Abeka Math Review: Why Your Child Can Compute But Can't Think in Numbers

My son was doing well — at least, that’s what it looked like. As a first-time homeschool mom, I was completely new to all of this. And to be honest, English isn’t even my first language. Teaching in English felt overwhelming. I wasn’t confident in explaining things myself — I wanted something expert-led and dependable.

“I didn’t want to guess. I wanted a system I could follow — and trust.”

So I did what many parents do. I read reviews. I watched homeschool YouTube channels. I searched through Facebook groups. Abeka kept coming up as a top choice — structured, traditional, and academically strong. And what gave me the most relief? It came with video lessons. That meant I didn’t have to teach everything on my own. My son could watch a trained teacher walk him through the content, and I could just follow along.

“It felt like I had backup. I thought — this is perfect for someone like me.”

Yes, I saw a few comments saying “Abeka didn’t work for us” — especially in math. But no one really explained why. And honestly, it all looked so polished, so professional, so safe. So I chose it with confidence. For two full years, my son completed every lesson. His scores were high. But something didn’t feel right. He froze when I asked him to add in his head. He counted on his fingers. He couldn’t group numbers — even with manipulatives. And most of all, he couldn’t explain what he was doing. That’s when I started to ask myself the question I’d been avoiding:

What if he’s learning math — but not learning to think?

Abeka excels at delivering structured, systematic content. But here's what I eventually realized: curriculum alone can't develop the underlying thinking skills that make math actually make sense to a child. And when those skills are missing, even the best lessons won't stick.

It's not just about answers — it’s about building the way your child thinks

Once I began to doubt the results I was seeing, I didn’t want to rely on feelings. I needed to understand: What is math really supposed to build in a young child’s mind? That’s when I found Conscious Schooling — a platform built to help parents see the thinking behind the grades. They didn’t talk about programs first. They talked about thinking. And that changed everything for me. Because math isn’t just about learning numbers. It’s about learning how to use your brain. A good homeschool math program doesn’t just teach facts. It builds the tools a child will need to:

• Solve problems
• Understand relationships
• Make sense of the world around them

Here’s what I learned: strong math thinking is built on specific cognitive skills.

What Kind of Thinking Does Math Actually Use?

At Conscious Schooling, they’ve created something called the Subject Relevance Guide — a research-based chart that shows which types of thinking matter most for each subject. When I looked at the section for Elementary Math, it hit me hard. Math relies on so many different cognitive skills — and I realized how few of them we’d actually been developing. Here’s what I learned:

These are the skills every child must develop for deep mathematical understanding.

• Abstract Thinking

The ability to understand and work with symbols, relationships, and non-visual ideas. When abstract thinking is underdeveloped children can memorize procedures but struggle to understand what numbers actually represent or how operations relate to each other. This is what helps children move beyond counting objects and start thinking in terms of quantities, place value, and number structure.

• Conceptual-Logical Thinking

The skill of following logical steps, understanding procedures, and drawing conclusions. Many children with conceptual thinking gaps can solve problems by following steps but can't explain why the method works or apply it to new situations. Children use this when they explain why something works or when they solve problems that require reasoning, not guessing.

• Information Processing Focus

This is the ability to stay accurate across multiple steps without getting distracted. Understanding your child's processing speed and focus explains why they make careless errors or struggle with multi-step problems—even when they know the concepts. It’s essential for solving word problems, completing multi-part equations, and catching small mistakes.

• Linear Visual Thinking

The skill of solving problems in a clear, step-by-step way.
It supports lining up numbers correctly, organizing work on paper, and keeping thoughts structured.

These skills support fluency, flexibility, and confidence — even if they’re not the central drivers of every problem.

• Conceptual-Intuitive Thinking

Helps children develop number sense — that “gut feeling” for whether an answer is reasonable. It also supports flexible strategies, like seeing that 9 + 6 is the same as 10 + 5.

• Short-Term Visual Memory

Lets children hold shapes, number patterns, and visual steps in mind as they work. This is key for problems with visual aids, grids, or multi-step diagrams.

• Visual Thinking (Structural + Combinatory)

Helps children interpret graphs, tables, shapes, and complex visual patterns.
Also useful for seeing how different pieces of information come together.

• Conceptual Categorization

Supports sorting numbers or problems into meaningful groups (like even/odd, bigger/smaller, same/different operations).

• Information Processing Speed

Helps children stay fluent during real-time work — so they don’t get stuck or fall behind when thinking through fast-paced tasks.

His grades were high — but his thinking tools were missing. After two full years with Abeka Math, I decided to run a full diagnostic with Conscious Schooling’s cognitive assessment — a research-based test designed for homeschool families. Not to test what he knew. But to finally understand what Abeka had actually taught him. I wasn’t looking for weaknesses — just a clearer picture.
What I got instead was a precise map of his cognitive toolkit. Not the skills he memorized — but the mental tools he could use.

And that’s when it hit me:
“He had learned procedures — but not thinking.” He could follow steps. He could copy examples. But the deeper skills — the ones math truly depends on — were either weak or completely missing.

What the Report Showed

The report broke his thinking down into specific cognitive skills — the exact ones that math relies on. And here’s what I saw:

Conceptual-Intuitive Thinking → 25%
He struggled to estimate, group, or “feel” numbers. He couldn’t break them apart in flexible ways — everything was step-by-step and mechanical.
Conceptual-Logical Thinking → 54%
He could follow directions, but he couldn’t explain why things worked. He didn’t check his own answers or question results.
Conceptual Categorization → 25%
He had trouble sorting problems by type or noticing patterns. Every task felt new — even when the structure was the same.
Conceptual-Imagery Thinking → 29%
He couldn’t picture ideas in his head. When asked to show what a number sentence meant, he froze.
Focus (Processing Accuracy) → 90%
He worked fast — but made small, avoidable mistakes. He wasn’t fully present in the process. There was speed, but no strategy.
Processing Speed and Visual Memory were strong.
But they weren’t being used effectively — because he didn’t know how to think with them.

This isn't about your child being 'bad at math' or Abeka being a 'bad curriculum.' It's about thinking gaps—underdeveloped cognitive skills that create invisible barriers to understanding, regardless of which program you use.

The data confirmed what I had been feeling in my gut all along:
“He’s learning to do math — but he isn’t learning to understand it.”
He wasn’t lacking effort. He wasn’t behind in age. But he was missing the cognitive foundation that real math requires.

That’s when I realized: the curriculum wasn’t broken — it was just never designed to build thinking. And if we didn’t change something soon, that gap would only get wider.From retraining his brain to finally thinking like a mathematician

After one full year using the two new math programs, we ran a second cognitive assessment. This time, I didn’t feel nervous — I felt curious. I had seen the changes in real life: my son was asking questions. He was solving problems in more than one way. He wasn’t just completing math — he was playing with it. But what the report showed gave me even more confidence.

The program looked solid — but it trained compliance, not cognition

I kept asking myself: “How did we get here? How could two years of daily math — with good grades and full lessons — leave my child without the tools to think in numbers?” And now I know the answer.
It wasn’t a failure of effort. It was the result of what the program prioritized — and what it didn’t.

What Abeka Does Well

Let’s be honest — Abeka is impressive on the surface.

• The materials are polished
• The lessons are clear
• The structure is consistent
• There are video teachers, checklists, daily routines

It makes the parent feel supported. It makes the child feel productive. And it produces results — on paper. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized: it’s built for repetition and performance, not for building deep understanding.

What Was Missing

Abeka taught my son how to follow steps — not how to understand them. Here’s what the curriculum didn’t support:

• Number sense: There was no room to play with numbers, group them, break them down, or estimate. Everything was exact and procedural.
• Conceptual reasoning: He was never asked why something worked — only whether he could do it.
• Flexible strategy use: Abeka offers one way to solve each problem. If that method doesn’t click, the child has no backup plan.
• Visual modeling: There was little emphasis on using objects or diagrams to understand problems — just pencil-and-paper repetition.
• Encouraging independent thinking: Every answer had one right format. Creativity or alternative approaches weren’t just discouraged — they were invisible.

The Bottom Line

Abeka trains children to follow instructions, not to build internal tools. It teaches them what to do, but not how to think. And unless the child already has strong cognitive foundations, the program won’t develop them — it will just drill surface-level performance. For my son, that meant two years of “doing math” without ever truly understanding numbers.

From curriculum confusion to cognitive clarity

Once I saw the diagnostic results, I knew I couldn’t keep going with Abeka. It wasn’t about finding a “better” math book. It was about choosing something that would finally help my child think. But I was still overwhelmed. There were too many options. Too many opinions. And I didn’t trust myself to figure it all out on my own. That’s when Conscious Schooling stepped in as a guide — not to sell me another program, but to show me which ones actually develop the thinking tools my son was missing. They didn’t give me a generic list. They matched the new curriculum to his actual cognitive profile. It was like being handed a roadmap — not just to math, but to how his brain could grow.

We Started with Two Programs

For the next year, we used a combination of two different math resources — each chosen for a specific purpose:

• Math Mammoth: Focused on developing number sense, estimation, and grouping
• Beast Academy: Strengthened logic, pattern recognition, and visual reasoning

These weren’t “complete” packages — they were targeted tools, chosen to fill the exact gaps shown in the report.

What Changed

Just a few months in, I started to notice real shifts:

• He no longer froze when faced with numbers
• He started explaining how he solved problems
• He used his fingers less — and his brain more
• He even came up with his own strategies (something I’d never seen before)

It wasn’t about rushing ahead. It was about rebuilding from the inside — one thinking skill at a time. And it was working.

From retraining his brain to finally thinking like a mathematician

After one full year using the two new math programs, we ran a second cognitive assessment. This time, I didn’t feel nervous — I felt curious. I had seen the changes in real life: my son was asking questions. He was solving problems in more than one way. He wasn’t just completing math — he was playing with it. But what the report showed gave me even more confidence.

Assessment #2: A Year of Real Progress

Compared to where we started, the second report looked like a different child:

• Conceptual-Intuitive Thinking jumped from 25% to 42%
• Conceptual Categorization soared from 25% to 75%
• Combinatory Visual Thinking improved from unmeasured to 42%
• Visual-Logical and Structural Thinking stayed strong or improved
• Abstract Thinking and Dynamic Visual Thinking solidified at good levels

Yes, some areas were still average — but now we had a working foundation.

That’s when we made a decision: we no longer needed two programs. We dropped the first one — and kept Beast Academy as our main curriculum.

One Year Later: The Third Diagnostic

After a full year of working only with Beast Academy, we ran a third assessment. The results were stunning.

Conceptual-Logical Thinking rose to 83%
Abstract Thinking hit 100%
Combinatory Visual Thinking jumped to 75%
Conceptual-Intuitive Thinking reached 67% — no longer low
Processing Focus was now excellent

Most scores were now in the “Good” or “High” range
One area dropped: Conceptual Categorization, now 25%.
But thanks to the clarity of the report, I now knew exactly what to focus on next.

What Beast Academy Did Right
Beast Academy didn’t just “teach math.”

It made my son think about math:

• It encouraged creative solutions
• It offered problems that required real reasoning
• It used visuals, humor, and stories to make concepts stick
• It didn’t rush — it invited curiosity

And most importantly, it matched what the diagnostics told us his brain needed.

Math is more than worksheets — it’s how your child learns to think

Looking back, I don’t regret starting with Abeka. I chose it because I wanted structure, expertise, and support. I did my best — and so did my son. But now I know something I didn’t back then:
A child can follow every lesson, pass every test, and still not learn to think. It’s not about finding the “perfect curriculum.” It’s about knowing what your child needs — and whether the program actually builds those skills.

What I Learned Through This Journey:

• Good grades don’t always mean deep understanding
• Mental math isn’t just practice — it’s cognition
• Thinking tools can be measured, tracked, and strengthened
• Some programs teach obedience. Others build intelligence.
• You can change direction at any time — and it’s never too late

And most importantly:
When you understand how your child thinks, you stop guessing.
You stop wondering if you’re doing enough.
You start making decisions with clarity.

Here's the insight that changed everything for our family: You can't guess your way to the right curriculum. First, you need to see how your child actually thinks. Then curriculum choices become clear—because you're matching content to cognitive reality, not hoping it'll work.

Whether you're just starting your homeschool journey or looking for better alignment between curriculum and cognition — we’re here to help. At Conscious Schooling, we don’t rank programs. Instead, we give parents a clear map of their child’s thinking tools — and show which curriculums actually develop them. Then we show you which educational paths will actually build them.
Think of it like a cognitive x-ray — not to label your child, but to unlock their potential.

Start with our free cognitive assessment.
It could change everything — just like it did for us.

Want to understand exactly which thinking skills your child needs to develop before math makes sense? Take our cognitive assessment—it reveals the specific gaps that might be hiding behind those math struggles.