Eunice | New York
When I began this journey, I thought homeschooling would be overwhelming. Teaching my children how to read and write, add and subtract, and have all the skills they need seemed like too much pressure. But I knew homeschooling was the right choice for my family, so I took the leap.
In the beginning, both of my boys struggled with phonics. Rhee, my middle child, had a particularly hard time with it. I never learned phonics myself. I was born in Michigan but moved to South Korea when I was four. My first language is Korean, and I learned English when I moved to Vancouver for high school. I was nervous about my ability to teach phonics. When Rhee wasn’t progressing beyond the basics, I felt discouraged and doubted myself even more.
But I reminded myself that phonics is just a stepping stone on the path to learning to read; it was just a matter of finding the right program.
More than anything, I wanted my children’s education to be built on a solid foundation. With my schedule as busy as it was, I didn’t know where to start. I had to choose between virtual learning with a Christian school or schooling at home. Between having a newborn and a full-time job, I struggled to fit virtual learning into my already hectic schedule. I have quite a few friends who homeschool, and one recommended Abeka, and it’s been better than I could have even imagined.
Once we found Abeka, my boys were able to start learning from the ground up.
Through the spiral approach, Abeka’s curriculum helped them master the basics first.
From there, they were able to tackle each sequential lesson. The straightforward, easy-to-use materials created patterns and built upon themselves. Abeka’s reading handbook guided us through the basic short vowels first, then the long vowels, and finally the special sounds.
Whenever they were frustrated, I would tell my children to read just one more word, to work on just one more page, and to take it one step at a time. And that’s what we did. We would go word by word, page by page until it clicked. Before I knew it, Rhee was reading words from magazines on the coffee table and signs on the highway.
He went from being unable to do basic phonics to being an excellent reader right before my eyes.
Beyond that, he was confident in his ability and genuinely enjoyed it. It meant the world to me to see that.
As a mother, my priority is my children’s success. I’ve always been a driven, career-oriented woman. Before I had children, I could only invest in myself and my own goals. Now, I pour that effort into them. Seeing them work, grow, and smile through the challenges gives me immense joy.
I feel fulfilled watching all that I’ve invested shine brighter through them.
Eunice's Must Have Products
Numbers Skills K5
Aid your child’s curiosity in numbers while building a strong arithmetic foundation at his early age. Your child will learn numbers concepts from 1-100 and practical skills including telling time, bill and coins value, using the calendar, and much more.
Arithmetic 1 Charts and Games
These colorful visuals make teaching a concept easier for the teacher and the learning experience more enjoyable for the student. Each of the visual aids complements the themes and the concepts for Arithmetic 1 throughout the year.
Family Fun Readers
The 7 supplementary little books focus on one- and two-vowel words and many special sounds from the Basic Phonics Charts.
Letters and Sounds K5
Use colorful phonics worksheets to help your child read and recognize his letters and their sounds. Letters and Sounds K5 uses age-appropriate phonics exercises to help your child associate pictures and words, enhance his vocabulary, develop reasoning and listening skills, and follow directions.
Writing with Phonics K4 Manuscript
This book combines writing in manuscript form with learning the alphabet, before moving on to the basic phonics sounds for beginning to read.
One-Vowel Word Cards
Improve your child’s comprehension of vowels, blends, and small words with these One-Vowel Word Cards.
Two-Vowel Word Cards
Once your child learns how to sound out long sounds of a vowel, these cards are a great way to drill and review two-vowel words.