I'm 34 years old, and I myself used aBeka from k-5th grade, and did very well, transitioned well into public school--with the exception of a wasted 6th grade year because nothing new was taught. When I became a 1st grade teacher in a Christian school, they used a lot of aBeka, and I thought, hey, this is the exact same books I used! Truly, didn't look like any updates! As a homeschooling mom, I use the phonics (letters & sounds and Language books as well as handbook for reading) with my K and 2nd grader, but chose not to use the other books simply because of my philosophy of homeschool--I don't want to recreate a classroom in my home that looks just like the Christian school down the road. I do more Charlotte Mason style, with lots of literature and "living books", steering away from textbooks.

i didn't care for CHOW, and I went through sonlight B this year, so instead of using it, i substituted the Story of the World 1 (with audio and workbook), and i'll go through Story of the World 2 for Core C. that's an option.

I asked the Abeka rep this very question in May, and he sited many of the same reasons mentioned in this article. It really got me thinking about the whole handwriting business, because I was almost tempted to skip cursive altogether! with modern technology, was this an important skill? So, I believe we'll begin cursive this year, while my DD6 is in first grade.

I just finished up kindergarten using Abeka phonics, and I only used their Letters & Sounds and their handbook for reading and used the blend booklet for pre-K. I have some blend cards, but don't use them much. I also have the charts in the hand-held size, which we review regularly. I also used Explode the Code and a reason for handwriting this past year. For readers, I used what I had--Abeka's enrichment readers for K and some other similar readers like that picked up from yardsales. This year, we're continuing to use Letters and sounds (1) and Language (1) and handbook for reading, along with the charts.

We just finished SL K with my oldest (DD6) and our favorites were: Living Long Ago, I Heard the Good News Today; The Boxcar Children (I didn't care for it, but both DD 4,6 liked it), James Herriot's Treasury for children, Mary on Horseback, Grandma's Attic (we're reading others in this series)

I've done SL for preK4, K, and starting 1st this fall with my DD6 (using their Cores for Bible, read alouds and history and science). I used Abeka's Letters and sounds K and have started LS and Language for 1st, as well as using a few of their readers and the Handbook for Reading. I'm planning of using SL's readers though, because I think they're more interesting; however, I do have Abeka's readers for 1st if I want to use them at any point. I taught 1st grade Abeka before kids at a Christian school, and was myself schooled in Abeka through 5th grade, so I understand it's strengths and weaknesses pretty well. I love the idea of SL's being literature based and using real books and getting away from "text books" when possible.

I find the calendar the most useful! my girls learned the days of the week and months of the year at 3-4 years old. I also used their letters to reinforce the letter sounds and printed off the handwriting sheets too. I think this helped, especially my younger DD (4) learn her sounds and recognize the letters. Plus, it's taught them computer navigation/mouse use on a site that's safe. We like it!