All About Reading vs Explode The Code
The main differences
All About Reading is a complete parent-taught reading program: a lightly scripted lesson each day with letter tiles, activity pages and hardcover readers, about 20 minutes, in kits of $159.95 for Level 1. Explode The Code is a series of $12.49 phonics workbooks that, the publisher says, a child can work in alone, with the teaching activities in separate teacher's guides and no readers. Explode The Code is practice to go beside reading lessons and real books; All About Reading is built to be the whole reading lesson.
| All About Reading | Explode The Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Subjects | Reading and phonics | Reading and phonics |
| Grades | Pre-reading for preschool and kindergarten, then Levels 1 to 4, placed by skill rather than grade | Pre-K to 4th grade: primer books A to C, then Books 1 to 8 |
| Method | Mastery | Traditional |
| Format | Books and workbooks | Books and workbooks |
| Faith label | Secular | Secular |
| Cost a year | $159.95. Level 1 materials (teacher's manual, student packet with activity book, and three readers): $159.95. Letter tiles are $25.95 extra and serve every level. | Student workbooks are $12.49 each and the teacher's guide for Books 1 and 2 is $17.49, at the publisher's consumer prices. The publisher does not say how many books make a school year. |
| Placement | Free placement test ↗ | Placement test book ($38.49) ↗ |
| Parent time | About 20 minutes a day of parent-led reading lessons, plus 20 minutes of reading aloud. | Not stated by the publisher |
| It fits | A parent who wants a step-by-step, lightly scripted phonics program to teach one child at a time, including a child who finds reading hard. | A family that wants low-cost, low-prep phonics practice a child can do with little help, alongside reading aloud and real books. |
| It doesn't fit | A family that wants a child to work alone, or wants reading, spelling and writing in one book. | A parent who wants a complete, scripted reading program with readers in one box. |
All About Reading
All About Reading is a phonics program in five levels: Pre-reading, then Levels 1 to 4. A parent teaches each lesson from a lightly scripted teacher's manual, using letter tiles, word cards, activity pages and fluency practice, and the child reads stories from hardcover decodable readers. The publisher suggests about 20 minutes of lessons a day, and one lesson can stretch over several days. You buy one level kit at a time, with the letter tiles sold separately.
Does well: Each level kit holds the teacher's manual, the activity book and the readers, so one purchase covers a level apart from the letter tiles.
Watch for: The parent teaches every lesson one-on-one from the teacher's manual; this is not a program a child works through alone.
Explode The Code
Explode The Code is a series of phonics workbooks. Three primer books, A to C, teach consonant sounds and letters, then Books 1 to 8 move from short vowels and three-letter words to longer words and short stories, with half books such as 1½ for extra practice. Children write in the books, which keep the same exercise formats throughout and end with a post-test. Teacher's guides, a placement test book and a 12-month online version are sold separately.
Does well: Each workbook is small and inexpensive, so you buy one book at a time as the child is ready.
Watch for: The student books are practice pages; teaching activities are in separate teacher's guides.
Lists with both
- Homeschool reading and phonics programs 6
- Secular homeschool curricula 30
- Homeschool curricula for pre-K and kindergarten 48
- Print homeschool curricula 44
- Secular homeschool reading and phonics programs 5
- Secular homeschool curricula for pre-K and kindergarten 25
- Secular print homeschool curricula 19
- Print homeschool reading and phonics programs 4
How we label
Every fact on a card was read on the publisher's own website on the date shown, and the page it came from is linked. A fact we could not confirm there is left out. Costs are for one child and one year of the main package, as the publisher's page showed them that day; prices and sales change. Method and format are the publisher's own description where it gives one. The only thing we say about religion is one label, secular or faith-based, given by the rule above; where the publisher's pages don't settle it, the card has no label.
Something wrong or out of date? Send a correction; publishers can send corrections, never money. Every program compared