Abeka Homschool DVD and Online Review
DVD's or online feature a teacher in front of a class
Abeka homeschool curriculum is produced by Pensacola Christian College in conjunction with Pensacola Christian Academy. They offer Book Packs that parents can use to teach their own children, DVD and online options that parents can use as a “teacher” while still maintaining a great deal of control over the homeschool, and Abeka Academy. All three options use the same materials. They are just structured a little differently. With Book Packs, parents only receive student books, teacher manuals, and worksheets. However, with the DVD/Online option, parents can purchase either a DVD or a subscription to an online service that will allow a student to watch a teacher teaching the subject matter. The DVD’s and the online have the exact same content. They are pre-recorded videos of real teachers teaching actual classes at Pensacola Christian Academy.
Parents can purchase either a full year, or a specific subject, however there is a drastic reduction in price for the full year versus the amount you would pay per class. The price includes Bible, Math, Social Studies, Language, and Science. It also includes electives for older students.
Parents distribute and grade work
Prior to the start of the school year, the student will receive a very large box of student books, teacher manuals, worksheets, and a Video Manual. The Video Manuel tells parents what the child will be learning each day.
Once the school year starts, students watch the DVD or online video for each subject, each day. They will have work to complete in their student books. And parents will give out worksheets. There are a significant number of worksheets with Abeka. Parents are responsible for grading workbooks, worksheets, quizzes and tests, and giving the student feedback. Additionally, there are also extra assignments that can be given for homework or more practice.
Strong classical Christian education
Abeka is a classical education. The class depicted is from a classical, Christian private school, so the children in the class are behaved and respectful.
Abeka is a Christian homeschool curriculum, and there are Christian elements throughout all of the classes.
Abeka is a solid curriculum. Teachers go over subject matter quite a bit over the course of several days, as would be typical in a real class. If all of the work given is completed by the student, it will give a strong education.
With the DVD/Online option, parents are in full control of making sure the student understands the work, issuing grades and keeping records. Parents do not need to send in any student work because Abeka does not issue transcripts for the DVD/Online option. (With the Academy option, parents send in student work, and Abeka issues report cards and transcripts.)
There are 170 days of video lessons, and Abeka expects parents to give their children ten field trip days per year, for a total of 180 school days.
The main difference between the DVD/Online option and the Academy Option is that the Academy holds both the student and parents accountable by requiring work and grades to be submitted. Whereas the DVD/Online option gives all accountability to the parents. Additionally, parents will need to issue their own report cards and keep their own transcripts with the DVD/Online option.
Abeka requires a lot of work on the part of the student if everything is followed as outlined. To get the most out of Abeka, we recommend that parents utilize the full curriculum. It gives a strong academic education.
Following are some case studies of local students that have used Abeka:
The first student has now graduated Abeka. She had a strong educational foundation through Abeka, and scored in the 95th percentile on the PSAT and above a 1200 on the SAT. She attributed much of her academics to the Abeka program. She was actually in the Academy, which uses the same materials, so she completed all portions of the Abeka curriculum each year. She said the teachers were humorous which made the classes interesting. Additionally, she felt that the strong Christian emphasis gave her a good foundation in the “Bible” and the Christian faith.
A parent of another child stated that her child had used Abeka for quite a number of years and did well, but she had trouble concentrating at times because she has ADHD and sitting and listening to a teacher for so long was difficult for her. The parent switched her to BJU Press, but after having used Abeka, she felt that BJU Press was severely lacking in its academics. The child also said she missed seeing the other students in the class in the Abeka videos. So, her mother put her back in Abeka but is using hands-on material as a supplement to break up the amount of continuous time spent listening to a teacher talking.
There have been some concerns that there is so much work with Abeka that if everything is completed, it is difficult to add in extras. However, the DVD/Online option gives parents more control over the material than the Academy option. However, students still need to watch all of the videos in order to be able to complete the curriculum. If they skip one, it would be difficult for them to understand what is happening in the next video.
For those parents who are focused on high academics, Abeka is academically solid.
One of the students using Abeka had to leave Abeka in the tenth grade to go to academies with live classes because she had trouble understanding how to do some of the harder subjects. Because her parent was not knowledgeable enough in higher level math classes, she had to learn all of the material from watching the Abeka videos. She had trouble grasping the concepts from only listening to the teacher without someone showing her what she was doing wrong. She did better in live academies for those classes. She also expressed a concern that some Abeka electives do not have a teacher and have to be learned by the student by simply reading a book. She had difficulty with mastering material this way. (The class was “Sewing”).
Abeka does offer dual enrollment classes for high schoolers now through Pensacola Christian College. However, parents need to be aware of the fact that Pensacola Christian College is not accredited.
Parents using Abeka DVD/Online need to be prepared to make sure students complete work and understand anything they did not understand after watching the videos. They also need to be responsible for grading and feedback to the student. Additionally, some portions of the curriculum require parents to give oral assessments.
For parents wanting everything needed for a specific grade, look for “Full Grade Kits”. Because they offer so many resouces for different purposes, knowing what to order from Abeka can be confusing.
Also, it is highly recommended that parents read through all the parental materials before starting to homeschool, as it may be difficult to understand how it works and where to find specific papers or instructions at first.
You can reach Abeka at www.abeka.com/homeschool.
Our review - we recommend Abeka for a classical education
Abeka is a strong homeschool curriculum if students do all of the suggested work, and the outcomes that we have seen when students do everything have been highly positive. One of the students we followed used Abeka until tenth grade and is now eligible for a full academic scholarship to a university because she scored so high on SAT. With that said, all students are different, and just because some students excel with a particular curriculum, that does not mean all students will.
Abeka’s DVD and online options are the exact same curriculum that is used in Abeka Academy. The only difference between the two is that the academy keeps transcripts and issues report cards. They also make the claim of being accredited, which doesn’t actually mean much legally with regard to homeschool.
With the DVD or online options, parents decide what assignments students complete and issue all grades. With the academy, students must do everything, but parents still grade all student work and send in some work to Abeka as requested. Parents need to be aware though that even though students doing the DVD or online option don’t necessarily have to complete every assignment if parents decide there is too much work, students do still need to watch every video, or they will be lost in the material.
Parents don’t have to teach everything because the teacher on the DVD or online video does most of the teaching, but parents do need to help students with work they do not understand.
Parents spend a significant amount of time with any DVD or online curriculum that is not an academy simply because parents need to pass out assignments, grade everything and keep grades. But having a real teacher teach the material saves many hours of instruction.
Realistically, for a student to complete a strong education with Abeka, parents need to plan on at least six hours of work per day for early elementary and eight or more for subsequent years. Some students claim to homeschool in 3 to 4 hours per day. Our personal opinion is that this is not enough time for students to adequately learn the material needed.
We highly recommend Abeka. Our only concerns are that in high school, some classes may be harder to complete unless a parent is an expert in the material. Additionally, electives are somewhat lacking compared to some other curriculums and academies.
Also, if a student is completing all assignments with Abeka, it may be very difficult for students to add anything extra because of the amount of work.
Monarch is another online platform; however, they are completely different. With Monarch, material is online, but it is like reading a textbook online without an actual teacher to teach the material. We do not believe that most students would fare well with Monarch without parent lead instruction. It is more of a supplement to parent teaching. Additionally, Monarch appears visually outdated. In our tests of students using Abeka vs. Monarch, Abeka scored well above Monarch each time. In fact, our staff was so bored trying to use Monarch that we couldn’t complete a class either.
BJU Press is another online platform. When comparing Abeka, BJU Press, and Monarch, we found Abeka to be the strongest academic education of the three.
Teachers in the Abeka DVD’s or videos are interesting to listen to most of the time, and some are funny. They do an excellent job of explaining the material.
We give Abeka DVD or Online 5 stars out of 5 for parents specifically wanting a DVD or Online curriculum.
However, for those parents simply looking for an option that will include instruction from a teacher, for high school, there are some academies that are superior. (Please see the academies section). For grades below high school, we recommend Abeka for students that do better with a classical education, and Liberty Academy or Excelsior Classes for students that need a more project-based curriculum.