Very true! And I'm coming from previously teaching from a phonics curriculum that specifically taught "am" and "an" as nasal sounds so that definitely influences my opinion. My daughter has learned to like it. ☺️ We just tend to skip/substitute some portions.

Thank you! Yes. I almost purchased AAR because it aligns more with what I've learned through my science of reading trainings. I'm also using Explode the Code though so I didn't want to do too much. These books are so cute and fun and I think they do a pretty good job with phonics. I figured I'll just make adjustments, as needed.

I talked more about it in my end of year review video, but we took a break from these books due to initial frustration with the phonics practice ahead of the stories that led to an unfortunate plummet in my daughter's confidence. After using a research-based reading program and building her confidence, I reintroduced these books and she loves them. We don't do the phonics practice in the beginning of the books anymore (my daughter's personal preference), but just use the books to practice reading after I have explicitly taught the phonics skills through the reading curriculum we use. She did not like the activities that went along with the books so we don't do those either. I think the books are great and I would still recommend them alongside a research-based reading curriculum. She recently finished set one and has started reading through the poetry book.