Several years ago, I found out that Alpha Omega had another publishing branch. I thought it was called Pathway or Pathways, which I remember because I thought, well, the Amish aren't going to sue them over the name. At that time, they were putting out and promoting a secular form of Lifepacs/SOS for public schools, which were essentially Lifepacs/SOS stripped of all religion. They were promoting it mainly for alternative-type schools, charter schools, and so on, and totally NOT for homeschools. I thought the name of the curriculum started with a D, but that's all that I can remember. Does anybody know what this is, and if they're still in business?? I just found out today about another publisher, too. It's called Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum (and I just found out CBD carries it too). It's aimed at 7th grade and up, written for those kids who are "father-challenged" with an eye toward a mentoring style that can help them catch up in school and go on to have a decent life. The founder is a Christian, and was apparently closely associated with ACE for a long time, because the samples look a lot like ACE PACES kicked up a notch, but still with teacher-checks and "write the life principle" instead of "write the Scripture verse" and much less just-read-and-regurgitate, although the samples I saw still had a lot of matching, multiple-choice, and fill in the blank, but it also had more sentence and several-sentence type answers and thinking. His blog mentions that he designed and directed the International Student Conference which is a huge part of ACE schools, and he was Vice President of Development (or something like that) at "a large publishing company" for over 20 years. Anybody know about either of these?
I used Paradigm Accelerated Curriculum with my kids and tutoring students. We used the English and the Integrated Chemistry and Physics. My kids really liked it, and they did well on the tests. It was very easy to use. It has a lot of encouraging quotes in it, and also contains very good moral stories. The Chemistry/Physics course would not be good for a student who will be planning to be a chemistry or physics major in college. It does not require high level math skills. Both of my kids have learning disabilities in math. It was a great match for them. We all learned a lot and enjoyed the process. Each course is broken up into booklets. Your student will read the lesson in one booklet, and complete the written work in another booklet. The teacher gets a packet of papers that include answer key to workbooks, quizzes/answer key, and tests/answer keys. It is really easy to use. The material is already broken into daily lessons. If you have any specific question, please let me know. Blessings, Susan
Thanks, Susan. I rather thought the Paradigm looked (the few samples I could see) looked a lot like ACE PACES. Anybody else heard anything about the Lifepac offshoot?
Okay, tracked it down (again! because I keep forgetting what it's called) -- it's Odysseyware. I found their Facebook page, and I see that people have been posting that they want it for homeschool.
I don't even think the company sells it to homeschoolers, they certainly don't appear to be trying to, because they've geared it to public schools -- charter, alternative, credit recovery, virtual, whatever -- I think they're missing a huge market! They could package it like SOS... And I spelled it wrong, as I usually do: Odysseyware. I'm pretty sure they first came out with workbooks like Lifepacs, but now it appears to be ALL computer-based, not a workbook in sight.
The Paradigm materials might turn out to be a good resource, better than ACE (I mean, better for us, for those students who need another alternative) because in the samples I saw, there wasn't a cartoon in sight! And broken up into daily lessons... Tell me, Susan, what about the lessons being interrupted with biographies of "father-challenged" people who managed to succeed in life anyway. How intrusive is this? I mean, if you're trying to learn chemistry/physics and this "sidetrack" comes up that has nothing to do with chem/phys.... It's one of the things I'm not crazy about with ACE.
From what I remember the stories in the Chemistry/Physics were all about chemists and physicists. They were in a roughly chronological order. The student learns about chemistry and physics as he learns about the great men who made the discoveries. It worked out really well for my kids. I wish I still had some of the workbooks, so I could give you a concrete example. My kids liked the way it taught the subjects. We did not find the stories intrusive at all. Now, the English booklets had stories about different great men from what I remember. They used the stories to present the vocabulary for the unit. We liked both of the subjects that we did. I hope that helps some. Of course, the grammar and writing was covered as well. Blessings, Susan
You can buy the textbooks ($8.19) and activity booklets ($6.45) one at a time at Christian Book Distributors (CBD). Here is a link to a booklet that lets you look inside. I hope this link takes you directly to the booklet views. http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_slideshow?sku=761612&actual_sku=761612 You can look at the booklets by clicking on the picture of the booklet. At least, that is what I did for the two that I viewed. Bountiful blessings, Susan
By the way, the Chemistry and Physics is more expensive because it is two years worth of work. They give you options for awarding credit.
