I loved that part about their phonics too!! Although by the middle of the book he was tired of marking vowels because he had them down. So now I don't make him mark the vowels anymore when I pull out one of their worksheets from the K book. I only make him read me the word now.
This is an intresting thread, I have learned alot from you ladies. I have looked into Abeka as well. My dh was schooled in a private school with it growing up and his language and vocab, and math is awesome, but he is terrible at reading he hates it. So who knows if that is just him or the program. But I had the same thought WOW that is expensive. For now I am going to pick and choose.
Oh and I wanted to ask the OP why are you done with sonlight , and MFW ( which I am not sure what that stand for ) I was looking into sonlight and would like some critics of it, the catalog makes it look so nice, and expensive. IF you don't mind me thread hijacking!
Abeka is great, its expensive though. That is about it for me, I haveheard though from others that thier stories leave a bit to be desired in some grades so it depends on the grade I think.
It is expensive but in my experience and opinion it is well worth the extra cost. My kids have excelled beyond our dreams. A lady stopped me yesterday at the store and wanted to compliment my oldest ds. Her dh is the superin. of the local ps. She said, "You have done such a fantastic job homeschooling and raising your kids. Your son ****** is so smart, well spoken and outgoing. That is something I thought a hs-er would never be, I've learned something myself. You should be really proud of yourself. When is his graduation and are we invited"? (My oldest ds works with her).
MFW is My Father's World. Some similarities to Sonlight, but in my opinion - not quite so intense. We are using MFW and loving it! you can check it out more at www.mfwbooks.com.
We use some Sonlight. I dislike their workload & the intensly academic aspects but their book choices are awesome. I usually order most of their books & their English schedule then tweak it to suit us. I mostly do our own history & just use the Sonlight books. Ambleside (which uses Charlotte Msson) also has an awsome book list by grade. Sonlight is expensive but some books have been hard to get through the library & they are the ones I buy. I own lots already, borrow what I can then order the rest.
Just saw this, I have used A Beka for 8 years. I used Math U See last year, but, went back to A Beka. A Beka is very well organized, colorful and has great lesson plans to follow. Yes, it is expensive, but I felt it was well worth it. Elijah hates school, so he wouldn't be happy with any curriculum. If you would be part of the A Beka Academy, where they keep all your test and scores, your child graduates with a diploma. You would then have to complete all the work. If you would use just the DVD's and keep your own records, you can pick and choose how much your child will do. You could just order the books, it is cheaper and you would teach from the books. I hope this all makes sense. I would encourage you to go to the meeting and check out the books. They should have a DVD playing. Ask the salesman as many questions as you can and/or to play the grade on the DVD that your child will be going into. Let us know what you choose to do.
I wanted to add, the salesman was never pushy, just there to answer questions. He was also very helpful.
I liked MFW for the first few weeks, but further into it it got redundent and I felt like I was having to fill in ALOT. I have a love/hate relationship with sonlight. I loved it b/c it introduced me to Usborne which I LOVE their science and history stuff, and Horizons math that my girl is still using. I also really loved their language and readers. It is WAY too structured for me and some of the read-alouds had words in them I didn't even know how to pronunce, let alone try to get a K student to grasp. And their read-alouds are the bulk of their core programs and that's where they stick you money-wise. I can get the same things off paperbackswap.com for free! We might try again in the later years, but $800 is just a wee bit too much for this unstructured, fly by the seat of your pants kinda mom
Thanks those were really helpful answers. I keep seeing MFW and want to think in my head monday wed. friday. hehe
I feel the Abeka Phonics program is excellent and easy to use. My kids have excelled in reading and really LOVE to read. They rent a lot of books from the library and have always read above their grade level. My one ds has a dictionary in our vehicles that he reads when we go on trips.
Why do we love it? Here goes. We have a five year old daughter who is about to finish first grade. I have a sister in law who is a public school teacher, and wanted to test her, just to see if she was up to public school standards. She doesn't believe in homeschooling, and thinks kids should be taught by "real teachers" My daughter blew her mind! We were so proud of her that I was ready to burst!!! She's reading at third grade, early fourth grade level. In math, she is at a late second grade level. We started her at 4 1/2 , Abeka allows you to start at that age, this is why she's almost out of first grade. She loves her homeschool. We use the DVD program one, it's expensive, but they let you make monthly payments after you make a deposit. So really, it isn't that bad. Also, it's very widely acredited. Many don't think that it's an important issue, but with the hard time they are trying to give parents for homeschooling, I think it's a good idea. It's not for everyone, I understand that. And I'm not passing any kind of judgement on moms not using an accredited program. I'm just saying it works very well for us. They are labor intensive, but kids adapt well. My daughter doesn't complain. And really, a little extra work isn't going to kill them. The fact that it's a Christian, Bible based curriculum is also a big plus for us. So, this is why we love Abeka. You can go into their website, they have a link you can click on to watch a sample of the video for your childrens grade level. Might help you make your decision, if you like it , or you don't. In my humble opinion, Abeka is worth every cent!! Hope this helps!! Blessings, Dianna
I think there are a lot of wonderful programs out there! I LOVE that there is such a variety available for the different likes and dislikes and personalities, etc.!!! We are blessed to live in a time, at least for now, where we have so much available! My oldest and youngest have always tested way above level. When my dd was 5 she was doing 1st grade work as well, and as she finished one thing we just moved forward to the next. She's still "advanced" for her age. We didn't use one curriculum though. By the time she was that age, I had been homeschooling awhile, and was already in the eclectic mode! We've been eclectic most of our homeschooling lives. My middle one started being interested in reading and "school" later, but he's doing very well in school. My oldest is a junior at a Christian school, and is a 4.0 student there. See, I think my kids are brilliant! I KNOW they are advanced, but it's not because we did one curriulum. I'm just saying that if you are careful and pick a curriculum and style that fits your children, your children will succeed, because you're there to help them do so, and you picked what you feel is best for your children! If you ask 50 different people you'd probably get 40 or more different answers on what curriculum or style is the best! Sometimes it takes awhile to settle in to what will work. Sometimes you need to switch, because one thing doesn't work anymore. Maybe one child is a "complete curriculum" kid, and one is a more "eclectic" kid. I'm sure you're already aware of all that. I'm just saying, as good as one program or curriculum is for me and my kids, it may totally flop with your kids! Sometimes you just have to try things. If it works, then go with it for sure---why fix what's not broke?! But if you end up having to switch it's okay! I think I'm repeating myself from my last message, sorry!
