Abeka Phonics Program Details, Information, and Review

The goal of Abeka phonics is for each child to be able to read the Bible. Since the Bible promotes good character qualities, it is important for children to be able to read it.

The Abeka phonics program consists of seat work, readers, phonics guide and lesson plans if you choose to purchase the whole kit. Some parents say that you need the lesson plans, otherwise you are, more or less, on your own figuring out what to do when.

Scripture is woven throughout the readers and workbook. The program can be used as early as 4 years old and is then reinforced through 2nd grade.

Parents need to make or cut out many of the games and extra activities if they choose to buy those. The suggestions for songs and stories in the teacher manual are not included. The parent needs to find those in order to be able to use them.

All phonics rules are covered and there are some comprehension questions on some of the pages. Otherwise it’s mostly drill work with your child. Much of the program consists of using phonics flashcards for the drill work.

Reviews - Some parents say that the program is thorough and others say it’s methodical. Your view of this program all depends on how you were taught and what you expect from a phonics program.

You can also add Language, Penmanship, and Spelling books to make a complete Language Arts program. For young children, this will probably be too much writing and busy work, but for an older child that doesn’t struggle to make every letter, it might help reinforce the phonics and spelling rules.

Alternative to Abeka Phonics

Another alternative - I chose to teach my children to read when they were 6 and used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with all of them. I looked over some of the Abeka phonics books and had the Handbook for Reading and the early readers. If I had wanted to drill blends and diphthongs with them, I could have used the My Blend book along with the Handbook for Reading and Lesson Plans, but they just didn’t appeal to me or my children. We had much more fun reading the silly stories in the 100 Easy Lesson book and other real books. We still progressed through the alphabet and had a program to follow for teaching reading. I also skipped all the writing suggestions in the 100 Easy Lesson Book and just focused on the reading instructions.

Somehow it just felt like a chore to use the Abeka Phonics readers and handbook. I appreciate the fact that they intersperse Christian values and cover all the phonics rules, but it just didn’t work for us for some reason. We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with much more success. We didn't even finish the book because by the time they were around lesson 75, they were able to read real books.