A beka has served it's purpose in our house, but we will be moving on to other things, mostly WTM suggestions. All four kids had been in an A beka private school before coming home last fall. I chose to use A beka as a transitional tool between their last school and our new homeschool. I was so glad I did, but since I found WTM late last fall, we have been tweeking A beka in a WTM sort of way, and will move on in most areas to other things. Now with that said, I want to be clear that it still has some good strengths worth continuing, and some not. Here is our experience... 1st grade...as previously stated, phonics is awesome, like the grammar because it goes nicely with the phonics/readers, math is good too. Also, as previously stated science and history are "brief" we finished them within the first two weeks of school so they've been tagging along with the older kids in these subjects and learning quite a bit...WTM narrations and all. I like the content of the handwriting, but the almost 1 in. writing lines has been a disaster, so I use donnayoung.org's smaller lined paper for copy work and such. Spelling has been very challenging, but good, wished it had more application pages. 4th grade...math good, history very good for a solid year of US history, grammar good, not enough writing going on IMO, so I have had to invent assignments using WTM methods. As most of you know, mom invented assignments are a hard sell, so I will be looking for something that has sufficient writing assigments built in...in print. Science was very frustrating because most content was just like 6th grade only a few weeks off in sequence. We ditched the 4th grade science book, joined up with dd12 in 6th and it went great. Doing outlining and narration WTM way for both science and history and is working out great. Literature, a bomb. Too boring and too easy. Started using WTM classical reading suggestions that line up with his history and it was fabulous. Same thoughts on Spelling as with first, learning tons and love the addition of vocab, wished it had more fun activities built in without having to supplement with say Spellcity.com. 6th grade...not liking math anymore, i feel like it teaches the concepts well enough but there aren't enough story problems for this age group and some of the content is not really 'real life', as in we don't ever express percents along with fractions in real adult life, why teach it, just use decimals! I also didn't like the casting out nines method of checking taught in 5th grade, so we won't use A beka after 4th anymore. We have supplemented with LOF for both 4th(fractions) and 6th(decimals,percents) and love it. Grammar is still good, but there isn't enough writing built into the program so again, have to invent stuff WTM style to get it in. Science is just ok, and history is a bust but she is learning outlining very well this year and we'll move on to Mystery of History for next year. Literature again, very much a bust, too easy=too boring...but it's hard to keep this one interested since she has a post high school reading level, but not mature enough for a lot of stuff that level, so WTM suggestions have been great. Sonlight also has great reading suggestions. Spelling has been good with tons of vocab, and has sufficient application activities. So even though there are somethings that I still like about A beka, I know I will eventually change it so am still uncertain if I will stick with it for a while or just change now. Hmmm. I suppose it will depend on what I find at the local used sale. I could stick with A beka grammar for the youngers, or switch to R&S or FLL/WWE. My older 2 will probably switch to R&S/WWE or MCT depending on how much money I spend on other stuff. I need to switch older kids to a different math, thinking Saxon, but should I switch yougers too or wait? Grr. We are solid on our choice of Mystery of History and Apologia for science next year, but some other choices are still up in the air. Will be adding in Latin and Logic for dd12, and that you don't get in A beka. I hope this helps and affirms your observations on what is worth using or not. I wish you the best.

I didn't realize MOH was better for older kids, maybe too much for younger? I would have liked to use it for all four dc, but I do have SOTW 2, so I can always use it for ds/dd6. How do the activities compare? I kind of like that MOH has quizes and pretests, I like to use them for review.

We have started using SOTW 1 this year, and it has been fine. MOH looks like it covers more biblical history, which I like, but looks like even after book 4 is written they will not emphasize US History much. Please help me as I have not been able to get the MOH books 'in hand' to see for myself. Thanks.

After almost 1 year of hsing under our belt we are ready to cut our umbilical chord to A beka and move on to mostly WTM suggestions. Yippee! I don't mean it critically, it's just that it's all they have ever done even at private school and we're all 'done' with it. In what areas if any should I expect there to be hiccups/challenges? If it helps, all the kids have done great in all areas, not any big problems other than boredom. Thanks for your thoughts.

I started having similar symptoms at your age and my dr.(based on my family history and my own) diagnosed me with early pre-menopause. I have had all the same symptoms as well as some others. I have decided that if I am going to start pre-meno early, maybe it'll be over and done early and then I won't have to deal with it anymore so I've decided to not pursue pharmaceutical remedies to help. Every year at my annual she(dr.) tests my thyroid to make sure there isn't other issues and so far so good. The two things that have made a world of differnce are eliminating unhealthy foods from my diet and excercise, excercise being the biggest. I started running 2 years ago and it has made a world of difference. If I am diligent and keep a good schedule of 3-4 times a week, then my symptoms are much milder. I hope you can find something that will help you.

Thank you all for your very thoughtful answers to my questions. We are feeling very "done" with A beka and was looking at R&S and/or IEW for next year...but then I keep hearing all the buzz about MCT and I have a few reluctant writers(great readers and great at grammar, not writing) in my group, and it sounded like others with the same predicament were having great success with MCT. I will keep praying about it and look at what I can at the convention in June. Thanks again for all your advice:).

I am sure there is a good explanation...as a newbie I need to hear it. Our only LA experience has been with A beka, but MCT sounds really cool and I am considering the switch. It confuses me when a program is so highly recommended, but then I see parts of another(good one) being used too. Please explain.

Thanks, that makes a big difference! Whew!

I highly recommend the week AFTER Thanksgiving. Everyone is back at school, and they have all the Christmas decorations out...magical. We never even had to use a fast pass...we just walked on to most rides, I think the longest wait was 10 min. for Pirates of the Carribean because it has been closed half the day for repairs. The weather is still really nice, and did I mention the Christmas decorations, really cool.

When you enter the food nutrition info the points calculator...you enter the total calories...then do you enter total calories of fat or total fat grams? You obviously have to enter fiber grams, so it makes sense to enter fat as grams too, but I'm not sure.

I had previously been using a Mary Kay product which I loved, but budgets being what they are, I had to find something more economical. I tried the Avon Anew, and have been really pleased. My complexion is much clearer now than with anything else, and it frequently goes on sale for as low as $22. That's cheaper than any of the over the counter Olay products. Good Luck.

We are considering a relocation to that area. We are currently hsing, but will also consider the ps which have outstanding ratings. We feel a little discouraged in continuing to hs in such a remote area with very few other hs'ers in the area. I already called the district office and there are only about 20 hs students in that county, and it's a big county. Any insight to hs'ing in this area in regard to community support and resources would be great. I would also love to hear from anyone in a current situation elsewhere(very small town, with the nearest big town about 100 miles away).

So, as part of the review at the beginning of the book for A Beka 4, it has you learn all the "clue words" for certain functions and how to work through a story problem. We made a poster to put up in the beginning and now we have it down. Words like altogether, both, in all, sum, total...add; for difference, how much more, how many more, how many are left, less than, more than...subtract; each, times, product...multiply. This of course would be for the younger crowd. Though it didn't list for us the clue words for dividing, it seems to have come naturally after all that. Hope this helps.

This being our first year hsing...it has been too much for me to fit in myself without going bonkers. Dd11 has been taking violin lessons for 7 years now and ds9 has been taking piano for 4 years so I pretty much call that music for them, and their teacher does a good job at incorporating theory. Trying to figure out how to afford piano for dd/ds6 twins, poor things keep getting the short end of the stick. We listen to a lot of music together as a family and they get some group singing time in at church. I tried bringing home some different classical music CD's from the library and they turned there nose up at it. Art...ha! I farmed it out. They get to do some crafty/art type stuff at co-op on Mondays. They all have their 4H art classes once a month, the younger ones are learning color(primary,secondary,complimentary) as well as shape manipulation and string art. The older kids are doing fine art and learning more complicated principles involved with watercolors and will move on to something else. Gotta love the 4H classes! Dd11 is also taking 4H Photography. I think we've got it mostly covered but without any of my participation other than driving. It's not that I don't like it, I'm just up to my eyeballs in getting my kids transitioned from private school to hsing permanently and it's mentally a lot to do. Love all the ideas though, maybe I'll be up to it next year or this summer.:001_smile:

And its a real bummer. It took mine a long time to heal, but icing it religiously really helped, as did adding anti-inflamatory foods to the diet. Pommagranite juice is a good one. Calcium is supposed to be good for muscle recovery(per RW mag), so when I get an injury I always take a suppplement(i know i should anyway). Also, doing very careful stretching helped me, but I'm sure your PT will have an opinion about that. Definitely don't push it until the pain is gone. Good Luck.

Very, very, cool! That weather is a bummer, good job on getting through it. Right now I'm just a 10Ker, but would love to do a half. I am afraid I don't have the time to train properly or that it might be too far for this asthmatic with arthritis in my feet. Going for a relay this summer called CLR, much like the Hood to Coast but in central Oregon. Hoping this event boosts my confidence to do a half. Thanks for sharing your race day story...it's inspiring.

We are doing every problem in each lesson, and on stuff that she is not mastering, the homework section in the back of the book for each lesson as well. It seems like a lot, I know, but we have to get this done and I am not sure how else other than by repetition. We halted our math schedule last week, went back to where the problem seems to have started and reviewed. So. much. FUN.:tongue_smilie:And sadly I am still not sure how its going to go once we resume the daily lessons. I am going to pursue the LOF books and see if that doesn't bring some clarity to her somehow. I will definitely look into the online resources suggested as well. Thanks for all your support.

So I looked at LOF and I do think it would be a helpful supplement, especially since she is a mega reader. I am not sure how to do this and would love advise. I looked at all the topics covered in decimals/percents and it really doesn't only have that in it, there is quite a bit more than that. Has anyone used LOF as a supplement without going through it sequentially? Should we try to finish Abeka 6 first and then go systematically through LOF as review and affirmation of mastery? Or should we piece it together with the sequencing of Abeka? What to do, what to do?!

She really does understand reducing fractions, how to add/subtract them, and decimals, and the general concepts of percents. The more I read your advice, the more I am convinced I have a more complex problem. She doesn't seem to see the point of learning it which makes her slightly defiant and unable to focus, sigh. Maybe the fact that they didn't do review or finish the book in 5th grade at private school last year is a component of the problem? Nonetheless, we will emerge from 6th grade math victorious in these areas if it kills me so I will try to change it up to make it more interesting, and see how that goes. We were almost all the way through percents when I stopped to do a review slam to make sure it was solid when this came to a head. We'll see how fun she thinks it is to do math into the summer because we didn't want to learn it when it was first presented. The hardest thing about hs'ing this first year has been the battle of the wills...I will take a deep breath...put on a smile...and say 'Game On'.

Dd11 is currently up to her eyeballs in fractions/decimals/percents in her Abeka 6 book. She has been a A-/B+ student in math in the past, but this stuff is giving her a fit, she is not getting it and and as soon as it seems like we can move on, ugh...it's not sticking. I keep seeing people using LofF decimals/fractions/percents and it looks as if most are using it as a suppliment or is it a complete program. I know I could spend hours researching it, but your voices of experience are priceless...should I switch? Thanks for your input!

We started with the basic and it was still very helpful, but I ended up getting the PLUS version and am so glad I did. With four kids, I can put all the lessons in several weeks at a time, usually about a month, and everyday print out a list of what we need to accomplish, which helps us stay on track without having a pile of TM's on my table. It also allows dd11 and dd9 to work independantly and know what is to get done. It keeps track of grades, attendance, reading lists, and more all in one place. I do love to have written hard copy as a rule, but for this many kids, it seemed like I'd have to have too many papers/notebooks out to be efficient, just my opinion. Homeschool Tracker also makes it really easy to reschedule or switch things around without making a confusing mess on written hardcopy. As a first time hsing mom this year, I go into a cold sweat thinking about how we would get through without it. EEeek! Best of luck finding a method that suits you.

We are Abeka LA users as well. I too, under the recommendation of SWB, have been looking into R&S, and I agree it does look uninteresting in comparison, even if it is a really good program. However, my kids have been doing Abeka LA(as well as other subjects) at private school from the beginning and now that we are hsing they have been begging for something other than a workbook. That is another draw for me as well, that I can reuse the books and it does seem a bit more affordable. Unfortunately where I live there aren't any bookstores that carry them so I'll have to wait until the big hs conference this summer to get my hands on them. It seems as if most people's complaints about Abeka LA is that it can be too repetative, too much diagramming, etc. Maybe in R&S that isn't the case, but I tend to gravitate to something that is too much and be able to scale back at my discretion rather than wondering if it is enough. I will be keeping up with this post for more wisdom on the subject.

This is our first year using the A beka Spelling for all four kids and it has proved very challenging. My older two have grown used to the longer lists and more work and are doing very well now. My dd6 is doing great also, but is a really good reader, and loves reading/spelling. However, my ds6 is struggling. He is an average reader, reluctantly so, "I hate books!" is a common phrase. He seems to do only okay from Monday to Friday. He usually gets more than 75% of his list words right every week. Because he isn't more successful, I usually take a week every four weeks or so as a review week to solidify and master past missed words. Unfortunately, he doesn't even get the words right than he did before. Have any of you seen/used both and have some advise about which is a better program. Is Spelling Workout more or less challenging, and do you think one is better than the other at teaching the spelling rules/concepts. Thanks for your thoughts. I don't think I have seen a single other soul on these posts that uses A beka Spelling. Maybe I need to catch a clue?:001_huh: Cheryl

Thanks for all the tips, that is a good place to start looking and if I find anything spectacular, I'll post about it.

We started out with Abeka gr.1 science, and it took literally only 3 weeks to do...felt more like a preK program. For the rest of the year we are breaking each month into unit studies, weather, animals, geology, etc. and using books from the library (Yeah for Magic School Bus books!). A friend loaned me the Real Science for Kids Pre-Level 1 Chemistry book and it was fabulous. It is written so well that even my first graders could understand it and the experiments were very basic, but really fun. I will probably try to get the Biology Pre-Level 1 as well. The Apologia books are great too, but I could see my 1st graders getting bored with the same thing for whole year. The Christian Kids Explore Science series looks very interesting to me, I may do it next year.