ACE Curriculum: Good for Some Subjects, Not for Others

by Amelie
(Quebec, Canada)

Visitor Ace Curriculum Review: We first learned of this curriculum through an ACE accredited private school my children attended for 4 months before we decided to homeschool.

We liked what we saw so we continued with that program at home. My son is doing grades 1/2 and my daughter grades 4/5.

There are a few things I like about it: it's self-paced, and I don't technically have anything to teach; I'm there more as a resource.

Everything is well explained and there is lots of practice and review.

By the time the child gets to the self-test at the end of each book, they should have mastered the content and be ready for the actual test with a pass rate of at least 80%.

It's very easy to keep track of grades and ACE will actually make out an actual report card for your records. The science books are our favorite. Each book covers one particular topic, like a unit study, and is from a creationism perspective. The English and Word Building are also great; they are well structured and show well how to apply the grammar rules and vocabulary to every day life.

On the down side: the math is EXTREMELY repetitive. I personally don't think you need to do addition/subtraction/multiplication etc. a hundred times to understand it. I scratch out at least half of the problems otherwise my kids get really irritated.

The Social Studies are VERY cheesy, especially in the lower grades. The good thing about it is that the vocabulary is repetitive and follows with the science so that's good for early readers. But content wise... you have stuff like "Baba says baa baa" (I'm NOT kidding!). My son rolls his eyes and practically gags each time the sheep comes up :-) Finally, the characters throughout the books are so "perfect" that it sets this totally unattainable standard for the kids, making them feel like they can never be good enough.

For next year, I'll be keeping the English, Word Building and Science for sure but will be turning to other curriculum for the other subjects.

Favorite Home School Curriculum Choices By Subject

Top Computer-based Curriculum for Grades 3-12

Great Independent Study Curriculum Choices