A Beka homeschooling?

[shelly3girls]

My children previously attended a private Christian school that used the Abeka system. We moved the girls to our very good public school for many reasons one of which was that Abeka did not meet our state standards for math. There are some particular skills that we found my daughter lacked even though she was a straight A+ student. Even though the computation was advanced her problem solving and critical thinking skills were weak. Her reading skills were advanced but language was behind (independent writing skills, reading comprehension, etc.) My DD found the reading to be very boring and actually hated reading until this year with her new curriculum. Overall this curriculum was one of the reasons we left the school especially after we found out that it does not meet our state standards.

I liked the curriculum for pre-k through 1st but found the above skills were lacking. If you are looking for computational practice for math then the worksheets may be fine but honestly there are other programs that offer creative math projects, etc. which would be much more fun and just as educational.

 

[horseshowmom]

Even though the computation was advanced her problem solving and critical thinking skills were weak. Her reading skills were advanced but language was behind (independent writing skills, reading comprehension, etc.) My DD found the reading to be very boring and actually hated reading until this year with her new curriculum.

While I respect your experience (and don't mean to take anything away from it), I'd have to say that ours was completely different.

My daughter wound up with a 34 or 35 on the English component of the ACT. She said that she was actually able to do even better on the Math section than she might have, because she was able to use her skills (such as problem solving and critical thinking) to use her calculator in creative ways to determine the correct answers. Math was her lowest score on the ACT, but it was a 30, so it was pretty good.

We have friends who recently pulled their high school daughter out of public school. Her ACT score increased substantially after a semester of A Beka English and Math. She was very pleased with the improvement.

Again, that's just our experience, but I know quite a few people who have shared the same.

 

[shelly3girls]

My cousin's daughter attends a Christian school that uses Abeka but they supplement the curriculum with the areas that are lacking (those that do not meet NJ state standards). This provides an excellent curriculum that is strong in all ways. Also, I am only familiar with the elementary curriculum since our school did not like what Abeka offered after 3rd grade. I automatically assumed it was lacking due to the school's choice which may be a bad assumption.

 

[noodleknitter]

sbclifton, those I know both HSers and private school have had much the same experience. I can't think of anyone who had issues with Abeka in transferring or when taking SATs/ACTs.