Have any of you tried Accelated Christian Education (ACE's) curriculum? I was considering it for my 8 yr old son next yr., but would like some input from ppl who have tried it. Thank you
I have not used it, but I was interested in it at one time. I asked for a free sample workbook and that decided it for me. It was very dry and there was little to no explanation. The workbook I received was for 8th grade math and I love math. I had to really think of what they were doing. I don't think math is a subject you can do without explanations. I have also heard that they are so repetitive that kids can memorize the info and spit it back on the tests without really learning much. In the book I got the same exact math problem was on the test that had previously been done in the workbook. I would just say, look them over and ask for a sample.
I know others have used them with great results. I keep trying to like them but I just don't for most of my students. I currently teach Other People's Kids, 37 over the past 11 years (a few each year). I have not used ACE with any at the 8 year old level. I have given the placement tests to more students than I have actually used Paces with, and I find they score much higher into Paces than they do into other curricula, as much as two grade levels higher. I have a student right now who is struggling with 2nd grade reading (Pathways and CLE and R&S) who answered every question correctly in the ACE reading comprehension (science and social studies) test through the 5th grade level. I have tried Word Building with several kids at middle-levels, but I found out that each of them was well able to write correct answers without absorbing the phonic principles or retaining the words beyond the end-of-unit test. Like passing the material from the eyes to the hand without going anywhere near the brain. I have tried 5th grade history, but I did not care for their odd way of writing, referring to each historical figure as "Mr. Columbus", "Mr. Washington", and so on. Again, I found that those of my students who had used it were able to find and write in the correct answers most of the time without really understanding/remembering the material - even with daily, weekly, or pre-quiz discussions about it. I've tried 6th, 7th, and 8th grade sciences. The students who used these found them to be way easy, not much thinking or studying involved in order to get near-perfect scores on all quizzes and tests. The courses were completed with about a month left to go in the school year. I've had students who had used Paces for a couple of years elsewhere, come to me, and beg me not to put them in Paces again. So I didn't -- and their standardized test scores went way up. I really don't care for the cartoons. My kids who've used Paces mostly ignore them because they feel they're silly. Learning Bible verses is a good thing, but the ones in the Paces bear no relation to the material in the lessons and are just "stuck in" - might be better if they were put into separate courses on character-building rather than imposed in every Pace of every subject -- IN MY OPINION. All that said, I'm sure that I will use some of ACE again, depending on which student(s) it might fit better than other stuff I choose. For instance, I may find that ACE fits that student struggling with 2nd grade reading (the one I mentioned earlier) for some subjects if he stays with me for a few more years. I know there are others here who use them and like them, and I do not fault them for that or in any way want to put them down for their choices. But all I can tell you about is MY experience with Paces. My preferences: CLE (especially reading, LA, math), R&S (English, spelling, H&G, science), even Lifepacs (Bible, science, H&G but NOT LA or math), also CLP for some subjects, depending.
I am trying ACE this year with my 1st and 10th grader. My 10th grader had struggled with A BEKA (I love A BEKA) and he hated school. Using ACE for him has been a BIG, GIGANTIC relief to him and to myself. He really likes them. He took the tests and we placed him accordingly. My 2st grader loves it, too. She went through the 1st grade in 2 months and have already started the 2nd grade. I was told to let her go and do not stop her because she will slow down in the later grades. Every child is different. My 1st/2nd grader would probably do well in A BEKA, but she loves to learn. My best friend has used this for 2 years now and loves it. Hope this helps you.
I am using ACE Language Arts material for my 5th grader. I needed something more independant this year so I could concentrate on teaching the younger ones to read. The cartoon character's done bother us none or the memory verse. It wasn't not an easy open and go as I had planned because I am use to always having a TM and there isn't one. There is just student workbooks and answer books. There is no extra explanations anywheres and the yahoo group I found for ACE isn't helpful. Once we sat down and actually read all the little comic strips it got easier to use because it does explain what to do in the strips. I used FLL 1-4 and she tested halfway thru ACE's 4th grade. We just finished 4th grade and she has started 5th grade. It was between Rod and Staff and ACE and I went with ACE because it's written to the student. She does Word Building, Creative Writing & Literature and English on her own while I work with the younger two and then I go over the work and she fixes what she missess which isn't a whole lot thankfully.
My grandma used ACE for me in 1st through 8th grade. I went into public school for 9th grade, and the transition was very smooth. I was behind in math, though, because I never was able to get through the 8th grade math by myself. My grandma wasn't able to teach me algebra. I used ACE Bible reading (It is in the King James version.) and spelling for second grade son. My son liked the color and the little stories. I'd say that ACE can be a little boring and perhaps too easy for some students. However, it does provide a good foundation of the basics. It was easy for my grandma because they kept track of all the records, and she didn't have to worry about making report cards or keeping up with state standards. All she had to do was send the tests to them once a year. I would say to buy a pace or two to see if it is a good fit for you before investing a lot of money. And I agree that the level may be lower than other book choices.
We tried a few when ds was in 6th grade and dd was in 3rd. Neither really enjoyed them, but now that they are 6th and 9th grade, they have asked to do them for some subjects again next year. The reasons they say they prefer the pace format is that they want to be able to open up the workbooks and know just how much they are expected to complete each day without having to wait for my individual attention to present lessons. I think we will be using paces or Alpha Omega's lifepacs...or CLE's workbooks, not sure which .....for science especially. We just want to simplify more than anything, and I know that was a huge benefit when we used paces before.
We never used it, but I've heard several reports from others. It seems that it's very rigid, and tests simply verify that students learned verbatim. Personally, I don't like such an approach. I prefer my children to think outside the box, not inside it. In general, I'm not for a formulaic approach.
That is why we will only be using it for one or two subjects, Steve. We didn't do all the scripture memory or other monotonous, gratuitous stuff. I don't care for the overall approach, but it serves a purpose and you can tweak it to fit your likes/dislikes. We'll use something like this for the get-it-done-and-over-with classes. Unfortunately for my ds14, that includes science. He LOVES science, but not the school work part of it. He'd just as soon do the work separately from his inquisitive study on his own that he does not care to quantitate nor qualitate.
I attended a Christian school from 2nd-6th grade that used the ACE curriculum. In my opinion, it is very dry. It is all about memorizing what you read, as opposed to actually "learning" anything. I attended 7th grade @ a different Christian school that used ABEKA & I was way behind at first. As a student, I ended up loving ABEKA. As a parent, I am not using it with DS due the $$$. In the pursuit of finding a science & SS curriculum for us this year, I did check out ACE. I looked at their sample pages & had bad flash-backs of the years I spent with them. My Jr. year of highschool, I had a part-time job (so I could pay my tuition) & went back to the CS with the ACE system so I could do 2 years in 1 because I knew they were that easy! So, I graduated @ 16 & have always felt like I cheated somehow because I deliberately took the easy route.
I really tried to like ACE. This is our first year homeschooling and I used ACE in high school at a private school so that was my first choice. My daughter was 5 when I tested her just out of private school using abeka. She tested into 3rd-4th grade in everything. I didn't want to put her too ahead so I put her in 2nd grade paces in everything. She finished the entire half of second grade in one month. It was really boring to her as well. The way they word things doesnt encourage critical thinking at all. It will say something like this. Sam went to the park. where did sam go? All questions are like that. Its read the simple question and answer without thinking. We switched to CLE and it was sooo much better. They actually have questions to get the kids thinking and ask them to draw or write something based on what they have in their own mind. I love the way CLE mixes things up so she has to really pay attention to the question. I did use ACE in high school and have to say it was really easy to just memorize the answers. All questions were just repeated in the test so I always go 100 or close to it. But I regret I didnt really learn much by doing that.
Quite frankly, if a question doesn't force a child to think, then what's the point? Such questions imply indoctrination, not education.
All you can do is try it. When I first began home educating 18 years ago that was the first thing we tried. None of us liked it. Switched to ABeka and we were happy. I still use some ABeka plus a mixture of other things including many, many real/whole books The people that like paces really do like them a lot. Everyone is different.
