The ACE homeschool curriculum stands for Accelerated Christian Education. The purpose of this particular curriculum program is to advance a child's education within a Biblical worldview. In many ways, the ACE curriculum is an ideal model for Christian parents who want their child's education to develop on both spiritual and academic levels.
A Focus on Worldview
Programs such as the ACE homeschool curriculum do not extract the realm of academics from a child's moral environment. Instead, the academic process is integrated into a child's worldview. This is based on the premise that academics should not represent a lofty plane that is separate from day-to-day life. Since Christian parents are typically concerned with the spiritual and character development of their child, it makes no sense for a child's education not to address these areas as well.
What a child is reading is every bit as important as the fact that they are reading. For the creators of the ACE curriculum, the goal is to fortify a student's Biblical worldview while equipping the child with a functional education. This is why the company's official website boasts the motto "Reaching the World for Christ…one Child at a time". ACE's directives are important in the modern age with book titles like Already Gone highlighting the dwindling population of Christian students.
Who Should Consider the ACE Homeschool Curriculum?
Parents who believe their child's religious training to be as vital as their functional education are the most likely candidates for adopting the ACE curriculum into their household. ACE is a rigorously Christian program, so people of mild to little belief in the Christian religion will likely find the curriculum to be too spiritually oriented. Whereas some Christian curricula may be more subtle in its approach to religion, the ACE goal is to create godly Christians and Christian leaders.
Academics
The ACE program has many distinguishing characteristics. The curriculum covers all subjects from kindergarten through high school. Moreover, this program is not academically soft. It serves to create a fluid education, and assessment testing is used to determine exactly where a child is at academically. ACE assumes that when children struggle in certain areas of their education, there are "learning gaps". This means that specific fundamentals within a field are missing from a student's understanding. In order to get a child back on track, ACE serves to determine these gaps through testing and to have students address these deficiencies before their education moves forward.
This philosophy is usually very helpful for students who do poorly in certain subject areas. Continuing to advance a struggling student will only serve to fortify these deficiencies and continue the struggle. In fact, many students become so frustrated in a particular field of study that they eventually lose interest altogether, refuse to persist, and a few will drop the idea of education entirely.
Distance Learning
ACE offers both homeschooling materials and the ability to distance learn through the Lighthouse Christian Academy. This latter option can be ideal for parents who find the aspect of being entirely responsible for their child's academic advancement too intimidating. It should be noted, however, that the distance learning aspect can run up considerable costs. The benefits, of course, include a well-trained staff that can answer a student's questions and plan a child's academic itinerary. For further information, including materials and pricing, visit the official ACE Ministries website. Also, online diagnostic testing is available to assess a child's placement within the program and bring any academic weaknesses to light.
