade.
The workbooks are around 250+ pages. However, some pages there are no writing. And some pages are extra practice. It is vary large font. We were doing about 4-5 pages a day and finished level 1 in just shy of 2 months. One of the beauties of this program is that it is super easy to adjust your pace. It is a scripted curriculum, but you can move as quickly or as slowly as you would like. Which I feel makes it great for struggling readers. My daughter was in her 2nd grade year and 7 when we did it level 1 and I did not feel like it fell too "baby-ish" for her. I wish I had some sage advice on letter formation for you, but my daughter is the same exact way. She just flat refuses to write letters "properly". But honestly, I do not form all my letters exactly the way I was taught. Everyone's handwriting is different. People add their own flare by making specific letters different than the accepted norm. So I'm in the camp if its working, why fix it. I give the proper instruction, but as long as their handwriting is legible and it is not hindering their speed too much, I just let them form their letters the way they want to. I'm truly in love with this program and it has made a ton of difference with my daughter. I'm so glad we found it. And I'm actually really glad we started with level 1.
LOE is great! But I really do love Pinwheels. I have not used the Wand program yet. But I have used Dart and Arrow from Brave Writer. I'm happy to answer any question if I can.
Love this review thank you! Also got a chuckle out of when your dog hit the bell to go to the bathroom lol. I know that sound all too well 😂😂
What I cut out was me yelling at the children to please let the dog out. LOL. It's like the totally tune it out! That bell system is genius though!
Glad to hear this was helpful to you! Thanks for sharing!
Love this video! Great overview and love the demo lesson.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
I like that it is a more complete program, we are about to finish AAR2 and 2 and wondering if we start with pinwheel 2 if we will be ok since we didnt start with the program from the beginning?
I do not have experience with AAR past level 1. In Pinwheels Year 1 they cover pretty much all the basic phonograms. Year 2 starts with a little bit of review and they give you all the information you would need from Year 1 if you are starting at Year 2. So I think you could absolutely make the switch. And the ladies over at Rooted in Language are amazingly helpful if you have any questions.
Would you say that after you printed and set up the whole program like this that it was pretty much open and go from there? I think I've settled on this program for my incoming kindergartener an love the way you organized this. Definitely taking pointers from your video!
Yes! I use it very open and go now. Year 1 I do kind of have to look ahead at the beginning of each week and decide which activities we may want to do but having all the "extras" in one binder makes it super easy to just grab that and my teacher manual and go. I highly recommend.
Do you think you can use letter tiles and other manipulations from other reading programs to cut down on prep time?
A lot of times we will use Bananagrams as our tiles. You could probably use the ones from All About Reading as well. But it wasn't too bad cutting prepping them. But the Bananagrams are our favorite if we are not working on double letter sounds.
Are you still using pinwheels? Did you finish it? How was it? Thanks
Yes I am! I finished it with my middle daughter and am now going through it with my younger two kiddos. It is fantastic! We love it so much.
@@Homeschoolologymay I ask what you are moving to having completed Pinwheels? Thank you!
@storybookschoolhouse With my oldest I went to Micheal Clay Thompson.
She was older than the recommend age, but struggled with reading. Once it clicked she went from not reading to 4 grade level in one year.
For my younger two I will most likely do the Wand program from Rooted in Language as well before moving them on to Micheal Clay Thompson.
@@Homeschoolology Amazing for her!! That is super impressive progress 🥳
Thank you for taking the time to share your plan. I truly appreciate it!
@storybookschoolhouse Of course!! Happy to help. Hope you find a good fit!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! All About Reading is a great program, but alas, we hit a wall and were not able to move forward. We also love Brave Writer. We have been using Pinwheels for a full week no struggles!! Let me say that again..... FULL WEEK NO STRUGGLES!! My oldest is 6.
Momma!! I'm over here doing the happy dance💃 with you! That is so awesome! Whoop whoop!! So glad to hear it is working well for you guys!
Do you think you could start on year 2 without doing year 1?
Yes! There is a good bit of review in the beginning that would get you caught up on anything you would need to know.
Do you find the writing portion is sufficient? Or should I find a supplement? Thank you!
I think the writing portion is sufficient. And they provide blank lined paper for extra practice! And since it is a digital download, you can always make extra copies of the writing pages for more practice as well.
You’ve really got me thinking 🤔. We used teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons and it went well but I know my son needs more to fill those gaps. We are in I think lesson 24 in AAR level 1. It’s ok but I feel like it’s not going to work long term. It goes from just a few 2 consonant blends one at a time but then all the sudden it’s so many new ones at the same time. It’s throwing us off a bit.
I can totally see that. I personally did not love AAR (and my kids did not either). What I love about Pinwheels most is that everything is included. Not just phonics. I and I like that it is in bite size pieces so that we can do as little or as much as my child needs. Hope that helps! Good luck!
@@Homeschoolology thanks so much! I think we will try to get this level 1 first and then look into pinwheels. I think it just bores my child at times
@@brookeally1346Same with my kiddos!
Does the program walk you through setting up all those binders? Where did you get the colored pouches you have in her binder?
We're using LOE right now, but my son really does not like it.
Thank you!!
Yes ma'am! There are very through directions on setting up the binders. The colored pouches are from Office Depot, but I will say the zipper parts broken on most of them within the first year.
We used LOE with my oldest. I liked it, but I LOVE Pinwheels. LOL.
Hope that helps!
@@Homeschoolology thank you so much! That's good to know that the pouches aren't great lol.
Once Pinwheels is all put together, would you say it’s open and go? Also, how long would you say the lessons take each day? Is it easy to speed it up for typical learners who are catching on to reading?
Haha one more question I promise lol…are they planning on making another year of Pinwheels? Like year 3?
If you set it up well, it is open and go. It is a good idea to look through it before you do it, but I just do it right before I call her over to do it. Pretty simple.
It is very easy to speed up! Since my daughter is slightly older we typically move very quickly through the lessons. Levels 1 & 2 the units are meant to take about a week or a little more. We would do one in about 1-3 days. For level 3 they have it broken down into days. We typically do 2 days at a time. If I feel like it is too much writing, I will just have her skip repeat pages.
I'm here for all the questions! I don't mind at all.
Currently there is Level 1 & 2 (year 1) and Level 3 & 4 (year 2). After that you move into their Wand Program. I am not aware of a Pinwheels year 3 at this time.
I’m using The Happy Cheetah right now with my almost 6 year old. I incorporated The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Reading too. I felt like THC wasn’t helping her sound words out. I’m really considering switching to this. It seems to have it all. Are you familiar with the two programs I’m using? I’m not sure where to start.
I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with the programs you are currently using. But I can tell you that this program really does cover everything! It's a one stop shop for sure. I love this program for that reason!
THANK YOU! We came from AAR and it was not a good fit. Similar story, I heard about Pinwheels and am currently setting it up for my rising 1st grader. The set-up is incredibly overwhelming but it's still a better fit than AAR. This video made me more secure in what I'm trying to do over here.
Which level of Pinwheels did you decide to go with? We've completed Logic of English A and are now halfway through AAR 1. My daughter (also a rising 1st grader) passed placement into PW3, but I keep reading a lot of people start at 1 to fill in gaps.
@@amies8203 We're starting at 1 for that very reason. Just too many missing skills. My Pre-Ker will tag along as well, so level 1 Kindergarten is a good fit right between the two. I plan to go all the way through level 4 and then do Wand and then switch to Brave Writer with some of the grammar instruction from Rooted in Language.
@@preciousjeni thank you, I'm feeling like we should do the same!
@preciousjeni I am so happy to hear this video made you feel more secure in your decision!
@@amies8203 I do not regret our decision to start with level one bit! We finished it in about a month, but man on man what progress she has made in that month! I'm happy we started at the beginning. It really helped her to fill in any gaps, and it really helped me to learn how to use the program to our benefit.
Can I ask how much it cost to print?
I have an Epson Ecotank. It took me more than 2 years to go through the bottles of ink that came with the printer, so I don't really include ink in my price. But it did take about 1.5 reams of 24lb paper and almost a whole ream of 28lb and card stock. Plus binding. I feel like the cost of printing plus the cost of the curriculum was comparable to other learn to read programs available. But if you have multiple children, it is easy to reuse many of the materials.
So did you print yourself & then have it spiral bound somewhere?
@@brigittedavis899 I printed and bound it myself. I have a spiral binder hole punch at home. But before I purchased it (on Amazon Prime Day), I would take it to Office Depot to get it bound. It was around $5-ish per binding.
@@Homeschoolology Ohhh do you have a link for the binding machine that you have? That's a great idea! Thank you!
@@brigittedavis899 amzn.to/3BpqX9r This is the I picked up. It was like 30% off during Prime Days. I love it, but you honestly don't need the electric coil inserter. I have yet to get it to work well and it is the only part that uses electricity, so I typically just coil everything by hand (which sounds a lot worse than it is. LOL) So if you can find one that is just the binding part for cheaper that would work great too.
My last trip to Office Depot for binding before I got this was $50. I was able to convince hubby that doing it myself was going to save money in the long run. LOL
About how long per day do you work on this? Do you do 5 days a week or an alternate schedule?
We typically do it 4 days a week. We attend a co-op one day a week. Sometimes we only get in three lessons. I would say it takes us no longer than a half hour. Most of the time less. We just keep going until she starts to lose focus.
For level one we did close to a unit every 1 - 2 days. But she had already had some reading instruction, so a lot of it was review. The course is laid out to complete levels 1 & 2 in a year. Then 3 and 4 the next year. We recently started level 3 and they have the units broke out into days. We seem to be following that for the most part. Sometimes we can get through a day and a half in one session. I'm thinking it will take us most of the year to get through level 3 and 4. We may add in some arrows from Brave Writer, so we might slow down a little bit.
@@Homeschoolology Thank you so much! I was worried with so many moving parts and covering so much info it would take more time per day & I wasn't sure how that would go for us. This is helpful!
I'm so glad it was helpful to you. That is my goal. It does have lots of parts, but everything has a reason! I hope you guys like it. Feel free to come back and update us!
I just bought this curriculum because of your videos! I'm super excited to give it a go. I'm a first year homeschooler and I didn't realize how difficult it would be to teach phonic to my 6 year old. I'm working on printing it all off now. I was wondering if you think I should think single sided printing is better for the student workbook or should I double side it like the teachers manual?
I did double side for the teacher manual and student workbook. I even did double side for some of the resources too, but you have to look and see what needs to be single sided. Hope you guys love it as much as we do!
@@Homeschoolology thank you for responding!
@@dbxjb6891 Of course!
This was SO helpful in my decision, thank you! I had no idea from the samples there were so many tactile elements (flip book, color tiles for each sound) and that's exactly what my daughter needs, so we'll be giving it a try!
As a side note 😄- is that an erasable marker/pen your daughter is using? If able, do you mind sharing the link to those? I think they would really help my daughter with handwriting. Thanks again!
I'm so glad it was helpful to you! There are lots of tactile elements, which is part of why we love it so much! I hope you guys enjoy it!
Pilot Frixon are the erasable markers/pens. :) We love them and also use them with a Rocketbook.
@@lindaplass_socal thank you!!
@@lindaplass_socal Thank you so much for answering her question! Somehow I missed that part.
@@amies8203 smile.amazon.com/dp/B075XFYWZG/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_Q2YM7P2CZ8ADV0T56RV3
These are the specific ones she is using in this video. We love them so much! The only thing you have to watch out for is if the paper gets too hot the ink will disappear. So don't leave your work in the car 🤣
I've read you can put it in the freezer and it will come back, but never tested it ourselves. We just don't use them for anything going in a portfolio.
How many pages is the student workbook? Is typically one page completed a day?
Honestly my son is a struggling reader and has some problems with letter formation. No matter how many times I try to teach him he consistently tries to form the letters from the bottom.
Is it possible to do this program at an accelerated pace to briefly cover mastered skills? My son is 7 and according to traditional school standards he would be entering second grade.
The workbooks are around 250+ pages. However, some pages there are no writing. And some pages are extra practice. It is vary large font. We were doing about 4-5 pages a day and finished level 1 in just shy of 2 months.
One of the beauties of this program is that it is super easy to adjust your pace. It is a scripted curriculum, but you can move as quickly or as slowly as you would like. Which I feel makes it great for struggling readers. My daughter was in her 2nd grade year and 7 when we did it level 1 and I did not feel like it fell too "baby-ish" for her.
I wish I had some sage advice on letter formation for you, but my daughter is the same exact way. She just flat refuses to write letters "properly". But honestly, I do not form all my letters exactly the way I was taught. Everyone's handwriting is different. People add their own flare by making specific letters different than the accepted norm. So I'm in the camp if its working, why fix it. I give the proper instruction, but as long as their handwriting is legible and it is not hindering their speed too much, I just let them form their letters the way they want to.
I'm truly in love with this program and it has made a ton of difference with my daughter. I'm so glad we found it. And I'm actually really glad we started with level 1.
Well shoot! Here I thought we loved LOE. I love the inclusion of nonsenses words and the phonemic awareness game. Have you used The Wand program?
LOE is great! But I really do love Pinwheels. I have not used the Wand program yet. But I have used Dart and Arrow from Brave Writer. I'm happy to answer any question if I can.
We're using Pinwheels right now and really like it! There are a lot of moving parts, but less than LOE, so that's good.
Agree! There are lots of moving parts. But I feel like they give you a good organization system which helps.
@@Homeschoolology agreed!