Experience with Abeka and/or BJU in private school?

[magnificent_baby]

Just wondering if anyone has any experience with their kids (or has taught) using Abeka or BJU in the private school setting.

 

Any insight would be appreciated, good or bad. :001_smile:

[mommaduck]

I went to a school that used Abeka many years ago. I loved it. However, the history and literature were all whitewashed, Pollyanna feeling. The "every founding father was a Christian with excellent character and no black marks" type.

[Princess Peach]

I had a long thread on BJU materials (specifically history - heritage studies) last year if you want to do a search. I'm not a fan, I'll just put it that way. And I cannot for the life of me unload the BJU materials I have to sell. So maybe that's karma. :D

[magnificent_baby]

Thank you both for replying! I will do a search for your thread. :001_smile:

[Ellie]

I took my older dd out of school at Easter break of first because she was totally fried. The school used all ABeka. Although she learned to read well, the draconian structure of the school was just.too.much. All-ABeka schools tend to be that way. :glare: For example, children were not allowed to talk in the restrooms. One little girl was sent to the principal's office for talking because the stall she was in had no TP, and she asked the girl in the next stall to share some with her. My dd was accused of "cheating" because during science or history or whatever, the children were supposed to raise their hands if they knew the answer to the teacher's question, and dd lifted her head.

 

Yeah.

 

It took 18 months of extremely relaxed homeschooling to undo what the school had done in less than a year.

 

So it's more than academics; it's the whole atmosphere of the school.

 

OTOH, I'd rather enroll my dc in a Christian school that used all ABeka than in one which used all secular, state-approved materials. Life is full of paradoxes...

 

I like BJUP better overall than ABeka--ABeka's beginning phonics instruction is superior, IMHO--because it's more engaging, and the history texts don't focus as much on trivia. The grammar/comp has more composition, less beating-grammar-to-death, than ABeka. Assignments are more varied and require more thinking. Sadly, there are more ABeka schools than BJUP schools.

[Just Kate]

I just put my kids in a school this year that uses Abeka and BJU. So far, I don't dislike anything...but it just seems so bland or something. Kinda boring. It is certainly nothing like the curriculum I was using at home (not that I thought it would be).

 

Ds's science book is pretty simple. He enjoys science anyway, but boy is that science book WAY beneath what we were doing last year with Apologia.

[Hockey Mom]

I have a little bit of experience with Abeka in a private school setting.

 

My DS9 learned to read with Abeka in K5. I was pretty happy with it. However, when DS8 was in K5, we started homeschooling, and I went with BJU. They both did very well with it.

 

DD was using Abeka at the high school level in the same private school. She was coming into that school during her Junior year of high school. The work presented at the public school was MILES ahead of the Abeka curriculum. They had to come up with extra "research" projects for her to occupy her time in school. So to that end, I was not impressed at all.

[Guest altonherry015]

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