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This is the second article in my new blog series!! In this series I am introducing you to some of my homeschooling friends. I am interviewing each in turn to gain knowledge from them that I can share with you.
No one homeschooling parent can be completely familiar with all the different homeschooling curriculum and approaches out there. This series is an opportunity to learn from people who are experienced in different ways of homeschooling. Each article in this series will be focusing on a different homeschool curriculum or method. They will be in interview format and will each feature a different homeschooling mom. Read along, and learn from others’ experience right along with me. You never know; you might find someone whose story sounds similar to yours!!
From this point forward, my questions and comments will be in bold, while Cheryl’s answers will be in normal type.
Hello, Cheryl! Welcome to my blog! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your homeschooling journey?
We chose to homeschool when our daughter was going into 1st grade. She was in the public school system for kindergarten, and I worked in the school’s cafeteria. One of my roles in that job was to go around to various classrooms for multiple reasons. When I walked into a 5th grade class, they were watching a video of how a frog’s brain evolves into a dog’s brain. I thought it interesting and made a mental note of that. Then, as I evaluated who I would desire for her 1st grade teacher to be, I concluded that none of the options were a good fit.
A friend of ours from church introduced us to the Abeka program. And after much prayer and conversation, we felt that this was indeed the direction the Lord wanted us to go in schooling our daughter. Our first obstacle was how do we pull her out of the school system without having issues? The Lord worked that out for us also with a job transfer to a different city.
The next obstacle was convincing extended family and friends that were unfamiliar with homeschooling that this was the best choice for our family. Their main concern was that our child would be missing out on social skills. Again, the Lord worked in their hearts as they saw how our daughter grew and matured in our homeschool environment. Our daughter was involved in many different activities in church, homeschool group functions, bands, and a national speech and debate group. There was no lack of social interaction in her life.
Another concern we pondered was influences she would come in contact with in a public-school atmosphere. Not that all is bad, but there are the rotten ones, and we wanted to do our best to detour her from those situations no matter the venue. However, even in the homeschool environment you can come across some less than desired behaviors, so we still were very active in monitoring who and what activities she would be involved in.
At the beginning of this adventure, I was very intimidated that I would be able to teach my child the three R’s; I felt inadequate because I didn’t have a college degree. My husband reminded me that a mom doesn’t need a college degree. We taught her how to walk, talk, and tie her shoes; we have been her teachers all along.
I appreciated how Abeka spelled everything out for me: what to say and how to introduce and teach the new concepts. It provided me a good foundation to get started. I then began to realize that I didn’t need someone telling me how to explain concepts to my child. My confidence began to build. And communicating with her as I did with other daily living, she seemed to understand better.
If I could change one thing, it would have been realizing earlier on that if she had the concept she could move on and that all the work to do was at my discretion. Being new to all this, I thought that all the work had to be completed in order to achieve. I found myself in a conversation with other homeschooling moms who were talking about the very same thing and how even the public school system doesn’t require all their work to be completed, and actually approximately 85% is actually completed. Wow! What a burden was taken off of us. I cut back the work load, and I observed that my daughter was still advancing in the program and doing extremely well with it, and it was much more enjoyable for us all.
I have never regretted our commitment to homeschooling. It was some of the best years of my life. I would do it all over again.
So where is our daughter now? Well, it’s been 7 years since she graduated high school, and yes, we homeschooled all the way through! She went on to college and graduated with honors, and is now on her 3rd year of teaching kindergarten at a Christian school. I mention that to say, students that are homeschooled have the capability to achieve their goals, despite what the popular concensus is. And with the Lord’s guidance, parents can teach their children despite what others might say.
What curriculum are we discussing today?
How long have you used this curriculum?
From 2005-2017, 12 years
What made you want to try this curriculum initially?
A friend’s suggestion. When I was first introduced to homeschooling, it was an intimidating thought. I appreciated how Abeka has everything spelled out for a new teacher until I gained confidence in teaching.
For what grade levels did you use it?
1st-12th grade, except 7th grade
For what subjects did you use it?
All subjects except Bible 1st-5th. In grades 6th and up we added Bible.
**Cheryl recently asked me to update this post as she remembered that she switched to Apologia for science once her daughter was in high school.
In your opinion, compared to other homeschool curriculum options what is the cost of using this curriculum? Low, medium, or high
I didn’t compare cost of various curriculums, but I did search out used curriculum in lieu of purchasing new materials when it was prudent.
Is this curriculum reusable for younger students in the family? How much of it is consumable?
Math, Language arts, phonics and writing are the consumables, from what I remember.
We didn’t need to reuse curriculum for our family as we only had one to school.
Is this curriculum all-inclusive or does it require additional items or time preparing?
It is all inclusive. It doesn’t require additional items, although it is flexible to incorporate a classical style vs traditional style of teaching. The only additional time in preparing, I can remember, is using the art lessons.
Would you say this curriculum is self-paced, teacher-dependent, or somewhere in between?
In the early years, I would say teacher-dependent if you are not using the videos. It has all the lessons broken down for the student to follow. However, you need a parent to validate the work is complete and correct.
In your opinion, what are the strengths of this curriculum?
Definitely its phonics program. It is a fantastic foundation for reading. I also appreciate how it builds a concept upon a concept and is not a scattered form of learning principles especially in the area of math.
In your opinion, what are the weaknesses of this curriculum?
They have too much seat work to do in their work books. If your student understands the concept, move on. We cut back on quite a bit of it.
For what type of family/child would you say this curriculum would work best?
I feel that you need to have structure in your days. This is not for a lazy child or parent. It is a very thorough program. I have seen families of all sizes use Abeka successfully. If the parent does not feel adequate for teaching, Abeka does sell videos.
Thank you, Cheryl, for taking the time to share your story and your knowledge of Abeka curriculum! It is wonderful for parents who are trying to find out what will work best for them to have a place to go where they can learn from people who have experience using that curriculum.
To my readers: Do you have experience with Abeka? Do you have anything to add to what was mentioned here? Please let us know through the comment section below.
