Love/Hate!

by P.C.
(Western NY)

A Beka Arithmetic/A Beka readers
Arithmetic 1-4; Readers K-6
2001-2006

My kids loved the A Beka readers. We did not use their phonics instruction, but went through the readers in order as appropriate to each child's ability. The stories were of appropriate length regarding attention span and their attention to the phonics progression was wonderful.

The math is another story. A Beka uses a spiral approach, which was fine when my kids were young but became burdensome and frustrating as they grew older. A Beka has a reputation as an aggressive curriculum so it was a little difficult to accept the fact that my kids didn't succeed with it, but once we switched, our homeschool really turned around. My daughter, who cried daily and took 4 hours to complete a math lesson, now loves math and it is her favorite subject.