Abeka users ???

[eksargent]

I purchased the Abeka DVD curriculum for next year. I have tried Sonlight, Calvert, and a mix of other things. Nothing worked the way I wanted it to. I have a list of requirements I want out of a curriculum. I got my hands on all Abeka had to offer at our homeschool conference. I really loved it. So...I want to hear from those of you who have used it. Pros? Cons? Likes? Dislikes? How do your kids feel about it? Is it academically on par with other curriculums?

 

Please share what you wish you had known before you started on this path.

 

Thanks!!!

[HiddenJewel]

We fast-forwarded A LOT during the 1st grade videos. Also, there is a lot of busywork that your child may not need.

 

Ensure that your children are really learning the concepts and not just memorizing the formulas to get the right answer. Their math seems to be especially lacking in this area.

Edited June 20, 2011 by HiddenJewel

[LisaKinVA]

I've used Abeka myself, and have used Abeka for my children in the past.

 

For me, Abeka is easy to teach, and easy to tweak. Their phonic program is solid, their Arithmetic courses are among the best, spelling programs easy to implement... and go together well with the phonics, grammar, penmanship instruction, etc.

 

Lower elementary science and history is a bit... lackluster. But, you have a rising 4th and 6th grader? (guessing), and these subjects improve greatly compared to say K-3 science and history.

 

There is a ton of drill in Abeka... give yourself the freedom NOT to do it all. If you don't, it may become tedious. It gets the job done.

 

As your children progress into upper levels of math, literature, history and science (espeically high school levels and Algebra 1 and beyond), I would

say their programs are comparatively weaker to others (like BJU) in the depth of thought based on the questions being asked. Their questions tend to remain more of the "basic comprehension type."

 

That's just my opinion on the matter.

[TXBeth]

I used A Beka as a homeschooled student all the way through school, and I used it for my ODD for K and 1st grade. Their phonics/learn-to-read program is excellent, and academically they are fairly advanced in math and language arts.

However, it is very much "school at home," and therefore includes a LOT of writing and a lot of busy work. Because my DD is young for her grade and doesn't like the physical act of writing, we are switching to a different program for this coming year. But if your DC like workbooks and textbooks, they will probably do well.

 

One area where I feel A Beka is really lacking academically is in history and science. They don't cover much of anything in science in the primary grades; you'd do just as well doing interest-based reading from the library. For history, it is very providential, and even as a conservative Christian, I felt they twisted the facts to make all American pioneers and patriots, founding fathers, etc. seem like heroic, dedicated Christians. It was a very idealistic, naive view of U.S. history, and I didn't think world history was covered well at all.

The algebra and geometry prepared me well for college math (as an English major, so no physics or calculus in my history), and I enjoyed it (with the exception of proofs, which I still think are a waste of time, but that doesn't reflect specifically on A Beka).

My strongest recommendation is to NOT do A Beka video for Algebra 1 unless they have redone them recently. The teacher is horrid, he has phlegmy breathing right into the microphone and the whole class is "um...well....um....see here...ummm..." I mostly FFed through all the lessons because the textbook is great at explanations.

[KrissiK]

One area where I feel A Beka is really lacking academically is in history and science. They don't cover much of anything in science in the primary grades; you'd do just as well doing interest-based reading from the library. For history, it is very providential, and even as a conservative Christian, I felt they twisted the facts to make all American pioneers and patriots, founding fathers, etc. seem like heroic, dedicated Christians. It was a very idealistic, naive view of U.S. history, and I didn't think world history was covered well at all.

 

:iagree: I can't stand their history programs, at least for the elementary school age kids. It is very idealistic, Norman Rockwell-ish, and very very US centered. I'm all for U.S. History being taught, but I think teaching history the way outlined in TWTM has given me a much better perspective on history and where the US fits into the whole thing. I am a conservative Christian, too, but I do not agree with the Providential view of US History that A Beka teaches, too. Now, that being said I used A Beka to teach my kids to read and I love love their phonics program. I used their math program for K & 1st grade, but my boys didn't do well with it. DS1 was bored, so we switched to Singapore. DS2 was a little overwhelmed by the spiral approach, so we're switching to MCP which is mastery based. We'll see how DD does, she's starting kinder. I think A Beka has it's strengths and it's weaknesses. Except for K4 & K5, I wouldn't do the program as a whole. But that's just me.

[Virg]

I agree with Science and History for the younger grades, from what I have seen of the older grades they are better although not "classical." I have loved their phonics and math. Their seatwork can be a little much but I usually just assign the ones my kids need to work on and skip the rest. They don't develop young writing very much though. It seems to jump into writing sentences and writing stories with no real explanation of how to do it. I also really like their Language also. I agree with PPs that it is good to cross out some problems if your children don't as much review (my step-children do, so I think it is possible that some children do).

 

For us it is a wonderfully solid program. We are moving to more classical this year but I will use their phonics, math and language with my next little ones again for the first few years at least.

[Aconnolley]

We fast-forwarded A LOT during the 1st grade videos. Also, there is a lot of busywork that your child may not need.

 

Ensure that your children are really learning the concepts and not just memorizing the formulas to get the right answer. Their math seems to be especially lacking in this area.

:iagree:

 

We used the videos for K5 and 1st grade. I taught it myself in 2nd grade to shorten our day. The videos take quite a while to get through. Their phonics program is very good. I switched my son in 3rd grade because I could see that though he could do everything in math, he didn't really understand the why at all. And Abeka just wasn't a good fit for my pencil phobic son. In my opinion, it didn't do a good job of teaching writing composition. Granted, my daughters probably would have done fine with Abeka. It just wasn't good for my son.

 

My main thought on the videos is make them work for you. Don't be a slave to them. If you join the Abeka DVD Yahoo group, You can get lots of good advice. There is a post by Joy, that might be in the files or maybe the archives, but would be very good to read. She tells how she makes the videos work for her family and gives some good advice. If you are flexible and make the videos work for you instead of visa versa, they can be very effective. It is just easy to get burried under the mountain of requirements if you allow it, which can cause the videos to feel like a burden instead of a blessing.

 

The videos are great. In our case, they were just too much of a good thing since I had a very energetic 7 year old boy. :001_smile:

 

I hope that they work out very well for you.

 

Angela

[eksargent]

Thanks! As I said, I had a list of requirements that I wanted out of a curriculum. Christian, accredited, somewhat independent, academically advanced, spiral, quiz/test based, and most of all appealing to my boys.

 

I have high hopes that Abeka is the answer. I will check out the yahoo group. Again, thanks for all the input!