If my ds (in 4th) is not grasping a concept even with all the practice that A Beka Language requires, would an ACE English pace on that topic be a good supplement or are they too similar in teaching style? It's like he needs to be taught the concept from a different angle and I don't know if ACE English would be more of the same, or a new perspective. Can anyone share what the difference might be?

This post was edited on Jan 09, 2013 11:13 AM

If it were me ~ *I'd* re-teach differently, but not have my child doing *more* work in another curriculum/on another worksheet. In point of fact, I have a child who needs things taught by me differently than the book presents the material, at times. That's just exactly what I do.

Eta: If you do want to use ACE, use it *instead of* the ABeka, *not* in addition to.

Most times, some direct teaching is the simplest solution, though, most of all the time. :)

This post was edited on Dec 03, 2012 06:16 PM

Do you mean grammar concepts?

If so, I'd go with something like Easy Grammar or Winston Grammar.

My dd did A Beka Lang. 4th grade.

She's now in 6th doing ACE 6th. She told me today, "Wow, Mom, by the time I'm done with this one, I'm gonna REALLY know pronouns!" That's the key differnce. ACE gives them time to absorb in smaller chunks, building their confidence with smaller concepts first before slamming them with a new concept OR too many all at once. I DID like the content of A Beka, but I ended up totally slowing things down and adding in my own "stuff" to stretch it out over 2 years, because I felt it moved entirely too fast and didn't really give the typical student time to absorb and really learn something *well* before moving on.

I DO find myself doing some direct teaching, even with ACE, but with it being written TO the student, there's plenty that she can do on her own independently, and I can clearly see from her checkups (quizzes) what is truly being grasped or not. ACE is MUCH easier to implement, even when *I* have to teach it some. She also uses the 6th grade ACE CW/Lit, which is bringing a nice balance to her overall LA education for this year, minus the spelling, which she ironically is using A Beka for. ;-) We use the CW/Lit at half speed. It can be quite meaty at times, yet of course she's always reading something on her own in addition to her "school" reading.

Yes, we're talking about grammar concepts--specifically parts of speech. And believe me, I have tried teaching it in as many ways as I can.

For example, he can give me examples of nouns both proper and common. He can give me the definition of a noun (person, place thing, or idea). If I point to a word, he can usually tell me if it's a noun or not. BUT, if he has to circle all the nouns in a sentence or paragraph on his own, he misses most of them. He always gets the noun in the subject but he usually misses the rest of them unless I give him lots of hints.

I was thinking of setting the A Beka aside and working through a pace that covered nouns to see if it would help him understand them better. I'm not planning on doing all the ACE English paces in addition to the A Beka Language worktext. I was just wondering if the ACE teaching would be a little different than A Beka so it wouldn't be repetitive. Although, I'm not sure how many ways there are to teach nouns. =/

EMJ, I could look at Easy grammar but the benefit of ACE is that I could buy a specific pace for less than $3.00. I could get the EG book and then I'd have it for future reference, but would it give a fresh perspective on the topics?

Nancy, thank you for your reply. I saw it after I responded.

That's great news about it working for your dd! It does seem then, that there is a difference, but maybe not so much in the individual teaching but rather in the program's approach in general. I think I might order the English pace on nouns and see how it goes. If he succeeds with it, I can considering continuing with there English.

Well, then, why not just make the switch to ACE?

If we're talking 4th grade, I remember particularly liking how ACE provided lots of visual pictures for those prepositions to help the kids "see" such an abstract concept. I can't remember how they actually approached the nouns PACE at that level, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some pictoral content. I know my ds's 3rd grade PACES have LOTS of pictures in the noun PACE. It trains them to see the noun "pictures" in their mind's eye. It recognizes that just words alone can seem very abstract to such a young mind. I really appreciate this aspect of ACE.

Of course, that's not to say that an A Beka teacher at the academy isn't doing this same idea in the classroom with real objects and a chalkboard.