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Abeka provides a complete line of traditional Christian educational materials that have been developed and refined over a period of 50 years in the classrooms of Pensacola Christian Academy. The resources are available in physical and digital format and include textbooks, workbooks, readers, and videos. Products can be purchased individually or as grade level kits.
Abeka Academy reviews are listed separately.
Website: Abeka
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(78 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: School at home
Grades Used: K-12
Abeka is not written by homeschoolers for homeschoolers. They took a curriculum written for classrooms of 30 kids and adjusted activities so that it could be done with one child. Whether you use videos or not, Abeka is school at home. If that's your thing, you'll probably be happy with it. But for all of us who chose homeschool so that we could bond and grow with our children, so that our child could grow in their strengths and strengthen their weakness, so that they could be an individual and not just another face in the classroom... Your probably won't like it. Sure, you can adapt it, but why go through all that work when there's great programs out there that are written for homeschoolers?
For reference, I was homeschooled K-12 with Abeka, graduated from their college with an education degree, chose to homeschool my own child, and after doing less than a quarter of k4, switched to something else. I realized I was about to repeat my parent's mistakes because it was familiar to me. I won't blame Abeka for my parents mistakes, that would be dumb, but the long lessons, emphasis on memorization over understanding, and tons of busy work certainly didn't help my depression or relationships. We're going into first grade now in a different program and my child loves school. She asks for it on the weekends. With Abeka, my daughter quickly went from being excited for our learning activities to dragging her feet no matter how much I adapted. And all that adaptation was a lot of extra work for an all in one curriculum. If you've read some of the other reviews, you've probably seen people accuse those who don't like Abeka of being lazy with lazy kids or that they don't care about their spiritual development. That's simply not true. More is not necessarily better. They all graduate at 18. Who cares if they learned to add in k5 vs 1st grade? And parents were raising godly children long before Abeka. While I do like Abekas Biblical foundation and instruction, a curriculum won't save your child. You need to actively teach them about God and the Bible no matter what curriculum you use. Using a sound Biblical homeschool program doesn't excuse you from your responsibility to teach and train up your child.
Cons: Poor customer service, expensive
Grades Used: 9-11
I would recommend Abeka curriculum, hands down. My son was an Abeka student 9th-11th grades. We especially enjoyed Bible and History, we watched the New Testament and Revelation series as a family. The class curriculum is comprehensive and because all the classes are on video my son could review as much as he needed. It did take several months to figure out a system. Yes it's expensive but worth it as the subjects are taught from a biblical worldview and I did not have to teach every subject to my child myself. I could no longer teach my son math after 7th grade so Saxon Math and Abeka saved us there. Customer service however was almost always frustrating and unhelpful. I was often transferred several times, having to reiterate the issue with each transfer, be on the phone for an hour or 2. The late fees were ridiculous. I almost quit the program twice because of the anger and frustration involved in getting issues resolved.
Cons: Expensive
Grades Used: 5-3
I was homeschooled with Abeka K-9th and did fine. Have two BA degrees and two AA degrees - graduated with honors. I’m using it for all my kids including my 3d grader who was struggling to get the attention she needed in public school. The lessons are short so she enjoys it. I use alternate maths and only supplement with Abeka math as a “second math”.This seems to work well for her. My other children are doing just fine and advancing in phonics, reading spelling.
The best subject of this curriculum is the Bible which uses age appropriate drills and stories to teach a Biblical world view. I believe this curriculum led to my salvation as a child which makes it irreplaceable in my opinion. The Bible can be purchased separately and is well worth it. You can’t rely on church to teach a Biblical world view these days, sadly.
Cons: Your credits are no good to you if you ever plan to go back to public school and it's not for kids that don't already excel at schooll
Grades Used: All
Abeka school is for advanced kids that plan to either go to become some type of religion as a career or college. Do not use abeka if you have a child that is already struggling in public school.
Grades Used: 4-12
I used Abeka my whole life and it helped me so much. I really liked the Christian view they taught things from cause it gave you a different way to look at it than the world teaches. They would still teach you thing about evolution and other wrong beliefs but instead of just telling you it's wrong they would help you understand why it's wrong and why Jesus Christ is the only true God.
The curriculum is difficult but it shouldn't be too much of a problem if you just watch the class, do the homework, and study. That may sound like a lot of time, but from 4th to 8th grade I was able to do all of that quicker than the public school. It wasn't until high school where I had to put more time and effort into it, but I was still able to manage school, piano, and sports. The difficulty helps teach you to manage your time well and it makes college classes much easier.
If you don't like your kids watching their classes on the computer cause they get distracted with games or other things, Abeka does have classes on dvd that you can get. The dvd's also can help cause then if your house doesn't have good internet or if your riding in the car for a while your kids can still watch the classes.
Cons: TOO much time online fed our kids appetite to want to be online even after school was done. It was awful.
Grades Used: 9th and 7th
We thought the 'idea' of online homeschooling sounded great after the mess of at-home public school was failing during covid. We have done the accredited program with 2 boys in separate grades. We found Abeka to be a TON of work. a TON of hours online. And ultimately, it furthered their desire to just BE online. So they would spend hours doing videos, online assessments and then some written homework and activities, but then they wanted 'play' time. And what did they want to do with friends who'd been at school all day? Video games on-line. Abeka online school feeds the appetite of kids to be online in our experience. In hindsight, we are very disappointed with it and do not recommend.
Cons: Expensively, repetitive, very difficult
Grades Used: K4,k5, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th,8th
I would not recommend abeka. I have 5 kids and have did many grades using abeka. It's very rigorous and a lot of time spent in front of a video! So many worksheets and tons of repetitive stuff. My daughter struggled in the very advanced preschool program and I regret ever using abeka with her since she has struggled in reading and it was way too much for her. I don't like how Abeka keeps raising their prices I guess taking advantage of more people homeschooling. I got their catalog in the mail today and couldn't believe the prices!!!
Cons: Can sometimes be tough to keep kids motivated to do “tablework”
Grades Used: PreK-3
Abeka has been around for a long time, in fact, when I was a little homeschool back in the 80s, when homeschooling was still a new freedom that Americans were just beginning to enjoy, I was taught using Abeka. It gave me a HUGE advantage over my public-schooled peers, my reading skills were so advanced, I tested out of my own grade-levels, even though I was already on the young side in my class. With my own kids, I have found it to be somewhat challenging to prepare the lessons and teach them daily with multiple grades, so I skip the lesson plans and base my teaching off of the table work. I have one child who works well ths way and one who wants me to hold his hand the entire time. So, I tried a few other curriculums, but I found them to neglect reviewing past material. Abeka is just the best.
Cons: -
Grades Used: 2nd, 5th
You couldn't have said it any better. This is my first time using Abeka and it's been a challenge for my boys as well. They don't like watching someone else's class. The first two weeks, my son was very engaged. He raised he his and then complained that he wasn't being called on in class. So, he stopped being engaged. It's pretty sad to be honest. Then after lesson 41, the site stopped working for us and wouldn't let us go past that very lesson. When I brought all my concerns to them they were condescending and didn't offer any alternatives after being in the class for two weeks. Not even a refund or an apology. I'm not going to be using them anymore.
Cons: Condescending, difficulty withdrawing from an enrollment, slow refund process, conflicting and incomplete information from service representatives, white washed history
Grades Used: K5, 3rd, 5th, 8th
I should never have given Abeka a second attempt. Initial use four years ago for K5 and 5th grade was a waste of money; after a week or two, the children chucked it. Though they retained and liked some things, they were mostly disinterested in watching someone else's class function, with the extent of their involvement being, "now you answer, boys and girls watching". Phonics was presented well, but even after continuing with it on my own, the children grew tired of worksheets. I ended up returning the DVDs at the end of my term with approx. 10% of the materials actually utilized.
Fast forward to now, the academy was ordered again for 3rd and 8th language arts, and 8th grade math. The appeal was getting a little extra assistance while instructing multiple children and wondering if it would be a different experience as they were older.
In finalizing the enrollment, DVD's for language 3 were not available. As their site says DVD or stream I was confused. With customer service questioned, they recited excuses and blamed me for not seeing the VERY LAST line under the language 3 video description and overview stating "online video streaming only". Why not put it where it is clearly visible? They lack transparency in many aspects.
Due to nonsense exchanges and service representative rudeness, I cancelled both 3rd and 8th grade enrollments within days of each other prior to the enrollment period actually starting. They weren't phased as if cancellations were a norm.
This wasn't the only reason for my cancellation. I was fed up with Abeka since this was not my first encounter with their mishandling of situations. My final price was also increased by $200 because they had a price increase during my ordering process. And last, the white washed historical perspective is woven overt and woven within all subjects through sentences, commentary and more.
I am having a challenging time with my 3rd and 8th grade withdrawal. The materials arrived and I was told I needed to separate the mixed bunch of 3rd and 8th grade material to separate boxes before returning due to cancellation dates. I did and returned everything as quickly as possible. UPS shows that Abeka has received both boxes of materials totalling $1,800. The Abeka account only shows one box of returned items for $563. The representative told me it would take four days to look into my case and receive a refund (though it takes seconds to make a payment). Then she proceeded to accuse me of wanting more than my refund amount stating that I ONLY get what I've paid thus far. NO, REALLY! What the heck is wrong with them? And they are the education specialists? Why would I be calling to get more than I paid?
I wanted to make sure my account was properly credited for all I returned, and that was her conclusion? I said I would follow-up sooner than the four days and was told, I could call back if I wanted, but I wasn't going to get any new answers.
I then get an email stating my 8th grade enrollment payments were reduced as the 3rd grade returned materials were credited to the 8th grade account. WHAT! They have rarely gotten anything straight. I cancelled everything. Why do they still have me enrolled? Why are they still trying to charge me?
Based on the records of my email exchanges, I can confidently say Abeka is rude, condescending, confused, never answers questions thoroughly, gives misinformation and will write a ton on you in the "notes" if you complain. When calling back for followup, the next rep will patronize you and act like you are the problem with unnecessary remarks.
Abeka academy is not intended for young children, as it is unnatural and harsh to have a child sitting in front of videos all day. It isn't intended for older children if you use their history and literature without extensive discussions on critical thinking, research of historical events and more. The videos are extremely antiquated with scripted-type language. Finally, It is a school-at-home program and not a creative homeschool program.
Cons: Will give you the run around when trying to withdraw children
Grades Used: 5th and 6th
Way too much work for kids. For a supposedly Christian school they give you a hard time withdrawaling your kids.
Cons: na
Grades Used: 1-12
i am a teacher that decided to start a home school in 2004; however , I use Abeka as a base curriculum but I add what the individual student needs. No one curriculum is for all students.
Cons: Some outdated terms, can be time consuming
Grades Used: Pre-k-9
I have used Abeka with my three kids for pre-k-1st grade. I was also homeschooled myself all the way until 9th grade using only Abeka.
In response to a previous review, I was perplexed to find some one considered it to be “racist.” I remember having a well-rounded education regarding black history, MLK and indigenous cultures. My mom did love history and did supplement an outrageous amount pertaining to history, but there wasn’t “racism”. It does refer to Native Americans as “Indians” which is merely outdated language in my opinion as the curriculum is very heavy on using Native Americans throughout all subjects in a very positive and well-esteemed light. It’s very obvious that the curriculum seeks to appeal to diverse groups and is taught at a local diverse Christian school which draws a large amount of black parents. It is a “Biblical” based “Christian” curriculum so it does present things from a Christian point of view in which more politically correct, Caesar capitulating individuals may find offensive. It is very patriotic and pays respect to the American founders frequently which some in today’s world may find offensive. The curriculum does not demean other cultures such as “Arabs” in contrast, it has a missions focus woven throughout. It has not deviated much from its original formation, meaning updates to politically correct language appear sparse. Those offended by singular words and terms without grasping full context of said words and terms may be offended.
Cons: Way too much work, changed information, Confusing lessons, not clear instruction, sometimes blatantly racist
Grades Used: 6th-11th
Ok so I’ve been doing Abeka since 2016, I’m almost graduated at this point but here’s my take
The reading program is good
I also think the Spanish Program is really good
And if your child is prepared or gifted this will be for them
Also the eleventh grade teacher wrote his own geometry book
My friend
Who is majoring in geometry right now to be a teacher
CANT even solve the own problems because they make no sense or they are like junior year of college work
I don’t like the history though, now I’m not that liberalish but when they down play slavery and use safe words like “servents “ and don’t talk about Martin Luther king yeah that’s a bit concerning. In my seventh grade grammar text book they literally said Arabs weren’t people because they believe in Allah, a false god. BRO! I have a Arab as a friend and that hit a nerve a bit
The work load is ridiculous
In English they assign you a first draft
They give you two days to do the first draft and make you write the complete draft in the next lesson (day)
Three days for a 800 word essay (legitimate I swear look at your child’s lessons) colleges ATLEAST Give you a week to do that. And in younger grades they give your kid unnecessary busy work like
They have to do their real work
But they also have to do homework and “busywork” (work that’s completed after their real work) it just sad to go through that
My last complaint is probably the reading program
I like old literature
And I’ve read a lot of it
But they do change some parts of the story to make it look more to their values
I’m not saying like a word or phrase but whole entire paragraphs sometimes
They done that with Macbeth and Scarlet letter and it grinned my gears
Cons: At least 2 hours of homework are required at this level in order to be successful.
Grades Used: 7
The "Christian" customer service representatives leave a bit to be desired. Originally I was going to homeschool just 3 subjects for my child but then changed over to the full unaccredited curriculum. Well they have charged me for both sets of programs and trying to get this corrected has been a nightmare. When speaking with Christine yesterday, i asked to speak to her supervisor and guess what? "I don't have one" was the response. Really?? She refused to provide me with an itemized statement and hung up on me. For whatever reason, my certified mail is fixing to be returned as Abeka has failed to pick up the mail though they have received notices there is an item waiting to be picked up.
My 7th grader found (as did I) the content of required material on a daily basis to simply be overwhelming. It seems that the child is required to do so much of the learning on their own rather than being instructed by the teacher. In History, the nightly required reading of the next day's material and defining of the bold terms were followed by rather cursory review the next day. This may be an appropriate learning method for high schoolers or college students, but not the best method for a 7th grader. As the parent/teacher, I also had to spend considerable time reviewing all the homework and reviewing the material with my child. The daily instruction guide is not simple to follow and I ended up having to do daily Excel spreadsheets to keep track of the work required. NOT a time saver for me.
We've decided to quit Abeka and return to public school. Hate the waste of $1,500.00 dollars on a program we are no longer going to use, but we found this to just be discouraging to our child and extremely frustrating to me as the parent.
This school lost my sons packet and now wants me to magically have them appear. He was accredited with the videos and everything and put so much work on it.
Cons: reports that your kid has passed when they never did any work.
Grades Used: 6
Did this school for one year with my son. The sixth grade, he was so overwhelmed with all the work load and gave him such anxiety that we couldn't even get through the first week. I enroll him in public school and insist they put him in 6th grade. I am told they cant because according to Abeka school hr passed! How do you pass something when not a single assignment was turned in? Not a single test taken? How can this be? When I called and asked them about it they wouldn't give me an answer on it. All they repeatedly said was "We would be glad to answer any questions after you make you past due payment" I refused to make the payment until I had answers....remains unpaid to this date because they hung up on me. So yeah avoid this school.
Cons: WAY TOO MUCH WORK
Grades Used: Ninth
This school is horrible, the teachers are cracking crappy jokes every 5 minutes and there is too much work, they want you to watch 5 1 hour videos, do the work online for those videos, plus homework and studying, by the time you’re done you have to go to bed and do the same thing over, I literally have anxiety from this school and I get nauseous thinking about it, all the work gives you trauma and the support is garbage, whatever you do try and avoid this school the whole “Christian education” is a ploy and not worth it
Cons: It does have a lot of book work but if you choose to do the parent lead method then you know what areas your child excels at and what areas your child needs work in. Focus on the weak areas.
Grades Used: 1st and 4th and will still use it
My kids were having a difficult time with their previous curriculum. They were bored and my youngest in particular was having a difficult time reading. We switched to abeka and they both flourished! They both have come a long way in a very short time. Abeka does teach from a biblical perspective so I love that it reinforces our christian beliefs.
Cons: Too much work and gets very confusing at times like I was suppose to be working on this author project the whole year but juts now found out about it. Now I'm in my final quarter panicking trying to understand what I have to do. I want to cry
Grades Used: 10th and 7th
I want to cry. It's a lot of work. I somehow manage to keep up. I don't really have time to hang out with friends and work on other things besides school. It's stressful and unless you hate your kid or they can handle it I won't do Abeka.
I tried to buy accredited materials for my child, I was told I could not due to an age restriction, then I was told I could request a waiver, I was yelled at by someone in the Solutions Department and was told I am not allowed to purchase curriculum with my own money based on where I believe my child is developmentally. The unprofessional behavior from the staff and the rude and condescending comments were uncalled for.
Cons: Grading scale
Grades Used: K5
I most likely will never use again. If I do it would be Unaccredited. I did accredited K5 and the grading scale broke my child’s spirit. I stopped showing him his grades during 4th grading period because he told me “I can’t get an A momma I’ll just take a B.” Already feeling inadequate at 5 years old. This world puts us down enough so why grade so hard???
Cons: toooo much work so overwhelming i hate it my kids as well, ''
Grades Used: 4th
if there were stars i would give 3 and a half but the only good teacher i see is ms amy amsbaugh!
[Redacted] with the Kindergarten class through abeka should not do video classes. She doesn't take the collective into consideration in any way. She just states everything as quickly as possible. Even the students in her own class as stumped as to what she just said half the time. I'm homeschooling 5 households worth of students and have gotten to the point I don't even play the videos anymore. All students went from failing to passing. And it's not just me. The group I'm apart of has 372 house holds that use your program and we are all no longer using the videos with [redacted]. We are sourcing another company to replace you all together. The fact her class made it to DVD does not bode well.
Cons: Kids test worse in reading comprehension in older grades, no critical thinking, lack of content, no other religious education to prep for defending faith
Grades Used: K-12
I graduated using Abeka only curriculum all through school. I tested well and with good grades. I went to college along with my friends and realized we were minimally prepared. It was not just content, it’s was abstract and critical thinking. I used Abeka for homeschooling for the elementary years but put them in school for Jr and Senior High. I was glad I did. My kids were doing university level reading and work in high school. For instance for one assignment my kids had to read court documents, historical journal articles then come up with conclusions based on Government documents. This was for 10th grade English writing. I was not doing things such as this until college. Unless Abeka has progressed their in the box scripted answers will not foster learning that is necessary for today’s learning and functioning. It is great for the basics of reading and writing but for the higher grades I found it paled in comparison to what my kids learned in high school.