Homeschool World Forum

[azmomt]

I am new to home schooling and I am wondering about the abeka math program. Does anyone use it or know much about it. I looked it up on-line and it shows one example per grade level but doesn't explain their approach or is it good for the little ones grades K-5???

I am also looking into Singapore math and Math U see. Any experiences with that???

[Ramona]

I sometimes use A Beka math workbooks for enrichment but it is time-intensive for me. I don't like them as well because they don't go in the order I prefer. I like the School Zone workbooks that you can buy at Walmart. The order seems to make more sense than a lot of other workbooks I've seen. I go through the A Beka books and write down what page has things on to go with each page in the School Zone book. Then as we go through SZ I refer to my notes and have the kids do the related exercises from the A Beka book.

Ramona

[wendi.t.momof4]

Hi!
I taught all ABeka years ago at a private school. I liked everything they had except math because their math takes a long time to correct and their curriculum is expensive from what I remember. I think Ramona had a good suggestion. For me, this is my first year hs all four kids but I taught school mostly k-3rd grades. Anyway, for now we're using "Maximum Math" which is a design-a-study book from Kathryn Stout and I can use it for all my kids. I also like using cuisenare rods-which are great for the younger grades-and whatever home made manipulatives work. We use small white dry erase boards a lot, too. But I think I'm gonna try those Walmart books for my 6th grade girl who is a math whiz and surpasses me sometimes! But if you have younger kids-I taught kindergarten mostly-the more manipulatives the better. And the "maximum math" is very user friendly. Hope this is helpful
_________________
Wendi:-)
Jeremiah 29;11-13

[ontheprairie]

Hi we just started homeschooling for the first time last Wednesday. We have a Kindergarten, Gr4, and Gr5 student.
I am finding that my the oldest two are finding math very difficult and confusing right now. I love the way A Beka teaches math - by memorizing the tables by repition. But, that is not the way our kids learned to do math in public school so they are adjusting - big time.
I am hoping to re-open this discussion and get some opinions.
I don't want our kids to continue to be confused and frustrated. I am thinking about putting the math lessons on hold for a few weeks to teach our the kids about addition, multiplication, division, and subtraction (they learned to add, times, take away, etc) and to teach the tables so that they instead of using fingers and circles on a paper as they have been taught.
Any thoughts?

[Minniewannabe]

If your girls are coming from public school, then I'd suggest you go back one grade level in A beka. Your girls would have to understand it's not failing, just catching up to a faster paced curriculum. For example, A beka starts long division at the beginning of the 3rd grade. This is not usually taught in the public schools until the end of the 3rd grade or 4th grade. Also, 4th grade A beka is heavy into fractions and decimals and students learn how to add, subtract, multiply, & divide them. This includes more complicated fractions as well such as subtracting mixed numbers with different denominators. Therefore, your 5th grader would really need to know all this before moving on to the 5th grade A beka math.

[ontheprairie]

Thanks so much for your response Minnie. We decided that for now we are going to leave the lesson books and focus on memorizing the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables plus learn the signs etc. If they are still unable to grasp it well than we will be moving them each down a grade in Math.

[mschickie]

I am not a fan of Abeka. I much prefer Saxon or Horizons

http://saxonhomeschool.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonhomeschool.htm

I would check them out and they also have placement tests so you can see what course they suggest.

I use Horizons Math for 1st-3rd and then switch to Saxon. Horizons is set up much like Saxon. It uses workbooks instead of a textbook.

[ncmom]

If you buy used you can sometimes get all the books for around $25.00 you just have to look to find them that cheap. I recommend buying older editions. The info is the same and you can generally get them quite a bit cheaper.

[lollipop]

My son and daughter did Abeka math (son is in college and daughter a senior in high school) and they really learned math!! Used curriculum is half price. The math has a lot of problems but I found that the repetition was helpful for my daughter. My son could do less problems and understand the concept.

For students heading toward engineering in college I'd recommend Abeka math! --Trish

[Almostdone]

We have always used abeka math and our kids test about 3 grades ahead of their actual grades and we finish the books every year. However this year (9th grade) we found they dont explain certain things real well so we are going to change brands. But 1-9 years were great books well worth the investment.

[Miniver]

Our son loved the Abeka books because they have lots of colored illustrations, which made it more interesting for him (a visual learner). However, once we got into algebra and geometry, it was frustrating because they didn't show HOW to solve the problems. Even with the "teacher's manual," only the answers were shown...not how to GET the answers. We ended up buying DVD tutorials and supplementing with algebra/geometry textbooks I picked up at thriftstores for a couple of dollars. Now at 17 he is in an Early College High School program, and they provide the textbooks and graphing calculator (which he had no idea how to use!) for free. But back to Abeka -- I think their math books are GREAT for the younger children, and they make it almost fun to learn!