For my 10yr ds, we use ACE (Accelerated Christian Education), otherwise known as School of Tomorrow. It is a self-paced, self-study type of program. The subjects include Math, English, Social Studies, Science, Word Building. We are also doing two electives including Bible Reading and Literature & Creative Writing. For each year of school, the student completes 12 workbooks (known as PACEs) in each subject. For instance, in 4th grade, there are 12 Math PACEs to complete for the school year, 12 English, 12 Science, etc. He sets goals each day for the number of pages he does in each workbook with a target of four pages per workbook per day.
At first, I did not think I would like using a “boxed” curriculum for every subject. I was really nervous that I would not be able to teach my son to “think outside the box” and be creative. I also did not want him to be bored or hassled with “busy work”. But, as we have learned more about the program and have used it more (this is our third year) I am really enjoying it and am so glad we decided to go with ACE for this particular child.
One thing that I realized is that I really need to prepare him to live an adult life. Not that he needs to be an adult NOW, but that he needs to be ready when adult life sets in. Sometimes, our jobs are boring but the job still needs to be done. Folding the laundry is boring! But I still need to be disciplined enough to do it or we all walk around looking like a wrinkled mess. When I worked outside the home, I was blessed to have a job that I truly enjoyed performing. There were still parts of that job that were boring and tedious and even “busy work” by my estimation at times. I still needed to get those jobs done too and then get on with the fun stuff. I want my son to have a fun and exciting job where he is never bored. But, if he has to take any job that comes his way in order to put food on the table, I want him to have learned how to “suck it up”, be a man, and just do it. I want him to be equipped to do whatever is thrown at him in his dream job. In order to have that happen, sometimes he might be bored with his work. Not always, but sometimes.
I say all that, not to say that ACE is boring – I really don’t think that it is, overall. But, I can see why some home school families shy away from the workbook method because they are concerned about boring the kids. This was just one of the mental obstacles that I had to break through as we used this curriculum for our son. There are days he is excited about what he is learning and days that he is not and he is okay with both feelings! I think that’s a very mature characteristic. He knows how to sit in a seat for longer than 30 minutes. That’s something he’ll need to do as he grows!
Another reason ACE works very well for us is because it is based on the King James Bible. There is verse memorization in every workbook (or PACE), there are character traits taught in each PACE, there are life lessons in each PACE. Each and every day, good and right morals and values are being taught and upheld as he reads each page. I can’t tell you what a blessing that is and what peace it brings to my heart!
I have a large age gap between my 10yr ds and the next child – my 4yr dd. ACE helps me to make sure ds always gets a full school day in no matter what is going on in our lives. We have four children altogether and sometimes one is sick or crying. Sometimes, we need to take unexpected trips out of the home. We can always take the PACEs with us and get school done for the day. I have peace of mind knowing that he is getting the education he needs and deserves even if life is trying its hardest to get in the way.
Overall, I really love ACE and it is working very well for our family! Here is the link to their website if you’d like to take a look. Otherwise, I would be more than happy to answer any questions or just talk more about the program and our experiences!
http://schooloftomorrow.com/Default.aspx
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Thank you so much for this blog. I was trying to get our school year organized and was feeling overwhelmed by ACE, and was sorry I had bought it. Once I read your blog, I felt my blood pressure dropping immediately. I will stick with it and give it a shot.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Carrie Stone
Thank you so much for stopping by Carrie! I am so glad I could help! That is my favorite thing about this website – helping other moms! I’ve had so many ladies in my life that have guided me along that I am so happy to be able to pass that along to others!
I love that ACE can be student-directed. As long as you get them in a good habit of doing their work each day, things run so smoothly and you can be confident they are getting a good education.
These article on ACE have been awesome and so helpful. We have just ordered and are waiting for the materials (grade 1) and your articles have given me some good tools to keep the ‘freaking out’ moments to a minimum
) So thank you!
I also wanted to ask… you mentioned in another article listing your 1st grader’s curriculum that she’s also learning German. Do you have any suggestions for materials to teach German to a 6 year old? I do not know German at all, but want to learn as well as teach her, as we have German friends.
Thanks so much for stopping by!! I am so glad you were helped!
As for learning German, you and I are in the same boat – I knew NOTHING before I started!! But, if you take the right tools and add in a little determination, you will be utterly surprised at how much you can accomplish! We set aside 30 minutes out of each day to sit on the couch together and learn German because repetition is key. There are quite a few websites with free information, I’ll link to them here …
http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/ger.htm
http://webgerman.com/germlinks/ (You can get sort of lost in this one – you’ll have to look at it before you sit down with your child(ren) and make sure you know where you want to go just so you don’t waste your time and their interest as you look around for what you wanted – learned that by experience unfortunately!)
http://www.ukgermanconnection.org/kids/?location_id=868 (fun cartoon style website with games to play!)
http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=235&t=ec&c=38 (Kids songs in German, some have a video, some have an audio file to play)
My mother-in-law still lives in Germany and she picks up lots of really really easy books (think baby board books with about one sentence per page and only 10 pages total) for us to read. Now, this one requires some translation from someone who already knows German. Maybe your German friends live close enough to help you out with that? They may know where you can obtain the books as well – I haven’t had to look around to purchase those so I’m not sure where to start. If they don’t know, I can look at the back of my books and find the company name and see if they have a website.
But, by far, the most beneficial thing we have used has been an audio course online! My husband just said to me yesterday that he is quite amazed at how much I have learned since I started using it!
It’s called RocketGerman – Here is a link to their order page that includes 10 freebies when you order.
ACE uses the Rosetta Stone program which you could also purchase from their website – I’ve never had the chance to use it but I have heard great things about the program. Here’s a link to the ACE German page – https://aceweb.schooloftomorrow.com/store/dept.asp?dept_id=70001&elite_category=M1&elite_subject=602
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions!
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