A Beka Homeschooling stuff

[Dogbean]

Does anyone have experiences with this? Any tips, suggestions, or recommendations for someone just getting started with it?

 

[Beth1231]

My mother (who has a degree in Education) homeschooled me on A Beka curriculum from Kindergarten to Third grade. So yes, I have experience with it In my opinion,it's terrific. Secondly, my degree in Elementary Education is almost complete. But to help you, I need to know the age/grade of the students and a little bit more narrow of a question

 

[Jesus-is-the-1]

My Mom homeschooled me my 8th grade year and we used A Beka books. I absolutely loved them and would highly recommend using them for any age. I had a couple friends that were homeschooled nearly 10 yrs and they also love A Beka books.

 

[Dogbean]

first one is 4 right now.

 

[Entertaining_Angels]

Yes, we are using ABeka right now with my son. He's in second grade and their second grade curriculum is actually about 3rd-grade level for public schools so take that into account if you are going from public school to homeschooling.

I really enjoy the curriculum. We've swapped out a few books though. We're doing Apologia Astronomy. I have also gotten other books on logic, german and cooking to supplement what we are already doing.

ABeka really hammers home the details so don't be surprised if it feels repetitive. I am not a super-patient person and at first I was frustrated but now that we're a couple months into it, I really see my son has these things down pat. I'm impressed.

If you have any questions, please ask. I'll be happy to share what I've learned.

edited to add: ah, just read that your child is four. My son used ABeka in Kindergarten as well at the school he attended. I loved their reading program and was quite impressed with how much he learned overall.

 

[RooMama]

I went to a Christian high school and they used some A Beka text books. They were really good. My mom like them so much she wanted to buy some for herself.

 

[Beth1231]

At four, he or she is going to need you to introduce the repetitive (but excellent) worksheets in some sort of a "wow, this will be fun" fashion. I recommend some sort of visual chart, possibly with stickers, that let's your child see their progress. That way it won't feel like an endless supply of worksheets. But at four, you might not even need this! Your child might just be thrilled to start "school" without visual motivation. Does your child know the alphabet and the letter/sound correlation? That's your first step Have fun with this; I am really looking forward to the days of homeschooling my own kids when we have them.

 

[Mashley]

My brother is using the Abeka DVD program. You watch actual classes on the tv screen. The teacher also talks to the class and you. It's kind of like the Bubble Boy and how they let him go to school on tv. So far, we really like the curriculum and the set up.

 

[Dogbean]

thanks all for the input. so now we know that a beka books are good. so how do you do it? And how do you "swap" books out? How's the evaluation?

We're in the Air Force so we'll be moving every few years. How will that play into it?

 

[Entertaining_Angels]

I've found the homeschool curriculum/lesson plans to be an immense help. You can use them as a general guide or just read directly out of the book. They give you all the information you need to teach as well as suggestions for games and aids.

We've only been homeschooling a few months but I'll be selling our books on EBay when this year is done. I bought a few books on EBay and I noticed you can get back quite a bit on each book.

My hubby is military and we travel alot. So far, homeschooling has been wonderful and easily taught on the road.

Hope this helps some.

 

[snarfywarning]

Do you have to take any certain classes to homeschool? What do you have to do to get into it?