Homeschooling - The A Beka Program

The A Beka homeschooling program was probably close to the top of my list in the ten years that we home schooled our daughter. I especially liked the English, reading, and math books. The social studies books and science books were very well written also.
The fourth grade Language book was a cornerstone of our homeschooling experience. My daughter was having a terrible time understanding how the public school English books were explaining what a complete and fragmented sentence was. As I looked deeper into the public school books, I wondered how anyone could understand proper grammar after going through these books. That sent us on a quest for a good English Language program. We started the fourth grade Language book by A Beka. It took my daughter two years to go through that book. After she completed it, her Stanford Achievement Test scores shot from elementary level to college level in the area of English. Her success was further solidified when she went to public school for High School. Her English teachers were amazed at her command of the English language and how well she was able to express her thoughts. She entered college on the level of honors English.

The most amazing part of all of this is that my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia during her last year of being home schooled. Even though it took her two years to complete the book, it has served her well throughout her schooling experience. We also loved the reading program. There were many very wholesome stories in the reading series with a large emphasis on phonics. That is probably part of the reason my daughter loves and excels at reading to this day.

I am in my mid 50s and am considering using the A Beka math program to refresh my math abilities before going back to college. It seems to be a very straight forward program with good math explanations.

The only drawback with the A Beka homeschooling program for us was that if you used the video tapes to home school, the assignments moved too fast for a child who has a learning disability. If you take the books at the students pace, I can't imagine not having a well-educated student at the end of the program.

No comments:

Post a Comment