Now, that is scary.
When my daughters were in private school they used to come home each day with little booklets. They were assigned a page or two every evening and as their parent I had to sign off that they read the pages at home. They also used to come home with these little lists of phonic sounds that they had to memorize and recite back to me as homework.
As a working parent I didn't put a lot of energy into what this phonics system was that my kids were following. I just knew that it was working. With each day, their reading abilities grew stronger and I was so proud to see them grow into independent readers.
By the time that we started homeschooling in 2013, Love was beginning 4th grade and Lea was a 2nd grader. I knew that they could each read, but Love was a much stronger reader than Lea. While Lea couldn't read as quickly and fluently as Love, what I did observe was that Lea had a deep level of understanding and knowledge of so many phonics sounds that when it came time for us to read together, no word seem to challenge her.
Compound words, long words, multiple syllable words, sight words, and homonyms. She didn't shy from any word. No word scared her. She had within her mental toolkit the ability to sound out whatever word I threw at her.
Fast forward to when I had to make plans for a Kindergarten curriculum for Trey and you can guess which curriculum I chose. For the first time in my life I was responsible to teach someone to read. Talk about a deer in headlights. I was scared, but my mind pondered over the confidence that my daughters had as readers and I knew without a doubt which curriculum would be my choice for my son.
The Abeka phonics program equips students with a toolkit to learn alphabet sounds, blends, and then be able to unpack more challenging words as their strength grows in learning the phonics sounds that have been memorized from a set of 13 Phonics charts.
It's a smart system really and I can say 3 times over that it really works!
With my daughters they never complained about having to practice and memorize their phonics sounds, but with my son it was a totally different ball game.
Literally.
I had to turn our phonics review time into a game many days and we made his memorization of the phonics charts fun by creating our own little jingles, hand gestures, and even dances. Movement and music makes anything easier to retain.
I can't recommend the Abeka Phonics Program more strongly than saying that if you've tried other programs and had struggles or notice gaps in your child's reading abilities, try Abeka.
For first grade, we purchased the 1st Grade kit which also included Math curriculum, Science, Community Helpers, and a Social Studies Book. If anyone is interested in feedback on these areas, please feel free to send me a message and I'd be happy to provide insight into if/how we used this material as well.
Pros:
All of the above highlights the pros, but here are some additional positive points about the Abeka Phonics Program that include the following:
The Teacher's Guides provides very detailed day-by-day material
The student books are filled with colorful, engaging pictures that attracted my son's attention and kept him interested in completed the workbook pages
All of the lesson books coincide with one another (i.e., Language, Letters & Sounds, Readers, etc.) by the designated Lesson Numbers so that it was easy to keep track of which lesson pages should be completed as your student progresses through the material.
Cons:
Some of the reader books had stories that were engaging and interesting and others were dry and boring to my son. The Aesop's Fables reader was Trey's favorite reader in the 1st Grade curriculum.
While the Teacher's Handbook does provide exhaustive day by day details on what and how to teach your child, I personally felt like all of the detailed information was over bearing. I know some people say that too much information can't enough, but in this case it was just too much for me. Abeka provides a lot of hand holding information which could in one perspective be useful for a person is new to home education and would appreciate the hand holding. It did take me some time in the beginning months to comb through what was necessary and what was just "good to know" information.
For my son, all of the school material that is outlined in the Abeka curriculum was not all necessary. When I attempted to do everything that was outlined in the Abeka schedule I started to pick up that my son was becoming overwhelmed with what seemed like "busy work".
Many parents most likely will have to scan through the curriculum to pinpoint the most effective starting point for their child if for example they already know all of their alphabet sounds, but are not as strong with their blends. Each parent will need to do their own assessment on the best starting point for their child within the curriculum.
For more information about the Abeka Phonics Program visit here.
(I was not contacted or solicited for this review. Comments above are my own personal opinions of the product.)
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