Could someone please read the review of A.C.E over at Homeschool Reviews....

[ElizaG]

I got the impression that she capitalized the words because she wanted to emphasis that people thought that any old degree would make them qualified, when indeed only a education major would do that. (Not that I agree, just why I thought she did that.)

My impression of this was different. I thought she was trying to explain why homeschooling mothers (in her view) tend to be naive and overly ambitious. IOW, someone without teaching experience might tend to underestimate the amount of work involved in using a teacher-intensive curriculum. I'm guessing she thinks that professional teachers would be "savvy" enough to use something structured, like A.C.E., from the beginning.

 

From what I've seen, though, this is kind of backwards. Former teachers seem even more likely than the rest of us to have have big ideas about how they're going to homeschool. And I don't think education degrees teach anything about the challenges of balancing teaching with fractious toddlers, multiple loads of laundry, etc. ;)

[Rivka]

Okay, after reading the review and then the other linked article by the same author, I think her audience is people who don't want to homeschool, but think they have to.

 

(Also, I wasn't aware that a curriculum which doesn't have God on every single page will turn my child into a "brilliant murderer." Should I worry? Or should I congratulate myself that at least she may be smart enough not to get caught?)

[FaithManor]

(Also, I wasn't aware that a curriculum which doesn't have God on every single page will turn my child into a "brilliant murderer." Should I worry? Or should I congratulate myself that at least she may be smart enough not to get caught?)

 

 

:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5:Legitimate question....snicker, snicker, snicker....

 

Faith

[LNC]

nm

Edited September 22, 2011 by LNC

[Mommy22alyns]

Sounds like they are trying to guilt stressed out moms into buying the curriculum. Buy this! It grades, your kids do it themselves, they will be Super Children, people love to hire A.C.E. graduates....it slices, it dices, IT CLEANS YOUR HOUSE!

 

I bet it does work for a lot of people and I think that's great, but that review left me cold.

 

Also, complete newbie here, but teaching IS work, right? I'm expecting to have to put some time, effort, and sweat equity into my kid's education. If I didn't want to evaluate work, spend some extra time prepping and planning, or read the same books as my kids I probably wouldn't be all that enthusiastic about home educating.

 

 

Yes, I get that "infomercial" feel, you know where the people are grunting and groaning to do ONE simple task and miracle product A makes it all shiny and better! And ITA with your last paragraph. I completely expect to have to work.

[Mommy22alyns]

Ha, be careful. The regulars on HSReviews tend to think we WTM'ers are snobs, A.C.E-hating, and HSing overachievers. They love to bash the WTM boards, yet funny how many of them are come here just long enough to judge. This thread about A.C.E. will be just fuel for their WTM-hating fire, lol. :D

 

 

Oooh, we're overachievers. Gosh, that sounds so horrible. :tongue_smilie:

[smilesonly]

After reading this:

 

 

We recommend ACE for these 12 very tight and succinct reasons:

1. ACE is taught using THIN booklets…as in… easy to haul on errands.

2. ACE is comprehensive…as in… nothing will fall through the cracks.

3. ACE is spiritual…as in… you won’t produce an intelligent drunk.

4. ACE is engaging, uplifting and KEEPS their interest both academically and spiritually…as in…children end up LOVING God THROUGH their subjects.

5. ACE is self-taught…as in…not mommy dependent…as in… it actually HAPPENS every day regardless of the chaos mom is embroiled in at the moment.

6. ACE is self-corrected…as in…the student has instant feedback.

7. ACE is the curriculum for tear reduction…as in ...momma doesn’t burn out…she actually likes her children AND gets dinner on the table…and wants to continue homeschooling next year.

8. ACE is priced at the low end of curriculums…as in… you don’t have to rob a bank or incur debt to buy it. The entire year costs less than one month’s tuition at any private Christian school. It is so inexpensive, the grandparents can purchase it for you. You won’t grow bitter halfway through the year because you sank 2 grand into a curriculum and now you hate the stuff but can’t possibly switch because you mortgaged the house to get it.

9. ACE trains OUTSTANDING character, woven into the full page text of every subject…as in…not tacked on as a token at the end of the entire day just to make it LOOK spiritual.

10. Employers love to hire ACE graduates for any type of work, because they have found year after year that these students’ cheerful work-ethic is second to none.

11. ACE is in 135 countries and currently educates well over 3 million children…as in…tried and true…kids actually graduate…they actually score high on standardized tests…they actually get scholarships at colleges.

12. ACE is guilt free…school happens.

 

I think CLE fits this description as well. If you are looking for these qualities in a curriculum, you'd likely be happy with CLE.

 

Treading lightly here because I know it is a great fit for some families, but (before my WTM conversion!) my kids faked their way through ACE. They could fill in the blanks, but couldn't transfer it outside of the PACES. CLE is quite different--using English as a example--you can't get by with short term memorization.

 

And :lol: about the intelligent drunk comment. Adding that to my list of outcomes to avoid.

 

Honestly,other than #'s 3,10, and 11-these ALL sound desirable.

 

Now, that's not to say that using ACE is the ONLY way to accomplish this and, that is the part of the "review" that I found....shocking. Her rapid comparisons of ACE to every! other type of hsing approach. Further, if her intended audience isn't a *general* one than she probably shouldn't be writing it in the venue that she did.

 

This would be the last review I'd recommend someone to read when deciding whether to use ACE or not. There is no real information given about academic standards, the methodology used, the format, or anything. She just bashes other methods, which, BTW, were mostly developed or adapted by homeschooling parents who thought materials published for classrooms (like ACE) were inadequate or inappropriate for teaching children at home.

 

True, Ellie. However, I tend to read the more current reviews of curricula and hers was the most recent. Of course this review reads like an infomercial and therefore quite difficult to take seriously, even though many of her comments do sound appealing....

[angela in ohio]

You know, if someone has to depend on your curriculum as the only way to keep a child from becoming a drunk, I would question his or her faith to begin with. Do they really want to say that ACE is for parents who don't have enough faith to pass it on without a curriculum doing it for them?

 

Of course, this is why I avoid a certain segment of the homeschool crowd. My belief is that God is none too pleased with the anti-intellectualism crowd giving him so little credit. ;)

[angela in ohio]

Yes, I get that "infomercial" feel, you know where the people are grunting and groaning to do ONE simple task and miracle product A makes it all shiny and better! And ITA with your last paragraph. I completely expect to have to work.

 

I really want to film this commercial!!

 

Mom is sitting at the table with Johnny and Sue. She's throwing books all over in a fit (because of all the other chaos in her life,) and Sue and Johnny are drunk and slurring out, "But ma, we ain't done any school in three months, how 'er we s'posed to know any 'a this stuff?" There is a knock at the door, and it's the bank come to take the farm, because she mortgaged it to buy her curriculum. Then the social worker shows up to take the children. It ends with mom alone clinging to the doorway, sobbing and yelling after the bank man and the social worker carrying off her kids, "But there has to be a better way....." Then the ACE rep comes on and cheerfully shows how for a low, low price, she could have had super happy children doing their workbooks all alone (nothing makes children happier than doing workbooks alone all day) while mom polishes the silverware, knits three sweaters, milks a goat, and makes a ten-course meal.

 

AND it would come with a free Ginsu knife.

Edited September 22, 2011 by angela in ohio

[elegantlion]

I really want to film this commercial!!

 

Mom is sitting at the table with Johnny and Sue. She's throwing books all over in a fit (because of all the other chaos in her life,) and Sue and Johnny are drunk and slurring out, "But ma, we ain't done any school in three months, how 'er we s'posed to know any 'a this stuff?" There is a knock at the door, and it's the bank come to take the farm, because she mortgaged it to buy her curriculum. Then the social worker shows up to take the children. It ends with mom alone clinging to the doorway, sobbing and yelling after the bank man and the social worker carrying off her kids, "But there has to be a better way....." Then the ACE rep comes on and cheerfully shows how for a low, low price, she could have had super happy children doing their workbooks all alone (nothing makes children happier than doing workbooks alone all day) while mom polishes the silverware, knits three sweaters, milks a goat, and makes a ten-course meal.

 

AND it would come with a free Ginsu knife.

 

I love you! You brought a tear to my eye!

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

My impression of this was different. I thought she was trying to explain why homeschooling mothers (in her view) tend to be naive and overly ambitious. IOW, someone without teaching experience might tend to underestimate the amount of work involved in using a teacher-intensive curriculum. I'm guessing she thinks that professional teachers would be "savvy" enough to use something structured, like A.C.E., from the beginning.

 

From what I've seen, though, this is kind of backwards. Former teachers seem even more likely than the rest of us to have have big ideas about how they're going to homeschool. And I don't think education degrees teach anything about the challenges of balancing teaching with fractious toddlers, multiple loads of laundry, etc. ;)

 

I may have been mixing up this review with the blog mentioned here

[Jenny in GA]

I'm coming into this late, but just wanted to repond to this (from the article/review):

 

 

The single biggest cause of homeschooling burnout is choosing the WRONG curriculum. For most homeschoolers, veterans and beginners alike, the illusion is that you will always have perfect days in which to teach, but the reality is that you’ll SELDOM have even ONE perfect homeschooling day. If your schooling centers on you as the teacher, it will simply slip through the cracks on days when other demands take over. Because schooling is THE ONE flexible/negotiable part of the day (no one is watching), it often gets put on the back burner (for far too many days, for months on end), because today we can’t do it RIGHT, using what you THOUGHT was the ideal curriculum.

 

Um ... if you are having days on end, slipping into months, of schooling slipping through the cracks, that has nothing to do with the curriculum.

 

It might have to do with your time management skills, or organizational skills, or choice or priorities. Or maybe it means you don't really want to be homeschooling. But to say, "You obviously bought the wrong curriculum" makes no sense to me.

 

Actually, the whole idea of "wrong curriculum" rubs me the wrong way anyway. It reminds me of "two hands behind my back, pick which one ... oh sorry, you picked the wrong one!" kinda thing. It's not like one of the choices has the Secret Magic Elixir and if you accidently choose one of the others ... so sorry, thank you for playing, better luck next time.

[angela in ohio]

I'm coming into this late, but just wanted to repond to this (from the article/review):

 

 

The single biggest cause of homeschooling burnout is choosing the WRONG curriculum. For most homeschoolers, veterans and beginners alike, the illusion is that you will always have perfect days in which to teach, but the reality is that you’ll SELDOM have even ONE perfect homeschooling day. If your schooling centers on you as the teacher, it will simply slip through the cracks on days when other demands take over. Because schooling is THE ONE flexible/negotiable part of the day (no one is watching), it often gets put on the back burner (for far too many days, for months on end), because today we can’t do it RIGHT, using what you THOUGHT was the ideal curriculum.

 

Um ... if you are having days on end, slipping into months, of schooling slipping through the cracks, that has nothing to do with the curriculum.

 

It might have to do with your time management skills, or organizational skills, or choice or priorities. Or maybe it means you don't really want to be homeschooling. But to say, "You obviously bought the wrong curriculum" makes no sense to me.

 

Actually, the whole idea of "wrong curriculum" rubs me the wrong way anyway. It reminds me of "two hands behind my back, pick which one ... oh sorry, you picked the wrong one!" kinda thing. It's not like one of the choices has the Secret Magic Elixir and if you accidently choose one of the others ... so sorry, thank you for playing, better luck next time.

 

She's not saying the wrong specific curriculum. She's saying the wrong type of curriculum. You know, like buying a curriculum that requires you to teach and interact with yor child, when you should have bought ACE instead. :D

[Aubrey]

You know, if someone has to depend on your curriculum as the only way to keep a child from becoming a drunk, I would question his or her faith to begin with.

 

I'm sorry, you misread that point. The article didn't say that ACE would prevent your child from becoming a drunk but from becoming an intelligent drunk.

 

Perhaps ACE just produces stupid drunks. ;)

 

ETA: Here's a WTM thread (about ACE) that...might, um...explain why they think we're snobs. ;)

Edited October 15, 2011 by Aubrey

[angela in ohio]

I'm sorry, you misread that point. The article didn't say that ACE would prevent your child from becoming a drunk but from becoming an intelligent drunk.

 

Perhaps ACE just produces stupid drunks. ;)

 

Ohhhh, I see. It just helps prevent that much worse scourge of society... the intelligent drunk. I was confused.

 

Drunk as the opposite of Christian does show a certain early 20th century flair that I do find refreshing, though. :D

[Aubrey]

I have a good friend who used it for her sons. One is doing well in college, the other skipped a grade in private high school.

 

Are you saying that they're doing well BECAUSE of ACE? Or just...they're doing well. They used ACE.

 

Because I have a problem w/ causality here. I did a year or two of ACE in high school (and one in K) & went on to GT & AP classes for my last year in ps, then graduated at 15, did really well in my undergraduate degree at a classically-based college & later earned a master's degree.

 

This was NOT because of ACE. The year w/ ACE was...like a year off. I did one class in a single evening. I was bored, & I'd had a good enough education prior to that year to know that I wasn't learning anything, that my time was being wasted. But I was stuck at home by myself w/ no car, no parent, no school. It was a complete sacrifice for my mom to afford ACE--there wasn't a good alternative (for reasons outside the scope of the 12 reasons listed, lol).

 

I'm not saying it can't work for anybody. Who am I to say that? I'm just saying that if someone uses it & then does well in life, those might not be related statements. Those might be the people who would have done pretty well in life no matter what.