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A Life Better Than I Deserve
Oct. 24, 2009
Review: abcteach
Recently I was provided a free month's subscription in order to review this company for the Homeschool Crew. I did not receive any monetary compensation in exchange for providing my honest review, and the opinions expressed represent my own and my family's experiences with this product. To read more about this product and many more exciting homeschooling products, please visit the Homeschool Crew web page.
The abcteach website is probably a dream come true for most preschool through 8th grade educators. Imagine walking into your local parent-teacher style store and being allowed to walk out with anything you see for one low annual fee and the cost of the paper and ink. If this thought thrills you, then this site will too. With an individual membership costing $40 per year ($70 for two years) and cheaper options available for group memberships, this site is potentially beneficial for educators (including home educators) who already have internet access and a computer printer. Containing over 35,000 pages of worksheets, activities, teaching extras and tools like worksheet generators, what is not to like?
Truthfully, in the few weeks in which I had access to ABC Teach I investigated resources in probably every single directory (preschool/kindergarten, math, middle school/junior high, music, reading, teaching extras, writing, etc.) as well as close to half of the sub-directories. I printed up a few hundred pages of materials for use with my own children. Some of my finds are:
- backseat bingo games for a fun, compact travel activity
- assorted bingo games
- board games in various themes (medieval , ocean animals, etc.) for me to come up with questions to review our history, science, etc.
- bookmarks (very nice, colorful ones I’ll be laminating!)
- endangered species and other animal cards for making into games for my preschooler
- fire safety and bicycle safety games
- geography card game
- logical fallacies unit
- “mini offices”–reference charts for subjects such as order of operations in math or common abbreviations references
- music notes board game
- physics study on simple machines
- preschool activities to entertain my four year old when the older ones are busy with their schoolwork and she gets bored!
- solar system themed activities for my aspiring astronaut–too many pages and activities to count!
Yet, many of the pages were not very appealing to me as a Classical/Charlotte Mason style home educator. A few worksheets go a long way in my home. The "Homeschooling" section on this site is new and not very large yet. I do think that this will be expanded in the future, and this company is interested in feedback from its customers and will attempt to create new resources where a need is expressed. However, the vast majority of offerings at this site will reflect more of what the average classroom educator uses to cover subjects within a large classroom than what a home educator more focused on reading the “Great Books” and discussing them with her children will desire. I also found the site to be heavily geared toward the preschool and primary ages and did not include as much material for my 8th grader.
In the month I had access I personally liked enough to print about 10% of what I discovered. Even more I could have adapted in some way and used in our school. And spent more time doing so. Yet I already have some educational materials which cover some of the categories and which I feel overall does so better–and they are already developed and ready for me to use. If we had more disposable income right now, I would consider renewing and see how the new Homeschooling section develops. I could even see using some of the printables in scouting and for making birthday party games and decorations. The medieval and pirates themes spring to mind!
This site does have a great deal of material to offer, and for a newer home educator who does not already have her curriculum or one who prefers to educate her children mostly with worksheets or especially one who is already spending much time and money at the local parent-teacher style store, this site would likely prove very beneficial in savings of both time and money. We just are not that family.
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