I plan to do AAS this year and I would be doing it with 3 children. 2 I have schooled together and 1 is just starting. I have heard that you should always start with level 1 is this true? And do all the children need their own student books and review boxes?
Hey - we just started using AAS this year. My daughter is in first grade. She reads and writes above grade level, but we still started with level 1, and it’s good that we did, because level 1 sets the foundation for all of the other letters. Level 1 essentially has 24 lessons in it. We do 1 lesson per week (though some we stretch to 2 weeks). This won’t get us through the entire school year - as it is March and we are on lesson number 23 now. I created/planned a lot of spelling games for the remainder of the year that we can use with all of the words she practiced in AAS this year.
In my mind, you should only need one review box with all of the review cards. The reviewing gets tedious and boring, so we use the review box on Monday. Then do the lesson Tuesday and Wednesday and the “test” on Thursday. You asked about student books. Perhaps I missed something? We just have a teacher manual and the review box with all of the cards (and of course all of the magnet letters) - no student book. In any event, 1 teacher manual and 1 box and set of magnet pieces should be fine to share among the kids. If you find it’s not enough, you can always order more, but I’d begin with 1 set. Hope this helps 
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I agree with @triton17 My daughter taught herself to read at 3 and is well above her kindergarten reading level, but I’m glad we began with level 1. While some lessons were boring for her, many challenged her and I learned a few things too. She is on step 21 and just yesterday, I was trying to think of fun ways to on review. @triton17 , would you mind sharing some of the ideas you came up with? There are no student books, but student pkg that contains the sound cards, key cards …They aren’t necessary, but we use them. Hope this helps.
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I think the student packet IS the cards. We haven’t started AAS yet but someone told me on another topic thread that, once purchased, you don’t have to buy the student packet again for future students. The site refers to them as student packets because all of the cards come as tear out pages in a booklet, but one booklet is all you’ll need or you’d end up with 3 separate sets of the same cards. The only reason I can think of that more than one set would be needed is if 1 student still needs review for words that the other 2 have already mastered (or something else like that) but I’m guessing you could get around that by of which cards each child has mastered.
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I’d be interested in hearing your ideas as well if you’re willing to share. 
@DeannaForgard and @Rarasmama
I will gladly share the activities I came up with (most I did not create myself, but scoured the internet for ideas) - however, we are on our way out the door. I’m making myself a note and I’ll respond with details in the next day or two. Have a great day!
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Sorry I meant the student packet not book.
Thank you for the response. I kind of figured one would be fine for now. However now I know for sure that I would need two levels to start. My older children will probably fly through level 1 maybe even level 2.
You will start at level 1. I don’t think I saw your ages? The oldest ones will likely fly through level one. I think my 2nd grade daughter did level one in 2 months. It slows way down after that.
I love AAS, but we moved away from it this year because it was extremely time consuming with multiple children. My daughter just requested to use it again next year (5th) so I think we will figure out how to fit it in.
My experience is if you truly have children learning at the exact same pace you can use one set of cards, but my kids progress just different enough it can be cumbersome to have only one set of cards. If you intentionally wait a month to add the slighty slower learner you should have enough cards mastered by the first child so you can start the next without buying a second set of cards. I always wanted to teach my boys together to streamline my time, but it didn’t seem to work as well as I hoped. I know my sister had her older learners teach each other. I am hopeful to get to that place in a year or two.
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@DeannaForgard and @Rarasmama,
Sorry it took me a couple of days to get back to you - overwhelmingly busy right now creating a Kindergarten curriculum from scratch! Ugh! Anyway - I didn’t forget about the spelling stuff. Next year I’m going to weave these games and ideas in starting at the beginning of the year. I didn’t this year because it is our first year with the program and I didn’t realize we would need/want something more to go with the program. This isn’t everything I found/came up with, but it should get you started.
First I went to TeachersPayTeachers and bought these 2 spelling packets… I’m not big into worksheets, but I figured with spelling, practice, practice, practice - these sheets are spelling games that you can use with any list of words. I’m going to put them in page protectors and give my daughter 2-4 sheets per week with a list of words. The sheets have enough variation that I can use them for many years with both children. Certainly you can find or make many of these sheets for free by looking at pinterest for ideas, but sometimes I just need to do things the fast way, and these affordable packets were fast and easy to print. Here are the links to the packets I bought: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spelling-Word-Work-17-printable-worksheets-588248 and https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spelling-Word-Work-Worksheets-For-ANY-List-658676 .
I don’t want to just rely on worksheets. We use games we have on hand, like Boggle (I just adjust to our words) and Scrabble (we don’t play this like the rules say - we use our list of spelling words - I call out a word and she searches for the letters and tries to build it off of another word - no scoring or anything). We have a few other games I’ve picked up from second hand stores, yard sales, etc (there are TONS of good looking games on different education websites, but I’m cheap/poor, so buying them new is not an option).
I also search PInterest for ideas. I made a goal to find/create 1 game each week (with a goal of about 20 total) - a game or activity I feel can be used over many different grades with different words - that way I’m set for a long time. Here are some of the links I found useful:
http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2012/10/75-fun-ways-to-practice-and-learn.html
http://handsonaswegrow.com/hands-on-moms/practice-printing-bags/
http://thisreadingmama.com/hands-on-spelling-activities/
http://kindergarteniscrazy.blogspot.com/2013/03/sight-word-literacy-center-activities.html
http://www.themeasuredmom.com/spell-it-a-printable-spelling-game-for-any-word-list-k-3/
http://topnotchteaching.com/lesson-ideas/35-spelling-games/
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
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@triton17 This is awesome!!! Thank you SO much for taking the time to share these. I am definitely going to use your ideas! 
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