Resource Description
Abeka provides a complete line of traditional Christian educational materials that have been developed and refined over a period of 50 years in the classrooms of Pensacola Christian Academy. The resources are available in physical and digital format and include textbooks, workbooks, readers, and videos. Products can be purchased individually or as grade level kits.
Abeka Academy reviews are listed separately.
Website: Abeka (may contain affiliate links)
Post Your Review »
(73 Reviews)
Before investing in any homeschooling resources, please read "How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum."
Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Hate the Teachers Manual
Grades Used: K5
This is not a teacher friendly curriculum. It is highly scripted and you really have to sort through pages and pages to get the information you want. For example, I bought this curriculum just for the phonics but the teachers manual is flooded with so much information that in my opinion is not necessary. They assume you can't teach your kid how to add 1+1 or that you won't know how to teach your kid to write the letter A !!!!! Give me a break, I want to teach my kid how to read. I want to know the phonic rules, special sounds, short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds, ect. in an organized fashion; And yes the information is there but you have to sort through so many pages to find the information you want scattered all over the book. The only thing I did like was the student workbook, readers, flashcards but the teachers manual was a total disappointment. I hardly ever use the teachers manual. I find myself using the internet on how to teach the phonics then I just use the student materials for the actual work. I know that I'm a visual learner, so I prefer things to be organized in an easy way. Why couldn't they include simple phonics instruction in a few pages. Its also overpriced and has too much work scheduled for the kids. I made it work because I stretched this curriculum over a year. Will not buy Abeka again. I hope this review helps others.
Cons: Too much seat work/testing
Grades Used: K4/1st and 2nd
We have used the Abeka Book phonics curriculum since our daughter who is now (going to be) in 3rd grade was in k4. She began reading right away. Now, at 8 years old she reads at an adult level and is currently in the ABeka 5th grade readers.
Since it was such a glorious fit for her, I thought, that after our fifth child arrived I would go ahead and get the A Abeka Academy streaming for three of our five children. I thought how amazing it would be to sit beside them with a teacher and how fun they would have in a "classroom" with other kids.
I must say, our oldest daughter did quite well in 2nd grade. She listened well and did the lessons well. Yet, not so with our other two children. They were bored and crying that it was too long; each "class" is about 30 minutes long. They learned their Bible verses and they loved acivity time (art, science, history and singing) but it was a thug to get them to sit through a class. Once the class was over with and we were done, we were all emotionally exhausted and then there was still the seat work and book work, tests and handwriting to do!!!!
Also, if you are streaming classes you must have a good internet connection. It's a must. We are missionaries in a different country and our internet is not the best. Once our kids would get into a flow in the mornings with their classes, the Internet would slow and so would the teacher. That was the beginning of the end.
In the end it was sadly a HUGE waste of money, and a big lesson learned. We stopped using the streaming about four months into it and I taught the remainder of the curriculum. We are flourished. Peace filled our home again.
Next year we will be using some A Abeka, mostly with our daughter. But I realized through this experience, that I teacher better and most importantly our children learn so much better with a slower Charlotte Mason approach. We also skipped the extra seat work and all the testing! The seat work is because the kids who are in the ABeka school must keep busy, but as homeschoolers it just doesn't fit our lifestyle, it's just not necessary.
Our oldest daughter will mostly be using the A Beka curriculum because she loves it. When she is in fourth grade we will place her in the Academy DVD program and most likely get the actual DVDs not the steaming.
Grades Used: 1st and 3rd
I just started using A Beka this year though we started homeschooling midway through the school year the previous year. I used Horizons by Alpha Omega my first year and was in tears nearly every day due to the frustration from the materials and the difficulty of understanding of how to really cover the material. I finally switched to A Beka despite the few negative things (mostly everyone has hit the negative reviews I heard at least twice in this forum) I heard from people and we love it! I can see why some people do not like it, I can see how the repetition can be aggravating if your child does not need it. However, for me I just manipulate the curriculum to fit my children's needs, I have one who really needs that reinforcement of lesson coverage while my other does not need it and I omit it or cover the reviews briefly. Now as for the complaints about seatwork, I don't see that because I do not know how else you would be able to teach multiple grades without using seatwork to occupy one child while you teach the other? Though we do not do all of the seatwork I still don't see it is a good reason for not choosing A Beka because to me if you don't like it just omit it. I have also read from many reviews that A Beka does not inspire creative thinking, I think for that one it is too easy to have your child do projects on their own outside of the curriculum that inspires the creative thinking process. I hope to any homeschool parent out there that remembers what it is like to start out new would want to encourage a new homeschool parent to a curriculum that is not difficult to use and at the same time user friendly, I believe A Beka is it! I may juggle some different math programs in with our current A Beka math program because I feel at times we move a little slow but I would not go out and swap out my whole curriculum. I think for ease of use and trying to get started with Homeschool that A Beka should be highly considered in your home. Do the dvd's if you are too scared to teach all on your own at first! Good luck to anyone just starting out and remember it may be difficult at first but its so worth it!!!
Grades Used: K-10
I have been using Abeka for 12 years with my 3 sons. I like that the lesson plans are completely done for you. I did not always do everything they had listed to do. I did find though that some things that I might have skipped with one child I may not have skipped with another. I love that flexibility. I have found it to be very thorough in the phonics and grammar/composition. I did however supplement with an extra writing curriculum in their high school years and switched to a different math curriculum in the high school years. We love Abeka and I know that people complain that it is so repetitive, but I think that is a good thing. Not all children get things quickly and need that extra "busy work". I think it is great that Abeka realizes that and has that available. If your child does not need that extra repetition great, skip it and move on or go back later and use it as a review if needed. My older two children used Abeka through the 10th grade and then dual enrolled at the college and have done great! Thank you Abeka!!
Cons: No teacher's edition for Social Studies
Grades Used: K
I really like the phonics and reading curriculum (It's how I learned to read when I was five), but I'm a little worried that the newer edition moves faster than the old version. The little readers are bright and colorful and the kids enjoy reading them. The only downside is that Abeka does not put much focus on sight words, so if a child transitions into a regular school in first grade, they will be behind in that aspect.
The handwriting curriculum provides great practice for the kids, and integrates reading into handwriting early on. It also includes proper punctuation instruction as well.
With such great T.E.'s for phonics/reading, I was disappointed that there was not one for Social Studies. It's fairly straight forward, but having a teacher's book with additional ideas for activities beyond the workbook would be helpful. Also, some readers to go with it would be a good way to tie in reading/LA with social studies.
I have also used Abeka reading in a classroom setting as well, and I found that it is definitely not a good curriculum for ESL students, it moves too fast for them. but I did use the readers once they got the basics of reading down and they kids really enjoyed them. My students with stronger English did well with the program though.
Grades Used: K5 and 1st
With no "teacher" training, I was impressed with the ease of all subjects. I will be teaching myself for 3rd grade. We used the DVD for 1st grade and it was wonderful. The bright colors are enjoyable and the intertwining of scripture throughout all the courses makes it an A+ for our home. I also found American Heritage Girls (Christian scouting group) to have many like minded badge earning opportunities that go along with many classes, which creates another great homeschooling bonus, learning and fun. Very excited about 3rd grade!
Cons: school at home
Grades Used: K-6
I have used Abeka for verious subjects for many years. If you are new to homeschooling Abeka is wonderful because everything is well writen and laid out so it is easy to teach. It is a school at home approach with textbook style busy work. You can easily skip an busy work and move on to the next topic. If you complete Abeka you can feel confident that you have few if any gaps in your childs education. FIVE STARS!
Cons: Very time consuming.
Grades Used: K5 and 2nd grade
I really like the Abeka program but as I said if you only use the books and not the video program it takes a while just setting things up for the next day. If you are a seasoned homeschooler it might be ok for you because you will know what could be left out but this was my first time and I felt like I should go directly by the program guide which is great for step by step teaching but for a beginner it is incredibly time consuming. I became overwhelmed and gave up on it. If you can afford the DVD program and you children will sit and listen to them they are great there's no prep work just grading of tests. Unfortunately my children found them too boring and it became a daily fight just to get them to sit thru them. But with all this said I think the Abeka program is great and kids can learn a great deal from it if you don't have to fight th to do it.
Cons: MATH
Grades Used: PreK-4th
We are second generation Abeka users and still love it. My children have loved learning how to read with this program and have done very well. It is done very orderly and the children find the work fun to do. We do not like the Math program as my children became frustrated with it. All the other programs are done very well though.
Cons: math moves very quickly, we take our time with the lessons
Grades Used: 5,6,and 7th
We have enjoyed this program. It is thorough, math moves a little fast.