I hae a 3 y/o DS, and I am looking into using A Beka when he turns 5. I know some of you have used this curriculum, and I was wondering if it worked well for you? Is there anything about it that you think could have been better or improved upon? I saw that it is a 170 day school year, and I like that. Do you do the video or the traditional? The traditional is looking good to me. I'm just so nervous about going into it and then not liking it when we start and having problems with it, you know what I mean? I appreciate all of your information, and I'm sorry to throw so many questions at you!!
Lots of people start with an all-in-one-curriculum and then switch subjects out as they find other things they think will work better. I taught Abeka on the professional secondary level for 5 years. I ended up ditching all the middle school language arts stuff from them; we retained the literature books on the high school level but ditched everything else and went with other curriculum. I think you could certainly feel secure starting with Abeka. Then, as you see other curricula and see how your children learn, you can decide if you want to keep all of Abeka or trade some subjects out. I used Abeka grammar last year and had planned to use it again this year. However, they screwed up taking my order and delayed telling me, so I just canceled with them and went with a grammar program I could access from a educational supply store here in town. They're a solid program, though, and depending on what kind of learner your child is, they can do well with it.
That is awesome! I thought it was an all or nothing sort of thing. You either participate in ALL of Abeka's COurses or none at all. It's good to know that I can trade some of them out if I want! Thanks!!
I started out with the Abeka K kit before I had any clue what I was doing. It's what everyone at church recommended, so I did it. I liked how everything was laid out for you. Everything was on a daily schedule, so there wasn't a whole lot of planning on my part. My dislikes were that social studies and science were very lacking (but most people skip those for K, so I can see why they were written that way... and they were optional to the kit anyway). The art book wasn't laid out as well as others I've seen, either. Some have all the materials listed in the front as a shopping list (in quantity) and as a page list (per-project list). This one just had everything on one page, so I had no idea if I'd actually need to use something, AND I didn't know if I could substitute something else if I didn't find the supply I needed. The projects weren't in an order that correlated to the rest of the curriculum, either. I mean... if you're going to talk about pilgrims & indians for Thanksgiving, shouldn't you do an art project with turkeys in November? If you're going to use the duckie to teach a math concept, shouldn't you make the duckie art project the same week, not 3 months later? Some were in the right places, but others were like after-thoughts. I just bought the 2nd grade book, and I like it MUCH better. Seems they got their act together. I don't recommend the DVD. (1) It's very expensive. (2) It's very boring. (3) You can't make adjustments to lesson plans as well as you could if you were teaching it yourself. If you see that your child already knows something, move on. If you see your child struggling, offer extra time/help. DVDs can't "see" anything. (4) DVDs are only one level. If your child reads well but struggles with math, it makes sense to buy K math and 1st reading (for example). You can't do that with the DVD program.
Ok, so I noticed that I could either go to www.abekaacademy.org, or I could go to Abeka.com which gave me a listing for all of Abeka's books and materials. COuld I just use the books and materials for a good curriculum, or do I really need to buy the traditional program online at abekaacademy.org? I hope this makes sense...
The academy is a DVD program that is accredited (very expensive) or non-accredited (plain old expensive). You don't "do" anything necessarily unless you really want to be involved. Your kid watches the video, does the work, and then the work is mailed back to Abeka to be officially graded by a certified teacher. If you want an accredited program, it's a good one to use. You don't need an accredited program for most college applications, and you certainly don't need one before 9th grade. If you just want the materials, go through Abeka directly.
We used the A Beka kit for the first couple of years. It is well put together but it is VERY traditional and boring at times. If your child enjoys a traditional education, this will be perfect but if your child is a hands-on learner, you might want to look elsewhere. It is complete, as far as I am concerned. But there is a lot of extra work that I found unnecessary for the grade level. So I didn't use everything in the set.
I would just pick out the books and such that you want. I wouldn't invest in the academy at this point; you'll want to see what kinds of learners your kids are first and if you, as the teacher, will like the program. And, yes, you can just use Abeka for one subject up to all. I didn't personally like them in any subject area other than grammar, but, again, that's a personal choice. For some, Abeka works great for every subject and for some it works well in only one or two and for some it just doesn't work well at all. I will say that I've always found Abeka to be good for kids who like to do workbooks. They do introduce a lot of concepts earlier than other programs, which can be good if that works for your family or not if it doesn't. Really, when you first start out homeschooling, you just have to pick something you think looks good and might work and try it out. If it doesn't, then pick something different the next go-round. I have a friend who uses Abeka for 2nd grade for all but math for her daughter; she knew, though, after using it that it wouldn't work for her son at all, so she's using a different program for him for Kindergarten.
Thanks guys. I think i'll just go ahead and buy some of the books that I want and go from there. Thanks for the suggestions!! It's so much clearer now! lol
We used Abeka traditional from K-8th grade. When my boys started high school I enrolled them into Abeka Academy just so they could get a feel for someone other than mom teaching them. I like the traditional for the lower grades because I prefer to be more "hands on" when we are building or educational foundation. Abeka has really nice books, lots of color and kept my kids interested. When starting in the elem grades K-3 I would get ALL the curriclum, yes even the teachers editions so you know how to teach the program. There was a neighbor that refused to spend the extra $$ and couldn't figure out why her son hated school and could not read. She introduced the entire stack of phonics special sounds at once. If she would have spent a little extra $$ she would have known you only introduce about three at a time. There is no guess work, they tell you what to do, what to say, how to prepare for it. There is no failure here! The best part is that Abeka is a super awesome curriculum and your kids will do very well. My boys were required to take state mandated standardized tests which we had a third party administer every other year. My oldest scored on the composite (average) in the upper 80th percentile, my youngest scored in the upper 90th percentile. My youngest son's first stand. Iowa test, his comp score was the 99th % and oldest son's was 88th %! I would not waste my money on the Academy until high school, in my opinion, the youngesters need that one on one instruction. This curriculum is used in private Christian schools and they made it available to home schoolers. Footnote: The advantage you have with sticking with one curriculum in the lower grades is all the books coorilate with one another. When you start mixing and matching from other companies you have Abeka saying the special sound er is er as in verse and another company saying it is er as in something else. Don't confuse the issue, stick to one curric. The math, reading, lang., etc. all jive with each other. The reading books are super awesome! Abeka ROCKS!
That depends on whether you're going with Abeka Academy or just using it on your own. If you're going with the Academy, you're pretty much stuck with all-Abeka. If you're just using it on your own, you can pick and choose whatever you and your kids like and can learn from.
Abeka Academy will let you buy individual courses but it is cheaper to buy the whole program. That in itself is not bad, you won't have a gun to your head because you DON'T have to use all of the dvd's. You can pick and choose once you receive the program.
My son was in a Christian school that uses A Beka this year, and I'll tell you what I've gotten from it: 1) many of the activities are overkill - it is designed for a classroom, so much of the work is considered "seatwork" which in my opinion serves no purpose in a homeschool setting. 2) the program is really only good for children who enjoy LOTS of writing and workbook style work 3) if you haven't already taught cursive handwriting, I suggest working some on it before you begin as A Beka is all cursive from the beginning. 4) As far as Christian materials go their stuff is sound teachings, however there are other curriculums out there that I would consider more bible based than A Beka. 5) I feel that A Beka is more "school at home" style, after all it was written for schools and offered to homeschoolers and for us it would never work here. I strongly sugggest you find a display in your area (you can locate that on their website abekabook.com), and look at the materials before you buy.
Thanks Birbitt. That is definately an objective view! I'm not really a fan of lots of seatwork, and workbook style. Movement, and hands on activities in my view would be the way to go. I may end up buying a few books from them to supplement, but other than that I might not use it. Hearing other peoples views and everything, I guess I will really test the waters before I dive in.
If you like hands-on stuff, you might take a look at My Father's World. They build a lot of their curriculum around hands-on projects and activities. You might also check out one called Eagle's Wings. Now, I know NOTHING about this one, but my friend who was looking for a hands-on curriculum for her K went with this one over My Father's World. I've no idea why, but since she was looking for hands-on for a K child, I figured I'd mention them: http://www.eagleswingsed.com/products/index.html. She did look at both curricula at a book fair and made the decision based on that.
If you have a good library nearby, and if your child is the kind of child who enjoys reading the same book over and over again (mine are both) I suggest Five in a Row. It's a wonderful curriculum and pretty inexpensive to do if you have access to a good library (or at least one that will do inter-library loans for you) Basically with FIAR you will read the same book each of five days completing a different activity each day. The only thing you need to add to it is a good phonics program, and if your child is ready a good math.
I'll definately check out "My Father's World". DH and I are sure we want to start him at 4 (he will be three in July) since we are having #3 in November. I don't want to disrupt his work and have him regress due to the new arrival. For now we are doing a little practice learning to read and so on for now. Not looking for too much from him since he's 3, but he's so DARN eager to learn how, he might just do it! Thanks!
I also agree that Abeka is written with private schools in mind. We skipped a lot of "seatwork" stuff. I call it "busy work" personally.
We didnt really skip anything, I found everything in the books very helpful in building a good foundation for my children's education.
