“What curriculum do you use to homeschool your children?”
This is a question I have had from several inquirers. Most have asked out of curiosity while a few others inquired so they would know what curriculum to use to educate their children.
Others have asked, having heard of or read reviews on Accelerated Christian Education and needed genuine feedback from one who was using the system.
A few others just wondered what we were doing homeschooling our children and if they were really getting “schooled.”
For whatever reason for which you are reading this post, I hope that what I’m sharing will shed some light on this curriculum, helping you make an informed opinion or decision concerning it.
I will share a bonus ninth point that I hope will also be helpful in understanding the homeschooling system.
I also intend to share 3 things that we don’t really like about Accelerated Christian Education to give you a somewhat balanced review of Accelerated Christian Education as a curriculum.
Let’s get right into what we like about Accelerated Christian Education or ACE, in short.
- ACE is Biblical
For the Christian parent who’s desirous to see their child know God and relate personally with his Son Jesus Christ, a curriculum is a tool that helps facilitate this process.
When a curriculum as a tool helps point a child to a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, enhances character growth and development, and reinforces what I’m already doing as a parent: to disciple my child or children, that’s a curriculum I’ll definitely go for!
I love the fact that everything the child learns has a biblical basis behind it.
A case in point is science. The foundation of science in the PACES is the creation story.
*A PACE is a small bite-sized booklet that a child works on and completes before progressing. A child will only progress after mastery of the subject matter. A PACE will usually take a child two to three weeks to complete. PACE, an acronym, stands for Packet of Accelerated Christian Education.
The child learns that matter was created by God when God was creating all things.
We hence learn zoology and botany because the genesis of these is the creation story.
The parent or supervisor will often be helped to remember to look out for God-ordained opportunities to lead the child into a relationship with Jesus, in case they are not yet born again.
They are also helped to remember to counsel the child should there be a need.
Scripture is basically part of the curriculum. What with the scripture memory passages and the Bible stories and the constant reference to the Bible in the curriculum content? This helps the child to view everything they are learning in light of the Scriptures.
- ACE has a Strong Emphasis on Character Growth and Transformation
Apart from the fact that ACE is Biblical, this Curriculum helps a child work through sixty character qualities that embodied the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
By the time a child completes a grade, they’ve had the opportunity to interact with each of these character qualities.
As a parent, I find it easier to emphasize the character quality a child is learning and reflecting on because it’s emphasized right through a particular PACE.
The character qualities are also connected to a particular verse that enhances a child’s interaction with God’s Word.
As you and I know, the Word is our life. Focusing on character growth and transformation in light of God’s Word works to help a child learn to trust God for their own transformation.
- Children Learn from very Early to Work Independently
One of the strengths of the ACE Curriculum is teaching children to set goals each day.
The curriculum comes with what is called a Goal Card on which a student enters the number of pages they intend to complete on a given day for each subject.
They work towards completing those goals. They cross them out as soon as they are done.
I’ve seen this goal-setting work in other areas of my children’s lives.
They will set goals to complete chores. They’ll even set financial goals with the little money they earn.
I attribute this goal-setting trend to the fact that they’re accustomed to setting goals right from school.
It is then easier for a parent to reinforce this in the life of a child.
By the time they go to college, or they are young adults and not under your constant supervision, they get to set goals to accomplish their personal goals in life.
- Continuity of Learning Each Day Even in the Absence of the supervisor/ Parent
Picking from where I left off in the goal-setting aspect of the ACE Curriculum, I’ve found that a child learns to work independently as I indicated earlier.
If for some reason the parent must attend to a pressing issue on a given day, a child can still work even when the parent is not present. This is as opposed to a public setting where they have to wait for a teacher to come in order for learning to continue.
I will often ensure my children have set their goals then I can attend to what must be done. When I come back, I find they are still able to work unless they got stuck and need my help in a particular subject.
I must add that this doesn’t include Preschool to Grade 1. These are foundational years where they are learning to read and write and hence, they need your full attention.
I’ll talk about these foundational years with ACE in a future blog.
- Their Vocation Inclination Begins Taking Shape as they go through the Curriculum
I belong to a generation in our country that encouraged us to work hard and excel in order to pursue certain careers because of the monetary value attached to these careers.
This trend hasn’t stopped as career masters as they are commonly referred to in our schools, advise children on their career choices based on the lucrative value of a given career choice.
The ACE Curriculum came as a breath of fresh air in helping us pursue insightful conversations with our children when it comes to vocation and career choices.
The curriculum has within it stories of men and women who chose to do the will of God, choosing careers that aligned with God’s will over their lives.
I think of missionary stories such as those of Hudson Taylor, and Adoniram Judson, the story of the 5 martyrs murdered in the jungles of Ecuador – Through Gates of Splendor, and many other stories they do for their reading and literature.
These stories form triggers for conversations that help a child begin to think and reflect more on their vocation and career choices in the future.
- The child Learns at their Pace.
No two children are the same. They are each created by God uniquely with varying personalities and gifts.
Subjecting them to similar settings and environments and expecting them to perform the same can be a little daunting not just for the parent but for the child as well.
ACE Curriculum has been designed in a way that each child learns at their pace.
They progress individually as they master the content. The supervisor offers the child personalized help, not group help, whenever a child needs help in understanding a particular concept.
When working with the curriculum from the home environment, they are spared the competitive spirit that can sometimes plague a child who is generally slow in understanding concepts.
They have the freedom to work at their pace without undue outside pressure.
- A Solid Foundation for Learning to Read and Write
A few years ago, if you had told me to teach a Preschool class, I would have given you a good number of reasons why I can not do that. Included among them would be the fact that I am not good with little children.
Lo and behold, when I started both of my children on ACE Curriculum’s Preschool, at different times, I was honestly amazed at the rewarding experience.
It seemed like a miracle to see them begin to read effortlessly about 15 months later.
ACE’s Preschool Curriculum has such a fine foundation when it comes to readying a child to learn to read and write, and finally getting to do it.
The emphasis on a child learning and mastering the phonetic sounds in an exciting creative interactive way made the process a beautiful learning experience for me as well.
Equipped with the necessary letter cards with the right phonetic sounds on them and other visual aids and colorful PACES to enhance this, the child learned to read and write in a fun way.
I’d vouch for ACE’s foundational curriculum any day. I also loved the fact that our children started off at 5 years rather than the earlier years most children begin learning in our country.
- ACE Curriculum’s System of Rewarding Godly Character
THE ACE Curriculum rewards godly character to motivate a child to work towards growing in godly character more and more.
ACE has a merit system whereby a child will receive what is called a merit every time they exhibit a godly character such as kindness to another, diligence, or going the extra mile in helping with chores voluntarily.
I also like to award merits to my children when they are diligent to consistently have their personal devotion and memorize scripture. I do this because I understand the value of God’s Word when it is hidden in their hearts.
The parent can then decide what to do with the merits earned. Perhaps deciding that a certain number of merits will result in a piece of chocolate, or simply turning them to monetary value so a child can have the opportunity to purchase themselves something special under the parents’ guidance.
Now to the bonus point.
- I have Personally Learned A lot from the ACE Curriculum as an Educator
My husband was one of those who acknowledges to date, that my handwriting has undergone a metamorphosis of sorts lol!
When we first got married, he had difficulty understanding what I had written and would oftentimes seek clarity just to decipher a word I’d written.
Helping my children construct their letters correctly as they followed the instructions in the curriculum worked to help me learn to write letters correctly.
Additionally, being in situations where I will often teach God’s Word, I have learned to summarize the creation story in a simple way, something I would struggle to do off-head.
I could talk of so much I have learned and continue to learn but this might just be the subject of a whole blog!
Let me not finish without sharing at least 3 things we didn’t like about the ACE Curriculum to give a somewhat balanced review of the curriculum.
The system is rather costly now that it is foreign. The shipping cost, as well as the fact that we don’t get them directly but we work with the curriculum’s representative on our continent, will definitely shoot the cost up as well.
The PACES are also not reusable. You will usually order the curriculum for each child and the child writes in them as opposed to a situation where a child can write in an exercise book and then the PACEs are used over and over again.
Because it is a foreign curriculum, the context is quite different from ours.
The examples will not often be easy to relate with. I think of the reference to the four seasons, a concept that is quite foreign to us who are in the tropics for instance.
We don’t have a postman who comes to drop mail in the mailbox on the street outside your home. When such an example is referenced, it necessitates research to even know how such a system works for instance.
Finally, the fact that the children will often work with PACES that are prewritten and they come to fill in the answers mostly, the educator or supervisor needs to be very deliberate to teach the child to express themselves in writing.
I remember needing to help my daughter learn to express herself a lot more in writing her essay rather than the few words she’d written.
She was used to writing very little in her schoolwork. She had to learn to express herself more in words especially when not working with the PACE.
I hope this review will help you make a more informed decision in choosing a Christian curriculum for your child.