I work alongside a teacher who taught Abeka in the private schools. She said it is an excellent course up until about 1st grade because it is really strong in the phonics and focuses on getting the children to learn to read quickly. After that, she would recommend going to a more standard curriculum in 2nd.

Abeka focuses on core curriculum- recognizing letters and sounds, led by teacher guidance and working out of a workbook, but the children learn to blend letters and read quickly and at their own pace. My son’s class will also have center time and recess and other fun things, but sections of the day are disjoint from other sections (ie–worktime from playtime)

Thematic is more integrated learning. It can be good but there is also a downside. I have noticed many parents of smarter kids wanting me to push the reading and some children in class just aren’t ready yet; and it is harder to individualize learning with this type of curriculum. We mainly focus on coloring, cutting, gluing, learning letters and colors and shapes and numbers, within the context of the theme. We may have Bear week and the children learn about bear habits and hibernation and get to bring their teddy bears, all while learning about the letter B and the number 3 (for Three Bears). They may play bear games, and get to do bear crafts (cutting coloring and gluing) Thematic learning is entertaining for the children but the advanced ones get held back if they already know the basics.

It is really up to you. I would base it on where my kid was academically and pick the environment which you think is best.

So they have pros and cons. I hope that helps.

With Children Learning Reading you can teach your youngster how to separate looks and separate words into phonemes, an important thing whenever your kid is just understanding how to spell.

The studying system from Children Learning Reading program makes it easy for kids to see quickly and effectively, from easy words to phrases till they understand to learn stories.