Crazy homeschool family shenanigans... 6 kids, chickens, sheep and other animals... Frugal nut, wearing my tightwaddery with pride... Join me on this journey to keep learning!
@angieval8986 ACE visits our local homeschool convention every year. They have a coupon for 10% off plus free shipping for the purchase of 36+ Paces. I have to redeem within 30 days of the convention. So I usually purchase everything we need all at once with that. It came out to ~$950 for 4 kids, which isn't terrible. I already had many score keys for these subjects, , and I don't buy score keys for level 2-3.
Thank you! I also watched your videos in the past. We have been HSing for the past 4 years. I am not using ACE, but still consider it. I have an almost 9th grader. I just wanted to say, that I am amazed that you already have all the needed credits (correct me if I'm wrong). Up here in Canada, children can only earn credits during high school years and the total is 30 to graduate (and homeschool credits are not even validated in public system). So the children (in public school especially) get totally stressed out about earning them on time. Each credit is equal to 110+ hrs of education. How does it work for you?
@annak4314 I'm in Texas, so my homeschool is considered a private school. I was also a private school teacher for 6 years, so I understand how things work. If Algebra is taken before high school, it's generally counted as a high school credit. My daughter spent 3 years learning Japanese intensively. I was not going to make her repeat or extend her language study during her high school years, so I counted that as 2 credits. We went very heavy on work during her 9th grade year, which allowed me to lighten up these last two years. And our high school diploma here in TX is 22-26 credits, so that definitely helps. She will end up with around 24. :) Thank you commenting!! ❤️
I love how you pick and choose pace sets by child. I never though if this and always just stuck with the grade level. I did consider picking and choosing each PACE’s based on what they covered.
This curriculum is so underrated! I don’t know why more people don’t share about it! Andrea Mills did a super inspiring series on it. Thank you for putting it out there.
Hi there, Good to see you again. I remember watching your videos about ACE years ago. It’s good to see that you are still using it. Here in California where I live it is very rare to find any homeschool friends using it. I like it and it gives us the ability to do all the other things we like to do with our lives. I’m glad we have a homeschool community to do fun stuff with and access to lots of extracurricular classes. Wishing you all a blessed year.
Hi! Since you have good experience with ACE I’d thought I’d ask your opinion on something. I have a reluctant reader going into 4th grade. My idea was to have her use the social studies and science paces for reading and comprehension. Plus the added fact that it’s so hard to find a Christian Science program that’s not experiment heavy. However I still plan to read history stories to her as well as Christian Science devotionals.
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but Mrs Andrea Mills passed away in 2019 her youngest was just a few months old. Her husband Tom has continued with homeschooling along with the help of his mom, and just last year I believe it was, he put three of his children school because he has just too much going on with his own business.
I am aware. I remember watching when she passed away. Tom is doing an amazing job with 9 children. I'm so glad he kept all her ACE videos up to help homeschool moms.
I have a 7 and 10 year old. We are currently in our first year of homeschooling. We haven’t dove into science or history too extensively yet. We enjoy doing Bible, Science and History as family style learning. Do you feel that any of these subjects through ACE could be taught that way?
I personally would not recommend using ACE family style. It's written at the child's level, for them to practice reading and writing skills. For family style learning, there are lots and LOTS of other curriculum, including just following your children's interests and checking out books from the library. My choice for history would be Beautiful Feet Books. And for science, not sure... maybe some nature studies Charlotte Mason style or just picking a topic (insects or electricity, for example) and checking out lots of books, watching videos, and making projects.
I hope you and your family are doing well. I have tried in the past many times to do Charlotte Mason stuff and I burn out and feel like a failure and I just have two kids!! We use Sonlight but I can manage it with two kids. If I had more I would for sure consider ACE or something like that. Master Books seems very popular with people nowadays.
We have tried Masterbooks and I didn't love it. Every time I look at Sonlight I just think it looks absolutely AMAZING! So glad it works well for you! Don't feel like a failure! You need to find out what works for ALL of you, including mom!
This is wonderful! We homeschooled our thirteen children using A.C.E. I did try some other curriculums and have supplemented with others; but I went back to A.C.E. because it helps us to be consistent. The main reason I like it is because it is Bible based. Knowing the Bible is more important than any other book. Following Jesus is more important than education!
Hi! I've been working intensely on a crime documentary, and I value your opinion on the project. If you could take some time to watch the video and share your thoughts, I would be grateful.
I love how you said, "THESE are the kinds of things we need to be putting in our children's hearts!" YES. Such a good reminder and encouragement. They don't need more mindless inllentertainment, but hope and encouragement in Jesus!
The 2 curricula are not similar at all, imho. However, here are the reasons 1) Longevity. ACE has been around for over 50 years. When I began ACE, Masterbooks was extremely new. ACE has thousands of successful graduates all over the globe. 2) There is plenty of criticism of ACE, and they don't let it bother them. On Masterbooks' Facebook page I noticed the admin would shut down and delete any questions or problems people had about the curriculum, even among people who were currently sold on it and wholeheartedly using it. It felt disingenuous to me. 3) We used their science curriculum. The texts were beautiful and affordable, but we found the curriculum itself was poorly written and asked obscure questions that even I couldn't find in the text. My kids have refused to even look at the textbooks again. Wasted money. I do own both Answers series (the one for kids and the one for youth), but I will not spend money on their curriculum again. ACE has the child learning 12 memory verses and 12 character qualities per subject per year, built in to their regular subjects. The curriculum is straightforward and easy to understand. The work in the younger ages is intentionally easier to build confidence, and jumps in difficulty at the appropriate times. It's just extremely well put together imho. That said, most of my children are doing other curriculum this year (beautiful feet books, one year adventure novel, guest hollow, ctcmath, good and beautiful, Christian Light education, sabbath mood). I only have one doing ACE this school year. However I will likely never ever use Masterbooks again. Not a fan at all.
Both have their challenges, but I find family style a lot more challenging. We are doing family style learning his year for Spanish and history. I'm in charge of the pace and the homework, and I have to determine how much work each child/age can handle. Using the Paces felt SO much easier to me, and my kids really LIKE being independent. However I really wanted to have a year or 2 of family style before my big kids get too big.
ACE is not a quality education. It’s trash. So if You’re doing that cause it’s easier and you can’t cut it as a home teacher send them to school so they can get a real education. What you’re doing is not fair to them
Yes. We only made it through about 108 of Learning to Read. He absolutely hated CLE but LOVED the Paces. He did them for 2nd-4th and we're taking a little break this year, but may come back to them.later.
I'm sorry, we don't use that system. I'm unfamiliar with it, and I prefer not to have the chores and rewards in our home tied to schoolwork/curriculum, because we don't use ACE exclusively all the time. . Andrea Mills had some videos where she shared how she used the privilege system in their home. Thank you for your comment!!
Interesting that you mention Abeka for PreK-6 and ACE for 7-12. I was considering sending my son to a private Christian school. I've been talking with the Pastors wife who deals with admissions. Told her I do ACE with my son. In much conversation she said she did it from grades 7-12. Hmm....
I went to an ace school and loved it but it was just too strict. I'd get a demerit and my green dot taken away just because I didn't circle a page number
I did CM this last year, I only have one school age child and even I burned out so bad. I'm running to ACE, I felt like a failure but your video made me realize I am not alone and we didn't fail, prep heavy curriculums are just hard!
Oh hugs! This makes me nervous... We are taking a break from ACE this coming year to do some family schooling together (Spanish and Ancient History). Makes me a little nervous, but we've done ACE the last 2 years so I've had a nice break from prepping and read alouds. I'm planning to have my 13&14yo help with the reading aloud, but not gonna lie... I'm nervous! Enjoy your break from CM. ACE has been such a HUGE blessing to our family when we've needed reliable school work and a break for me. ❤️❤️
We have used ctcmath for the past 5 years, and I'm really pleased with it. My youngest 2 do not use it yet, but my 4 oldest (4rh, 7th, 8th & 10th grades) use it.
I like having my kids on ACE from 2nd grade, to now at 4th. We've become worried how it feels they are so behind. When compared to other Christian curriculum or public school standards. This has been stressful and weighs on me.
Do you plan to put them in another school soon? If not, don't worry about this. ACE is designed like this on purpose. It builds confidence and independence. Trust me, grades 5-8 REALLY step it up in difficulty. But by then the student is trained in how the curriculum works (self checking, tests, planning their week) and they love the characters, so they're ready. It's extremely unfortunate that mainstream schooling has increased in difficulty in the lower grades, because that's when kids actually like school. The consequence of that is that kids are completely burned out at 10 or 11 years old. Did you know that the math from ages 5-10 can be learned in just a few weeks? So if you did no schooling in math until age 10, your child could catch up to 5th grade math in a matter of weeks. Don't sweat lower and middle elementary. Make sure you take lots of field trips and do lots of messy projects together. It will get harder and more rigorous soon enough. Enjoy the younger years as much as possible because you won't get them back. Hugs! You're doing a great job!
agree with the other response beleive me they will learn this and retain it, not just to pass a state test for the moment. when my daughter finished the program years ago she was ahead in all subjects and out scored her public school friends on college intrance exams. now her son is being homeschooled with this program we removed him from public school 2 years ago he is now actually ahead of the public school now.
www.acediagnostictest.com/diagnostictest/ You can create a free family profile and test each child. Be sure to read all the instructions. I usually limit testing time to an hour a day and do it over a week or 2. (We have left and returned to ACE several times and we've done the diagnostic testing a lot lol) I usually sit next to them and if I know they know a concept, I reword it into a way we've learned it before. I also take notes so I can go over things that confuse them. You don't have to do that at all, just sit them down and go. Just telling you what I've found helpful. ☺️ If you need anything else, call ACE headquarters. They're incredibly nice and helpful in my experience. And I hate talking on the phone lol!
Thank you for making this video couldn't agree more about everything mentioned in your video especially about not pushing your kids ahead instead let them be at the level that's right for them.
I still use CLE for K-1st (mostly because I have the materials, I'm familiar with it, and I feel it's thorough, although I usually slow 1st down over 2 years). I felt that the 2nd grade language arts was developmentally inappropriate for my children. They were supposed to be writing reports, and my oldest was in tears. Also the lesson length is clearly defined in CLE. With ACE, the student and parent can define the lesson length. Some days they may just do one or two pages, another day they could knock out 8. With ACE, the elementary years are designed to feel easy and build the child's confidence and enjoyment. With CLE school was a depressing chore. With ACE, there's a little story and characters. The older years gently and gradually become much more rigorous. I hope this helps. If CLE is working for you, keep it up! It's a solid, inexpensive program and I love supporting the Mennonite community.
Thank you. I’ve done Charlotte Mason for three years but am feeling burnt out. I grew up with ACE at a private school and have been wanting to go to it. Thanks for the encouragement. I feel like we’re kindred spirits. May Christ protect our kids in Him.
Hugs! We have a very Charlotte Mason-esque home life, but all of us were so burned out with me having to monitor everything. ACE has given me freedom to do what CM calls "mother culture," and demonstrate a love of learning as I learn a ton of new things (canning food, making sourdough and kombucha, etc). It also gives my kids a ton of free time to pursue their interests uninterrupted for hours each day (after they knock out their book work). We occasionally stray back to CM for a subject or 2, and ACE is always there to fall back on. Love it!
Thank you for talking about worldviews and the literature books that high schoolers are "expected" to read. I've had similar thoughts and questions. It's encouraging to hear your thoughts.
Thank you for your comment! The older I get and the longer I homeschool, the more I see the hand of God providing everything each child needs at just the right time, including HIS wisdom. 🥰
I used the ACE totally for one year with my children. They didn't get a thing out of it. It was just get the pace done so we can start another. My son who was in high school level described it as mind numbing. They had previously been using a literature based history etc., where they read books in their own. I did not do it with them. I was schooled in an ACE school and I don't remember much from it. I had a hard time getting the paces finished within the three weeks timeframe. It was a push to get finished in time to graduate. So, while the ACE curriculum was familiar to me, when it came to using it in our homeschool I have been kind of turned off because of my own experience and it didn't fly well for my children. It was simple and in some ways easier for me when they used it, but they weren't getting much from it. They hated it when there word wasn't the exact answer the score key said, things like that. But once again, I'm tempted to try to use the ACE for certain subjects because what we're using isn't getting done and it seems simpler. But usually it ends up not so simple and the child struggles 🥺
I totally understand what you're saying! I have 6 kids and 3 of them are using parts of it, but I'm always flexible on what is currently working. I just switched up my 7th grader's LA curriculum (she was using Learning Language Arts through Literature, and just hated it. She requested a Funschooling journal, so we got that instead). I find that when the child is invested in their learning and really enjoying it, it makes everything SO much easier on everyone! My high schooler has only used ACE biology. For everything else, I've pieced together several different things. I was just not happy with the idea of ACE for her high school experience. My 8th grader loves ACE and if he wants to continue with it through high school, I'll absolutely let him. ☺️
@@mycupoverflows7811 I have one child left to homeschool. She's in high school and I have been considering using the Biology and the Health. I also have always been flexible and using what works for each child. It has been a hodge podge of various curriculum for sure 😅
I honestly don't know about this. I would contact Ace Ministries and ask them. The few times I've interacted with them, they've been incredibly kind and helpful! www.aceministries.com/contact
Ace is an amazing curriculum,. I have used it on and off throughout homeschooling my children. I wish at times I never succumbed to homeschool pressure on using others. In the end ACE always won out in the ease of use for the parent and child. AS for books like 1984 , Brave New World. I have found that books like that helped my children recognize when these things were happening. Many of these concepts are communism and it helps them recognize it when it's happening rather then to fall prey to it's evil (which is very easy to do these days). Those types of books aren't even allowed in schools and if you've noticed, children aren't realizing now that they are falling prey to communist ideology because they aren't reading books like this. I have graduated three of my daughters that I've homeschooled and we have many conversations about the things that are happening now to what we've read in those books. Not that it's making these things happen but to be aware of the things that actually are happening. None of my children have fallen prey to the communist and evil ideas because of being aware of what is going on by people who have wrote stories about these things.
I'm sure this is an older video, but I've homeschooled for a long time ago. If I could go back , I would have used ACE from the get go. I spend many years trying other curricula, getting burnt out and going back to ACE. I'm down to my last child and that's what we're finishing up with, ACE. I work outside of the home so I need for her to be far more independent then her other sisters had to be in the past. Seeing my older children graduate and do great in life. I don't worry at all anymore. I used to , wondered if it was enough. Honestly, ACE was and is enough.
I really appreciate you sharing this! I definitely feel like I should be more involved, but grading tests and assigning some extra reading seems to be all I'm capable of right now. It really is an excellent curriculum! I love your wonderful perspective, and I'm really glad my 2 oldest sons have chosen to stick with it this year, because I know they're getting a solid education.
Thank you for this video. I am an ACE graduate and have been using it for my children's homeschooling for over 15 years. I have tried other things but keep coming back. I really needed this encouragement to help me keep my eyes on the goal.
That is so great to hear! I love hearing from ACE graduates who have chosen to use ACE with their children! I have 2 children who have chosen to use all ACE (except math) this year, and one who is using it for science and social studies. ACE is such a great solid core for our family! We use it to suit us and don't let it restrict us from trying other things, but it certainly helps fill in the gaps many years. And makes things so much easier for mom!
I'm a new HS Momma. I just withdrew my daughter and she's entering 3rd grade this year. The options are overwhelming to choose from. As a single Mom who works this is daunting. My daughter had an IEP in place for dyslexia at her school but due to intense years of bullying and low academic performance and our faith, the Lord has placed it heavy upon me to pull her out of the public school system. I'm really needing something to help record keep (like online) but also that has workbooks like this. I can combine I know but it gets so expensive. It's only her (1 child) so it shouldn't be too bad to record keep. But do you have any recommendations? I don't have time to lesson plan and I need at least for this first year to be convenient. Thanks!!!
There are now E-paces if you really want to use ACE. There are also online options like Time4Learning. I don't know what state you're in, so I don't know your requirements for reporting, but with a child like yours, and at her age, if you don't have to keep scores or grade her, I think that would be better. Look into audiobooks, project-based learning, etc. Being dyslexic, I don't know if the Paces would be the best choice for her. Possibly more video and audio based learning, and she can show her work by typing a paragraph (utilizing spell check) or talk-to-text, or drawing pictures or telling you about what she learned orally. My heart goes out to you! Do you know any homeschoolers in your area who you can get some mentoring from? I would find groups in your area and ask for help and ideas from veteran homeschoolers who have walked in your shoes and navigated the requirements, especially in your state. Here in Texas we don't have to report to anyone, so we have a ton of freedom of how to impart information and learning. My kids mostly drive their own learning and I support them.
@@mycupoverflows7811 Thank you! I live in TX as well :) Her dyslexia is on the lower end and not as severe, but she super struggles in math. Like she is still not grasping the basic addition and subtraction. The school refused to help her in math saying her testing scores didn't "scale" her in needing help in that area and said she is guessing at the answers b/c she was feeling overwhelmed. I'm just wanting to have an online program that will record keep her daily work/time for report card/transcript purposes in case she wants to go to college, that's what I mean about reporting. I'm a member of the HSLDA and know we don't have to report in TX as far as homeschooling goes. I am so overwhelmed at all the choices and online curriculum is expensive and actual workbook curriculum is as well, so it's hard to know what to choose! I really appreciate all of your advice and input 😊
This will be my 2nd yr homeschooling. I just found out about this program while I was searching a mastery program because my kids DID NOT do well w/ the spiral approach of Masterbooks. Are the printable worksheets for higher grades required work, or extra practice?
For most subjects, the printable sheets are an alternate way to work out the answers if the child prefers pencil and paper to sitting in front of the computer. They're multiple choice and then the child enters the answers to check their work. For high school Geometry, all the work is done on paper and needs to be checked by the parent, I believe. My oldest will be using this for Geometry and this is what I've observed so far looking over it. I will have 3 kids using it this year and we still really like it. I like the kids having years away from it to have practice with pencil and paper, but it's such a great program that we've had a continual subscription for several years now.
We do! My 13 & 9yos have requested to continue with it, and my 12yo is using it for science and social studies this upcoming year. My 15yo is doing something different for high school, but she used ACE biology and plans to attempt to CLEP biology in a month or 2.
I use Christian Light Education for K-1st and I'm still learning my 5&6yos' learning styles. We may do some project -based curriculum as they age, or we may use ACE. I'll be playing it by ear.
Just saw your question and thought I'd respond again. My 3rd, 9th, and 10th graders are using all ACE except math this year, at their request. My 6th grader is doing level 5 Bible, and my 2nd grader will start level 2 Paces when we finish CLE 1st grade. 😊 my oldest is doing dual credit for her senior year.
You can purchase this curriculum through ACE ministries website, Christianbook.com, or Curriculum Express. I usually wait for coupons and compare prices and combine with free shipping.
I think many people don't really understand Charlotte Mason. They simplify her as lots of reading aloud, but there is so much more to her philosophy and to do it truly well it would be overwhelming. We used Notgrass From Adam to Us for 6th grade (not sure if that was the company you looked into) and they also taught History of the Christian church very well throughout the book. I learned so much while reading it to my daughter. I am a former public school teacher and one of the things I love about homeschooling is the ability to tailor learning to each child as needed. I love the concept of Aces and think it would actually be great to teach in a school that uses it. There is a school opening in our area that, like you mentioned, uses Abeka for the lower grades and Ace for the upper grades.
Yes I agree about Charlotte Mason. I have a couple of friends who very strictly follow her schedule/style/philosophy, and it just sounds like pure slavery to me. 😂🤦🏻♀️ I love and have adapted to include some things, like small chunks and living books, but to do it all would suck the life out of our homeschool. Our co-op used Notgrass Uncle Sam and You this year to study government. I like the information and the pictures and the Notgrass family.
