I’m excited to share with you my review of the Abeka Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum. If you’re new here, welcome! We’re a homeschooling family with two children: my 6-year-old daughter, who just completed kindergarten, and my 11-year-old son, who finished fifth grade.
Today, I’ll focus on how our daughter’s kindergarten year went with the Abeka Academy Homeschool curriculum, the things we loved, the challenges we faced, and some memorable highlights. Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments – let me know if you’re homeschooling, thinking of starting, and what grades or curriculum you’re using!
What Went Well With Abeka K5 Kindergarten Curriculum?
- Abeka Homeschool as Our Curriculum Choice
As many of you know, we’re an Abeka family! This curriculum has been a perfect fit for us, so much so that we plan to use it again next year! I’ve been amazed at the growth my daughter has shown. From adding and subtracting to developing meticulous handwriting and blossoming into a confident reader. It’s been such a joy to watch! I was especially thrilled to be actively involved in teaching her reading , something I didn’t experience with my son when he attended traditional school. Seeing her decode and read words with different blends and vowel combinations has been nothing short of amazing.
2. Faith Integration
One of my favorite aspects of the Abeka curriculum is how our faith is woven into every single subject. Starting with the Bible video lessons has become a favorite for my kids. They love the stories and the songs, and I love that faith is an integral part of their education. That was after all one of our main reasons for homeschooling.
3. Established Routines and Procedures
One of the things that went exceptionally well this year was having our routines, expectations, and procedures set from the previous year. This foundation made our homeschooling experience run smoothly. Abeka maintains lessons structures and seat work in a very familiar manner from grade to grade. So this adds consistency from year to year and the kids get to know what to expect from the lessons. This helps us maintain the routines and expectations that we had set in our home from the previous homeschooling year.
4. Spiral Learning Approach
One of the things I absolutely love about the Abeka homeschool curriculum is its spiral learning approach. This method introduces students to concepts in their simplest form and then gradually increases in complexity as they progress through the curriculum and grades. Rather than being exposed to a concept just once, students revisit it repeatedly until they reach mastery. While some people find this approach repetitive, our family absolutely loves it! It ensures that my kids truly understand and internalize the concepts they are learning.
What We Tweaked in the Abeka Kindergarten Curriculum to Make it Our Own?
- Adjusting Reading Groups
The only thing our daughter didn’t enjoy was the reading groups time with the Abeka video teacher. She found the pace too fast and wanted more time to digest the content, so we decided to take over her phonics review and reading groups. We established an awesome routine where I would teach these lessons to her after dinner. This not only worked wonders for her learning but also became one of my favorite parts of the day. One of the awesome things about the Abeka Homeschool Curriculum is that it really does provide parents all the necessary resources for them to be partake in the kid’s learning process.
2. Personalized Learning Pace
Every child learns differently, and my daughter is no exception. She struggled a bit when it came to mastering long vowels, so we slowed down the pace, spent several weeks on a particular Abeka reader, and made sure she had a solid understanding before moving on. This tailored approach worked beautifully for us, reinforcing the idea that it’s okay to go at your child’s pace which is the beauty of homeschooling.
3. Additional Practice Activities
My daughter is very active and loves to be challenged. She found some portions of the Numbers lesson videos a little boring because she was mastering them so quickly and wanted to do more activity sheets instead. (which is totally different for my older son) My husband noticed this and started creating additional practice sheets for her. She loved having more challenging addition and subtraction problems to solve, and it kept her engaged and excited about learning.
Looking Forward to Homeschooling Next Year
1. Portfolio Involvement
This portion really doesn’t have to do with Abeka, however, it does have to do with our homeschooling year here in PA. At the end of our homeschooling year we have to have a portfolio for our kids. I want my daughter to take part in creating her portfolio next year. I plan to have her select work she is proud of each quarter and reflect on it. This will give her ownership of her learning journey and help her feel more invested in her education.
2. Sticking with What Works
We’ll continue using Abeka’s homeschool curriculum because it fits our family so well. We will be using the 1st grade Abeka Academy Homeschool Curriculum. I’ll also keep our current organizational system, which has proven to be the best for us.
3. Maintaining Our Routine
We plan to keep our current routine when using Abeka because it works beautifully for our family. Everything flows smoothly, and everyone knows where to find things.
Share Your Experience!
I’d love to hear from you! What are some of the highlights from your homeschooling year? What went well, and what are you planning to change for next year? Share your experiences in the comments below!
