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Resource Description
Abeka Academy is an accredited distance learning program for Kindergarten through grade 12. Christian character building textbooks from A Beka Book are used with video instruction for a college preparatory education. A Beka Academy offers a variety of educational options to include: Accredited Programs, Independent Study, Traditional Programs and individual courses. Students may use DVD's for instruction, Video Streaming and live hook-ups for learning. A Beka Academy offers an ESL program for international students.
Abeka curriculum reviews are listed separately.
Website: Abeka Academy
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(86 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Videos way too long for active kindergarteners, Videos do not function as they should, customer service, and not very forgiving when life throws lemons or kids get sick
Grades Used: K5
Abeka started off seemingly well, but then quickly turned into a nightmare for my family. The curriculum is great, but the workload for my 6 and 5 year old's is bit much. We have our children enrolled in the accredited K5 program with online streaming.
Once we got sick with covid and was out for 2 weeks being super sick, we found ourselves playing catch up with the videos and turning in grades on time for the rest of the time we had our daughters in the program (still in the program with one grading period left). The biggest issue we have is with keeping up with all of the videos. Most of the videos are 30+ mins long and the amount to do in a day may vary. If we start the videos at 9am, we wont be done until the evening.
I have to keep in mind that my children are very young, and their attention spans at this age are not the greatest. We thought this program would allow me to make sure they are learning while I work from home and also allow me to provide more supplemental teachings in the evening. But I found myself having to be very hands on with making sure they watch the videos and that the videos actually make it to the next video.
A few months into the program, we noticed that our daughters kept complaining about watching the same videos over and over again. Naturally, I thought my daughters were being normal kids trying to find a way out of not watching the videos... until I sat with them a few times to see what they were talking about. That is when my husband and I discovered that the videos would play all the way to the end but if you tried going to the next video lesson, it would say that you could not move forward due to the previous video not being completed. We would find ourselves having to refresh the page 5+ times to get it to go to the next video or having to sacrifice time and just rewatch the video from the beginning even though we know our kids already watched that video.
Then the next thing we noticed, is that all of the class lessons were on different days and were not synced up together as they were in the beginning. This was concerning for us because Abeka does not allow you to skip or fast forward the online videos. So if the videos cannot be skipped or fast forwarded, then how is Manuscript writing on lesson 100 and Math on lesson 95????
The system is supposed to have all of the videos across all the subjects on the same day. So if you are on day 100 of schooling, all the videos across all subjects are supposed to be on day 100. This made it very difficult for us to accurately track where I children were supposed to be on their lessons.
We spent over an hour on the phone with tech support and academics and passed around to 5 different people trying to explain what was going on and our concerns. This was also causing us to miss grading periods and being constantly hit with late work fees. All because the videos were not properly playing and would say we did not watch the videos but we know our kids watched all of the videos for that grading period.
Their customer service across each department worked as if no one was taking notes in our file and that peter didn't know what paul was doing. This was extremely stressful for us and caused us to believe that our kids would fail Kindergarten over technical difficulties with the streaming videos.
Even if you turn in the worksheets on time, if the system says you did not complete all of the videos for that grading period, you will get a nice email from Abeka's extensions department telling you that the work is late and they will not grade the worksheets until all of the videos have been watched and then will threaten you with a $20 late work fee to get your child reinstated and to have their grades evaluated within a certain period of time.
And when they do finally release the work to be graded, they tell you it could take up to 6 weeks for their report card to come in for that late grading period. Oh and one more thing... It will take the acadmics department 2 weeks to evaluate grades even if you overnight the grades to them before the due date. They say they give a 30-day grace period but the late work threats will begin before the grace period is up if they deem your child's work to be late.
Moral of the story... if you like doing extra work for your kids, choose Abeka. If you are super human with super human kids that will never get sick or need to take time off of schooling for religious purposes, trips etc. Choose Abeka.
If you live a normal life that comes with normal challenges, do not choose Abeka. If you do, maybe try going with the teacher led program and create a better schedule. Don't do the online streaming as it is a headache and causes too much stress.
Customer service is not that great and will cause even more stress.
Cons: 6th and 7th grades have been a waste of time and money.
Grades Used: K-7
Great for elementary grades. 6th and 7th grades have been a disaster. The DVD's are not user friendly, the classroom setting is not helpful for homeschool kid's. I feel the math is the biggest problem, the 7th grade instructor speaks too fast to understand. I feel spending close to $3,000.00 for the last 2 years has been a complete waste of time and money. I have opted to not use the DVD's and only use the books to instruct my child. We will be switching to Monarch.
Cons: Overwhelming work, long videos, poor teaching
Grades Used: 3 - 11
I’m not a parent, but a student who is currently a junior in grade 11. I have been enrolled in Abeka Academy since grade 3. Abeka is quite convenient as you can choose your desired schedule, and also have the ability to rewind/pause videos. After having been enrolled in Abeka Academy for nearly eight years, I can say the curriculum contains a fair amount of downsides. I understand the importance of testing, but at times it seems as if quizzes/tests are overly-assigned. On average, the videos are around 40+ minutes in length, which seems unnecessary for certain subjects. There have been times where I’ve spent eleven hours finishing one day of work.
Some teachers have peculiar teaching styles and are constantly crack jokes, which I find disappointing— especially for a high school learning level. The Abeka Academy curriculum can surely work for some, but not all. Perhaps you could try it out if you can afford it.
Cons: Poor customer service; accredited program too rigid.
Grades Used: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th.
I have used Abeka, parent-led products since 2015. This year, my son asked to be enrolled in Abeka Academy and chose digital books. We began classes on 8/10/22. On 8/15/22 we chose to switch from accredited to non-accredited. Unfortunately, they removed access to digital tests and quizzes immediately and the print materials did not arrive until 9/12/22. I could not administer a test or quiz from Aug.15 to Sept.12. A few days ago we decided we also wanted print books as opposed to digital. I knew we'd have to wait a while for print books but I never thought they'd remove access to digital books immediately as well, but they did . Print books won't ship until approximately 9/22/22. So starting today, 9/14/22, my son can't do school until print books arrive. If the books actually ship on the 22nd, we might have them by 9/26. If they ship later, who knows? Their customer service was not very good either, as each dept does not seem to know how the others work. When I asked for a supervisor, they told me one was not available, that one would call me back. I'm still waiting ... Needless to say, their poor handling of curriculum switch has left my son with interrupted school work and end of year delays.
Cons: Quiz questions are not consistent with the review material
Grades Used: 7th & 9th
I love the material and love the video lessons. They are Bible centered which is why we went with Abeka. I do appreciate the challenging material, but my children are failing nearly every quiz. We do the online assessments so I can’t see the questions on the quizzes before hand. My children study hard. My daughter even works a grade ahead. When I review with them, they know the material, but most of the questions on the science and history quizzes have nothing to do with the review questions they have at the end of the sections or the chapter review. It’s very hard to study every single point in the sections and still keep up with the other subjects so we hit hard on what is in the review questions thinking that’s what is most important. My children don’t study to test, but at the same time it is demoralizing when they study hard and fail or nearly fail every quiz. My daughter broke down and cried today. She puts in hours of study time only to get a 64 on a quiz.
Cons: your child may want to join outside clubs like a homeschool club, church activity group for socialization.
Grades Used: 7th & 8th soon 9th
My daughter is in the 8th grade, we came from a private Christian school. We started Abeka Academy during the pandemic because the "virtual" classes were chaos. We wanted her to stay focused and on track with her grade level. She has thrived since. The biggest difference is in the math, no common core! Her old school used common core and the tutoring department was flooded because kids and parents were having difficulty. We don't have to worry about paying extra for a tutor and if we need extra help we can get it. She also can focus in a quiet setting without the distractions she had before. She is doing great and loves the teachers. The curriculum does challenge her, which we like. She has formed good study skills and loves the flexibility of starting class at 9am or even doing school in the evening hours. We love to travel in our RV and she takes her lessons on the road. We stay in campgrounds with internet so she can continue with her lessons if she needs to. Abeka is a great for families who travel and for families who want to be directly involved with what their children are learning. We have done our own fieldtrips and done some with our local homeschool club in our county.
Cons: Price, testing portal marks correct answers wrong, classes are needlessly long
Grades Used: Vpk, 2, 5, 7
As a homeschool of 8 years we tried Abeka Academy Accredited this year for our 3.5yr old VpK, 7 yr old 2nd grader, 10 yr old 5th grader, and 12 yr old 7th grader. It's been a nightmare. We immediately. Hours and hours of mindless videos are required to complete work that is often behind in curriculum from our previous programs. The process of moving a child from accredited to self led takes 6 weeks so even though you are paying for this lovely service your kids account is locked and they cannot watch the videos if needed. Extremely frustrating and not worth the money.
Cons: If you want your grades kept by them then you'll have a full time job!!!
Grades Used: K5 thru 7th
Abeka is a great program. Of course there will be those who have negative comments bit in reality there will never be a perfect curriculum. So that said, Abeka for kids does have a lot of work but you can also tweek it. I use the video streaming classes of Arithmetic and Language. They're great. I bought just the text books for Science and History because they have questions and I create a test. It works, she's happy and works independently for the most part. Part of parenting is educating your kids. Create the right system each day and good habits. You'll be fine.
Cons: Light on the critical thinking skills, so we supplement with extra math reasoning, word problems, etc; also for reading, we have longer discussions on higher order thinking skills. Light on the science/history/art, and my daughter loves science so we bought extra science units from teacher pay teacher.com to go along with it. There are large sections of the video that are not necessary and we skip along, so you have to be nearby to know what is being taught and what could be skipped, keep the kid accountable and paying attention. The system isn’t easy to fast forward or skip videos, you have to make it think you watched it by fast forwarding to the end.
Grades Used: 2nd
We’ve switched to Abeka Academy for my second grader. We have been homeschooling for 8 years, and this is the perfect fit for our youngest. Every child is different!
Cons: Busy work
Grades Used: K5
I have used K5 parent led with supplemental streaming videos for my gifted 4 year old. She learned reading within a few weeks and understands basic arithmetic concepts. She loves the colorful work books. We like it so much i bought the full first grade kit with video for her.
Cons: None.
Grades Used: 1st & 6th going into 2nd & 7th
We have used Abeka for one full year. My daughter is in 1st-grade, and my son 6th-grade, and they both love it. It is amazing how much more my son has learned this year versus his years in public school. This curriculum is perfect for our family. We travel a lot and it is such a blessing the kids do not have to miss school when we do. We just pack up our worksheets and whatever books we need. Others mentioned the amount of class/homework but we appreciate the workload. Which we believe instills good time management and work ethic. Also, my son needs extra study time, and he is learning responsibility and control over his grades. My son tested at an average of 8th-grade level on the standardized testing this year. In years past, he regularly tested average or just below mainly because he had to sit for 4 hours at a time for the testing. His biggest issue is sitting still. At home, he takes short breaks in between each class and does physical activity. In public school, he was constantly in trouble for talking, fidgeting, or making noise due to his hyperactivity. Both our children are excelling in Abeka due to the flexibility, workload, Christian values, and Abeka's high standards!!!