I have been using a different language arts program, which I like very much. However, my oldest apparently needs constant review of concepts or they fall right out of his head. He is really brilliant and even learned to read at age 3. But even so, he needs the concepts presented as a strong foundation and then repeated over and over. Abeka doesn't
...Read MoreRead more about I have been using a different language allow you to forget! Every page forces you to remember, rather than just present the topic, "oh I got it!", move on, and maybe circulate a few things inconsistently through the course. Extra skills are taught besides things like commas and apostrophes, such as having to write creative sentences in a blank notebook, writing letters, crafting good paragraph vs just ok mediocre ones, referencing titles of literary works, exploring encyclopedia. It is a real work out, but it is presented very age appropriately and doable. I don't find it overwhelming, overly demanding, or confusing. I used Abeka grammar as a kid, and we knew our grammar like champs. This would not be a good fit for my second, who grasps concepts quickly and completely in order to do as little work as possible. He would be pretty annoyed if he knew something and had to still keep finding commas and plowing through extra pages. If he gets something, he thinks one exercise extra practicing is pointless. I'm very pleased with Language A for Gr 4 for my oldest though.
Two things though....I know grammar fairly well so it is pretty easy for me at this stage to work through it with him. It isn't quite independent unfortunately. So you do have to have some knowledge to tie the pieces together for the child. The other program I used was entirely scripted. I have used Abeka lesson plans before, but they do seem to be geared more towards a class experience, require more a dedicated topic teacher to present the materials clearly, have a lot of extras like games and references to other materials which can make the scripting get lost. It almost made the lessons super long when we used them, and it wasn't necessary. So I didn't buy them for Language A. So just a point of caution, if you don't have a good grammar foundation yourself, some things might just leave you wondering - not always, but sometimes.
Second, this is a bit strange, but the book smells very strongly of printer ink. I am sensitive to odors and it is a trial to open up the book to teach him because it smells like cheap newspaper/ads. Read LessRead less about I have been using a different language