What's the differance??? How do I choose?? My daughter is almost 5 She can recognize most of the letters and tell you their sounds. She has a hard time with her counting because I haven't worked with her much on it. BUT she catches on VERY quickly. Thanks Angela
I'm not familiar with K4. I'd go with K5.... If you have to you could just go at a slower pace, and fill in any gaps here and there as you need to. My 5 yr old finished k5 a few weeks ago. It was fairly easy for him... he finished it in a few months just working on it here and there. The math does seem a little advance but when he hit a wall we just backed up a bit and worked on it for a while... then we'd pick back up a few weeks later. Can you go to a hotel meeting and flip through the books to see which ones you prefer.
You choose based on what grade your child will be in at the beginning of the school year. For example if your child will be 4 by say september you'd use K4 or "early kindergarten" or if your child would be 5 by say September then you go with K5 or Kindergarten. did that help? Our church school uses abeka and the K4 program is like a pre-k or early kinder program and K5 is actual kindergarten.
I think K4 is a waste of time and money. There's nothing in it that you can't do on your own. Basically, it's numbers and letters, maybe some sight word recognition, etc. Most of us do 99% of any pre-K or K4 stuff without even being aware of it. I'd start her directly into the Kindergarten stuff. Kindergarten was started to ease kids INTO school, and to be sure the kids all had the knowledge needed to start first grade all on the same basic level. Teachers assumed that the kids knew little to nothing going in. Now, they expect the kids to come in already knowing so much. But of course, there are still plenty of those who don't, and so now they've had to add the preK to get those kids "up to speed". Those children DON'T need school! They need parents who play and interact with their children instead! And homeschoolers already do that.
I used a little of K4 for Gianna (who was 4 in Dec.). She zoomed thru it. She loved doing the worksheets and kept asking for more. In fact she will probably skip most of K5 and go with 1st grade this next year.
http://www.abeka.com/Resources/PDFs/ScopeAndSequence.pdf Here is the Scope and Sequence for Abeka so you can see for yourself what exactly is covered. This information will make it easy to make an informed decision rather than a guess.
I wouldn't go by her age but her ability. From what I read, your child will do fine with K5. We used K5 and flew through it. ...and, as it has been said, you can slow down if necessary.
I have K5 for my son who just turned 5. I also have the 3 year old program for my daughter because she wanted to do school to, although I don't force her. I'd get the k5. My son is flying through it
I started my daughter with K5 when she was 4 1/2, Abeka lets you do that. She already knew her alphabet, letter sounds, and numbers up to about 35. Don't worry about the numbers if you use K5, she'll catch up, or you can also get her some math games, or do some free online math games , I think they have some at gamequarium. I think you will have to decide for yourself what you think your daughter is ready for. I think your daughter will do fine, especially if she catches on quickly. K4 is fine, but there will be alot of what she already knows in there, and you don't want her to be bored, I know every child is different, but mine flew through it. I bet yours will too. Good luck to you!! Blessings, Dianna
Hi, Wow! I didn't know you could do that! What program are you using? We use DVD program 1. It's already too late for that for us, Yvonne will begin second grade in August. I was just curious as to how you were able to skip most of K5. I wish I had been able to do that with first grade, or at least the first half, but being that we use program 1, I have to send out her work for progress reports. Thanks. Blessings, Dianna
My son also skipped through most of K5 onto 1st grade. We don't use the DVD program. I ordered him the A Beka Arithmetic 1, A Beka Language 1, A Beka Letters and Sounds 1 and that is his school work. So he has 3 workbooks and he loves them. You can move forward anytime you like.
I almost positive they are having a book fair near us soon. I'm going to go look at their program and talk with them to see what I need to buy. Right now I'm confused. I do know that we are going to go with the k5 program without the DVD's. But I don't know what all I need to buy. Thanks for all the help. Angela
Hi Angela. If you get the DVD program, they send you everything you need, writing tablets, letter formation guides, art projects, etc. All you need to buy is pencils and erasers. It is more costly, but they have a payment program, which we most definitely use. Also, they keep track of the grades, and transcripts should you ever need them. I'm not very gifted with the skill of organizing, so I thought that the fact they keep everything for you was wonderful. Of course, they send you a progress report for your records too. Not everyone likes the fact that they can't pick and choose the curriculum for themselves, but I think they have a pretty good curriculum. What works for one person, may not work for the next person. It's what works for you that counts. Just some food for thought. Blessings, Dianna
Thanks Dianna, I didn't know they had a payment program. If we can still go at our own pace we might look into that. A few of the ladies in our homeschool group use them but for older elementary grade kids and they LOVE it.
