Homeschooling with Abeka Academy

This is our fifth year as a homeschool family and our first year using Abeka Academy as our main curriculum.  In the past years I have used My Father’s World (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and for the last two years I have created my own curriculum by putting together separate learning systems (Mammoth Math and the Growing with Grammar language arts series were staples of our curriculum).  Since my daughters both are enrolled in an umbrella school and attend classes once per week I was looking for something new this year to offer some variety from our learning plans of the past.

I had been hearing about Abeka Academy from fellow homeschool moms and once I did my research I  decided to give it a try this year.  I was particularly interested in the daily video lessons that are streamable or available via DVD for learning at our own pace.  My daughter started 4th grade this year and I will admit that I was more than a little intimidated by the 4th grade math concepts looming in my future.

Abeka Academy offers two learning tracks: Independent Study and an Accredited program.  The accredited program provides record keeping, monitoring of student progress, and more requirements in general in completion of of work and assignments.  We chose the Independent Study program since our girls are already enrolled in a local umbrella school (Circle Christian Academy) which we report to on a monthly basis and holds state accreditation.

Mini Me has learned to login to her Abeka Academy portal and can start her classes on her own in the mornings. Its quite easy to use and navigate.

When enrolling in the Abeka Independent Study program you can choose to purchase the entire curriculum for one set price or purchase two study tracks: Language Arts & Bible or Arithmetic, Bible, Science & History.  I was disappointed that I couldn’t sign up for singular classes because my older daughter’s umbrella school provides the lesson plans and grading for some language arts, science, and history.  But we purchased the arithmetic study combo anyways and we use the Abeka science and history as supplemental studies.  For my younger daughter we purchased the complete Kindergarten program.

Because we can easily stream the daily lessons online, we sometimes broadcast them on our TV using Apple TV.

The video lessons are well done!  Each subject is broken down into daily lessons that are easy to navigate.  The learning dashboard is easy to navigate for my older daughter and she can log in and start up her lessons easily on her own each morning.  The videos are shot and produced as if my girls are in the classrooms with the other students; the teachers are quite engaging, drawing interaction from my girls, even though they are watching a recorded lesson.  I was slightly skeptical in the beginning of whether my girls would get into it but they both connect well with the teachers on the video (my little Warrior Princess needs some redirection occasionally but…. she’s 5 so my expectations are reasonable, lol).

We chose the streaming option for the video lessons but you can also choose to have the lessons sent on DVD.  This option is not practical for us as we often learn on the go and it’s easy for my girls to watch their lessons from the car or wherever we may find ourselves on a busy homeschool day.

We feel blessed to have found this curriculum that suits our needs this school year!  We will likely use Abeka next year along with our umbrella school enrollment.

For those of you who homeschool, what curriculum have you found that works best for your family’s learning styles and schedule?