Hooked on Phonics vs All About Reading
The main differences
Hooked on Phonics teaches phonics in an app that chooses each next lesson, with a workbook and storybooks mailed every month, for a monthly fee, up to 2nd grade. All About Reading is taught by the parent from a lightly scripted manual with letter tiles and hardcover readers, about 20 minutes a day, and you buy each level once. Hooked on Phonics asks less of the parent each day; All About Reading has the parent beside the child for every lesson and carries on to Level 4.
| Hooked on Phonics | All About Reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Subjects | Reading and phonics | Reading and phonics |
| Grades | Ages 3 to 8, Pre-K to 2nd grade | Pre-reading for preschool and kindergarten, then Levels 1 to 4, placed by skill rather than grade |
| Method | Mastery | Mastery |
| Format | Books and screen | Books and workbooks |
| Faith label | Secular | Secular |
| Cost a year | $287.52. Complete Phonics: $23.96 a month (the first month is $11.98), billed monthly, which is $287.52 for 12 months at the regular price. No yearly plan is shown. | $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. |
| Placement | None on the publisher's site | Free placement test ↗ |
| Parent time | Not stated by the publisher | About 20 minutes a day of parent-led reading lessons, plus 20 minutes of reading aloud. |
| It fits | A family with a child aged 3 to 8 who wants short app lessons that plan themselves, with real books and workbooks arriving by mail. | 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. |
| It doesn't fit | A family that wants to keep screens out of reading lessons, or prefers to buy materials once rather than pay every month. | A family that wants a child to work alone, or wants reading, spelling and writing in one book. |
Hooked on Phonics
Hooked on Phonics is a phonics subscription that pairs an app with print materials mailed each month. In the app, videos, songs and games teach one sound at a time, and the app picks the next lesson. Each month a 32-page workbook, two or three storybooks for the child to decode, and stickers arrive to match the app. The Complete Phonics plan also includes spelling and math lessons in the app, is billed monthly, and covers up to three children in the app.
Does well: The app chooses each next lesson, so the parent does not plan lessons.
Watch for: It is a subscription with no yearly plan shown, so a full year at the regular price costs $287.52.
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.
Lists with both
- Homeschool reading and phonics programs 6
- Secular homeschool curricula 30
- Mastery-based homeschool curricula 11
- Homeschool curricula for pre-K and kindergarten 48
- Homeschool curricula for $100 to $300 a year 18
- Secular homeschool reading and phonics programs 5
- Secular mastery-based homeschool curricula 9
- Secular homeschool curricula for pre-K and kindergarten 25
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