Homeschool Updates. {Part I: Curriculum.}
For a homeschool mom-blogger, I suppose I don’t talk about homeschooling very much.
This is probably because I really don’t feel like a serious, professional, homeschool momma. There are other bloggers out there–Who share great ideas, create printables, and put together amazing curriculums. They get excited about homeschooling, and inspire me to do the same. Those are the homeschool experts. And next to them, I feel pretty lame.
I homeschool for many good reasons, but I am far from the poster-mom for homeschooling. I make sure my boys are getting a good education, and I LOVE to see them learning, but I usually feel like I just get by. I was the happiest woman on earth when I found a curriculum that I didn’t have to “teach,” and I find every possible way to simplify my role so that my boys hardly depend on me. (I know, I shouldn’t brag.)
But then it occurs to me that a few of you out there may actually relate to me. Maybe you too, don’t think you’ve got “homeschool mom DNA,” but you’re still considering…inching forward perhaps…to deciding to teach your kids from home. So, maybe a few of you will be encouraged to hear that I’m far from a die-hard homeschool mom, but honestly–I DO LOVE homeschooling my boys! I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. (at least most days! :))
And if you’re considering homeschooling, I encourage you to go for it! No, homeschooling is not for everyone, but given the right attitude, and a good curriculum, you will probably love it too.
So today I am just giving a quick update on what we’re doing now! And I decided to stretch this topic into two or maybe three parts…
Today I will share about the curriculum we use.
Then, I will come back to share an example of a typical school day…and perhaps one more post with some of the PROS and CONS of our homeschool life. (Because I love what we do, but let’s be honest–Nothing is perfect.)
CURRICULUM: I get lots and lots of emails asking me what we use for our curriculum. We’ve used many in the past, and I’ve loved something about every single one. But this year we are all settled in using ABEKA (ONLINE). I have never been happier! I plan to use this until my boys graduate high school. Or maybe college. (I wish.)
What I love about it/How it works:
1. in a nutshell: Abeka provides an excellent education. It requires very little of me as teacher, and it is organized in a way that works for our family. The boys watch a video which is taken IN A REAL CLASSROOM. They literally observe the class as though they are sitting in it. (An entire school year has been filmed of each class, so the teacher and the students remain the same all year long.) The teacher speaks to students in the class and then also refers to “students at home watching,” in a way that makes the kids literally feel that they are IN the classroom. They are assigned homework, which they do in books and workbooks.
MY JOB as the “on-site teacher,” is to keep them on task (biggest job! :)) to grade their work, and to keep records of it. If they have struggles, I am there to help, but everything they do in their homework have answers worked out in-full in my teacher book, so I don’t need to be an expert. Also, the teacher goes over ALL homework the day after it is assigned, so kids can always clear up any confusion at that time. There are the dreaded science projects and language arts essays that I must correct and grade, but the teacher’s manual is even extremely helpful in guiding me through grading those things.
2. Abeka has Biblical messages throughout every class. There is a daily Bible class. God’s in History, too. Math? Yep–You’ll even get little spiritual lessons in Algebra. God is very naturally in all subjects–NOT in a forced, or out-of balance way, but in a really cool, relatable way…Which is how we see God.
(**Side note: You can always choose to skip the Bible lessons if you want to, as they are not a state requirement, but you’ll still hear Biblical principles throughout the subjects.)
3. Time well spent/Positive peer pressure. Obviously, Abeka uses their most excellent teachers and students to film for these videos. Which means: My boys never have to wait for a video teacher to discipline a student, or deal with inappropriate behavior. It simply doesn’t happen. The kids in the videos are well-studied, respectful, dressed appropriately, and always on task. This sets my boys up to think that is normal, and expected. (hehe, positive peer pressure.)
No time is wasted. You’ll never find a movie shown instead of a lesson, and there are no interruptions for assemblies, or field trips. Every minute of every class is used to the fullest. (Though my boys would think they died and went to heaven if a teacher just popped in a DVD one day.)
4. You have a year to do the curriculum, which lets you figure out your own schedule, travels, holidays, surf days, etc. Can you say: FREEDOM? FLEXIBILITY? Those are words we like a lot!
CHALLENGES:
1. Abeka is hard. I’d have to say that it has a very challenging curriculum which is absolutely college-prep style. If they do everything assigned (which I try to make them do,) then it is a very full, and challenging school day–every single day. This is not a “con,” obviously, but if you’re looking for an easy curriculum, Abeka is not it.
2. Each student needs to use a computer. For us that means that all three of my boys are using all three of our computers every day. And if the internet is down–Well, that is like our “snow day.” 🙂
COST: I think it comes to just under $800 a student for the entire curriculum for the year.
I should note that you can pay more and use the official ABEKA ACADEMY homeschool curriculum where you turn in your student’s work and the folks at Abeka grade it for you, give you report cards, transcripts, etc. We do not do that. I do all of the grading and recording, and we work with a local group here on island who do official report cards and transcripts for homeschool families. Bless their hearts. (This is another awesome part of our homeschool story, and something I would be happy to share more about in the future.)
So, I feel like I wrote too much, but I don’t know what I could cut out! Did I miss anything? Do you have questions? Let me know! I love Abeka, and I love homeschooling, and coming from this “I’ll never homeschool my kids” mom, that says a LOT! If you homeschool and have something to share, feel free to do so in comments!
As always–If you enjoyed this post I hope that you will share it on your social media sites! 🙂 Mahalo!
Much aloha! I’ll see you soon.
Monica
PS THREE WAYS to become a grommom subscriber….See them all here! 🙂
Hi there!
I’m also thinking of homeschooling. My son will be in 1st grade and I want him to get good education. I like to spend time with him and look at how he learns, help him with it. I just remember my school years and university, sometimes I feel that school is not enough for me. I spend some time researching this question, read researches of other people, do my own with others help https://studyhelper.com/argumentative-essay-samples and I understand that homeschooling is more effective. I’m so grateful that you shared with us this curriculum, I have read about different but but I was still not sure what to choose, but ABEKA can be a good choice, doesn’t it?
Hi Monica! I have enrolled my kid in Abeka curriculum unaccredited. I would like to change to accredited. But should we grade bible classes also? We are skipping as of now. Can we change to accredited and submit grades without bible?
Hi there! Awesome you are using Abeka. I am sorry I’m not much help on those questions b/c we have always only done non-accredited. I’d suggest calling them as their customer service is always very good. All the best to you!
Hi Monica!
I’ve been trying to read through all of your “Homeschooling” articles, as we are highly considering this option for the fall due to the unknown school requirements. My boys will be in 3rd and 1st grade. Do you see Abeka as a better curriculum for older children? Or, do you also recommend this for children of all ages? I feel so completely overwhelmed with all of the curriculum choices and then I’m constantly overthinking which one would be best.
Hi there. Not sure when you originally posted this but I searched your site for your homeschool curriculum 😉 Long story short … I am *seriously* considering homeschooling my rising 8th grader due to covid. We are in Va and thus far we have no clear plan as to what our district will look like for our kids. I have so many thoughts/concerns for our collective children (we are huge public school supporters so to know how many of my “babies” do not have the option/support in this environment is grieving my mama heart) … My question for you is do you still love this program? We are planning to start school whenever/however that happens but I want to have a back up plan in place. Thank you for always sharing your insight with us!
Hi Adrienne! Aw, so sorry for the crazy changes going on and all of the unknowns…Yes, we still use Abeka and we still love it. I have a few more homeschool updates if you use the search bar on my blog to type in “Homeschool” you should see quite a few. But for the main parts of our curriculum we do use Abeka. 🙂 Blessings!
Thank you!!!
🤗😘
Hi there, This is amazing and so well put. I’ve been diving into learning how to be a successful parent for homeschooling, and realize that I’ve never really thought about it very much! Thanks for your curriculum and analysis, they will be much useful!
I’m planning on homeschool for my 6th grade son this Fall. I just looked at the Abeka website. Do you do the video & books? There’s an option to purchase video lessons only. I’m wondering which way to go.
Good for you April! Yes, I have always used both. I don’t think videos alone would be a good idea–you really need the books to go with it. (Perhaps they offer that option for people who already have the books or something?..) We love Abeka. 🙂 Thanks for commenting, and keep me posted!
I’d love to know what a typical homeschooling day looks like for you guys!
Thank you Zephyr! I’ll keep that one in mind for a future post! 🙂 Even though it looks different every day, I think I could work on that one!
(And I owe you a FB reply too, sorry–swamped this last week!) aloha!
Aloha Monica!
I happened upon your site today because I subscribed (from a lovely friend on FB) to get the emails for the “Man Up” series:) It is wonderful, BTW! My two oldest are boys (10 and 6) and in private christian school here in Missouri. The curriculum is ABEKA mixed with some Bob Jones and other supplements. I have been thoroughly pleased. It is AMAZING to see Jesus in all of the subjects. My kids humble me everyday with their knowledge of God’s grace and love.
My mom has been the 5th grade teacher at our school for many years and is retiring this year. Her “teacher” discount, in addition to higher tuition and lower available financial aid have left us wondering if we can continue. We are also worried about our youngest getting close to entering as well (little girl, 3 years old.) This will land us with 3 in private school.
My boys actually BEG me to teach them from home and would LOVE a home school environment. I have always thought I was NOT that mom and that they needed the time away from me to socialize and get ready for the world. I’m not so sure anymore. Things are changing everywhere, including their school. Many believe that the school continuing to use a labeled “home school” curriculum is outdated and fails to prepare children for the necessary testing required for Common Core and college entrance…. enough said.
I am starting to think, especially after reading from you that they could actually watch a real teacher with my guidance, I might be able to do this!!! Then, there is my husband….. what to do about him??? He has NEVER thought home school should be an option and is totally against it. Where did you start with 1. getting on the same page and 2. doing research to realize it was a viable option? Do they really need structured school and socialization? We can’t surf in Missouri, but they are heavily integrated in school sports and activities.
On a side note, I was born in Oahu at Tripler Hospital (military kid) and would love to bring my kids over to see where mommy came from! I love your whole site and wish you many blessings in the blogger adventure!
Pray for your husband. That is the best thing! If it’s your hearts desire, pray God changes his heart from a hater of homeschool to a lover of homeschool
I’m fascinated by your homeschooling experience. Thanks for letting me “sneak a peek” into this part of your world. 🙂
This all sounds so interesting, wish I was that brave. I truly admire all the homeschooling mama’s.
I might try preschool with my little one.
Xoxoxo
Lucy
As a fellow homeschool mom, I’m happy read your Abeka Online review. I’m wondering if your boys are good independent learners? I ask because we’ve used Sonlight for the past 3 years, and while we love all of the literature we get to read. .. it’s a LOT of literature with 3 different grade levels! (Even with teaching 2 of those grades together for Core subjects.)
We tried to include Abeka Spelling & Grammar in place of the Sonlight LA while still reading all the Lit, but it was too much extra for me on top of all of the reading. BUT…with the Baby actively joining our classroom next year and one starting high school, something will have to change. We really love homeschooling but I can’t imagine doing MORE of anything. I like the idea of them having a little more autonomy.
Kirsten–I have many thoughts on this, so I think I’ll just send you an email! 🙂 We used Sonlight for our first couple of years, and I LOVE so much about it. In fact, I still order reading books from Sonlight, because they are simply the best. I don’t know why I hesitated so much to do ALL one curriculum, somehow I felt like i needed to individualize things, but now that I am purely doing Abeka, I have so much more peace. And time to myself. 😉 It’s a tough choice when there are so many good ones out there! And funny–I remember when you were just pondering homeschooling! Have I known you that long? 🙂
We MUST talk soon! I’m going over all of the myraid of curriculum choices out there with the hope of somehow simplifying and my head is spinning! 😉
Hi. Do you have a home schedule of some sort that you have created that you can share and do you have pictures of your set up at home. Would love to see, I just purchased the program for my daughters in 1st grade.
Hi Susana! Congrats on ordering homeschool curriculum — I think you’re going to love it! ;). I really have not followed a tight schedule because our family goes in so many directions, but I’m sure you can find many online (Pinterest?). Also, our setup is quite simple and random. I’ve never posted about it, but maybe one day I will! Haha, I’d love to see what YOU do! I bet it’s perfect for your daughter! All the best to you!
While I am pretty darn sure we will never be able to home school that sounds like a great curriculum. I like the positive reinforcement aspect you mentioned. If we move back can we add the girls to your school? HEHE.