Evaluating ABeka Books Homeschool Curriculum

The renowned Christian boxed curriculum, A Beka books publishers offer an education system for home schoolers. The complete programs take the guess work out of teaching your children at home. They come complete with teaching guides and software, test books, workbooks, wall charts, and grade books. The system is mapped out for you, so all you have to do is follow the directions, and be there for your children when they have questions.

If your purpose for homeschooling is solely faith based, than A Beka Books is a fine option. Every aspect of the curriculum ties in faith and Biblical concepts. Even the Math books have scripture; the Handwriting includes copying pieces of scripture; the History marks the religious progress of the nation and links how faith is connected to successful leadership.

If your reasoning for homeschooling is more geared toward social concerns, than the A Beka programs may be a practical option. The lessons are short, simple, and concise. You can easily spend 30 minutes a day instructing your children, leave them with the sitter while you go to work, and return to completed assignments and enter grades into the record book. For busy families with not much time to plan and prepare, this can be very helpful. I am an in home child care provider for a homeschooled fifth grader, who uses the A Beka program. Her family follows this pattern, and it works well for them.

Now, if neither of these descriptions fit your idea of homeschooling, you may want to look into other options. As I said, the entire curriculum is very faith centered. If this would be too much for your family, only using selected portions of the curriculum may work better for you. The course work is also very regimented and follows a similar pattern as public schools. If your family desires more freedom and requires more creativity, again only using bits and pieces of A Beka books may be a great supplement to your other courses. I’d like to give my personal experience with a few aspects of this curriculum.

Arithmetic:

The books intimidated me! A Beka’s Arithmetic program is advanced, they average student using this program will be working a grade level above the public schools. There are daily speed drills and lessons; and a quiz or test every three days. My oldest is ahead of her peers in every area but Math, when she saw the massive volume of numbers on a page, she shut down. We had to skip several problems, just to get through the pages. A system that seemed to work for us was Monday, Tuesday, Friday were odd numbered problems; then Wednesday and Thursday were evens. Instead of completing a 2-5 minute drill every day, we made Monday drill days, Wednesday Quiz days, and Fridays Test days. Sticking to the guidelines in the teaching material never worked for us.

History:

The early years seemed to progress very slowly. My oldest didn’t start until fourth grade, and we had to find a lot of supplemental material to cure her interests. I am a Christian mom, so I love that A Beka brings faith up in a multitude of mediums. However, I feel the History program lacks the American foundational aspects, because it focuses so much on the religious heritage. The kids spent about three months studying missionaries and evangelical movements, and only 1 month on the government.

One of the reasons I chose to homeschool was I felt the public education system was inadequate. In this way, A Beka falls in with the public system. In all the ways the PS is controlling and regimented, so are A Beka’s programs. The PS leaves out religion, A Beka leaves out government. I don’t think this was the point behind the separation of church and state. We used the curriculum to get the gears moving, and then expanded the lessons with other texts and activities.

Language:

I have been overly pleased with the Language material. It is progressive and well lain out. Again, there are far too many monotonous practices, but that is adjustable per family. There are a lot of scripture quotes, Bible and faith references, and quotes from religious leaders throughout this material as well. But for us, it wasn’t too much.

The point of breaking these apart is to enlighten you that you don’t have to buy into the packaged deal. If you are not looking for a system to follow at home, one or more of the subject areas can still work. A Beka is one of the more expensive options to go this route, but if you are looking for faith based curriculum, it is amongst the best.

A great way to get your hands on the material is to visit a homeschool supplies display in your area. On the website, there is a search tool to help you find one. They always have a sales professional on location to answer questions and walk you through the process. Plus, you get to flip through the pages and get a feel for what each resource has to offer.