Let's Talk About First Grade with ACE Curriculum

Today we look at the first grade manuals and PACEs for ACE curriculum. We look at how to order and what comes in the first grade kit. I also show some of our own methods of using the first grade curriculum.

[@mama2aaa1]

I just started using this curriculum after having watched this channel long before Andrea died. So wonderful how she is still helping homeschool moms after she has gone to be with Jesus. What a gift and lasting legacy.

[@Serve24]

Laura Hamby That’s so sad. :( Do you know how she passed away?

[@teacupgirl1]

serve24 Sadly Andrea died of cancer very suddenly. If you go to their main channel her husband Tom has videos explaining what happened. He continues to upload videos and is so strong/ doing wonderfully with the children bless him x

[@coffeejesushomeschool5949]

Coming back to re-watch as I gear up to reteach ABCs this year. Cannot believe you are with Jesus! Andrea was such an encouragement to me when I first started out!

[@helenbrown6612]

Andrea, I know you are with Jesus now...but thank you for still being an encouragement and inspiration x

[@katr3110]

I know this is an older video so no one will probably read this but THANK YOU! I was so confused when I first started looking at this. It is so different from the Kindergarten. Then, I remembered seeing this video in one of your play lists and I am so thankful for it. I got started using ACE because I saw one of your videos while searching for a curriculum that would not cause us to lose our minds, and I love it. I have been a subscriber ever since and you have no idea how much you have helped me.

[@lifewithashleynoah9893]

So sad that she is no longer here. These videos are probably soo wonderful for her family to have, to see their mama.

[@kalisimmert4394]

Thank you for this!! I was very confused when putting together the books. I'm so glad I found this video. And hearing your modifications matching my own style was reassuring :)

[@colleenmercer3408]

I know this is an older video, but I'm still enjoying your family's history on KZbin! Congrats on 20k!!!!! ❤️☺️❤️

[@tammygrubaugh175]

Thank you so much for explaining in detail how the first grade learning to read works. My husband and I have 7 children that range from 23 down to 5 years old. We did start out homeschooling when our adult children were starting school but then stopped for several years. We have gone back to homeschooling for the past 6 years. Our local homeschool co-op has a bookstore that stocks most of the ACE workbooks but not the manuals. I have used the 1st grade PACES in conjunction with ABEKA K5 for all of my children that I have taught to read and I never knew how the 1st grade PACES were supposed to work. I am getting ready to use the 1st grade PACES with my 5 yr old and my 10 yr old is using all paces this year. I feel so enlightened.

[@bonnierodriguez4522]

Thank you for the in depth look into kindergarten and first. I was on the fence and these reviews helped me to decide if it will work for us or not.

[@CookieCrumbFun]

I love how you put together your own math kit. dollar tree is such a life saver to homeschooling families or those types of things. we have a first grader. I'll be making one soon, a kit. I never thought about lamenting the letter cards. what a great idea! I'll be doing that this week as well. I'm going to watch your first grade binder Vlog next. thank you!

[@Alexandra4JC]

I know this is old, but if I didn't see this video, I would be at a total loss for my special needs child I am homeschooling. I purchased the First Grade curriculum from his scholarship shop only it did not have any of this together with all the paces and teacher's score equivalents. Thus, all we have been doing is the paces, and I have been clueless as to how it has expected my son to just start reading. I finally got a moment to look up how are we supposed to teach our first grader to read with Aces Paces and I saw your video. We are now very behind!

[@mandersdaro8136]

I like that they dont assume a 1st grader doesnt already know how to read. I have been finding it tough to find a curriculum that doesnt assume that

[@kaygray7711]

Thank you so much for this explanation! It helps so much!!

[@aimeebrownell5646]

Thank you so much for this helpful video!

[@JustSewTrish]

hack a minute 28! THANK YOU! I need to be adding that to our day!

[@gretadenbesten5111]

This was very helpful! Thank you!

[@teresaosborne6877]

Great video! Thank you so much!

[@Theblairspartyof6]

Hello would you happen to know where I could purchase some used Manuel’s for this curriculum?

[@angelaholden9769]

I like the first grade. Thank you.👍❤️

[@carlabryan1981]

could you make a video of what you use for literature and writing, I think you mentioned you didn't use ace for those subjects.

[@linseyk5728]

Do you still use this curriculum? I can't find a curriculum update video. Thanks!

[@oyeme538]

I wonder if they just added the score keys because I did get them

[@DavidLoveJanet]

So helpful thank you

[@gideonslabaugh9838]

Hi, I am having a hard time finding answers to this so I am hoping you can help me. Do you have any children who have a auditory learning style? My dd is tactile and auditory and I am trying to figure out if this would be a good program for her and some ideas to make it work. Pretty much all I'm getting is have her read them aloud or read them to her which defeats the beauty of this independent program. I would love to use ACE but I also want to set her up for success. Any thoughts? thanks!

[@lynnegillette5013]

Do you only do 1st grade math for the first 12 weeks.

[@thewretchhesaved4649]

Miss her.

[@caramelfrappuccino234]

What happened to her?

[@rothneytjongarero3856]

How do I get this materials please?

[@evamariepalermoestay4357]

Helow how can we purchase for lower price

[@carlabryan1981]

Thank you for the great video, how hard or easy is it to calculate each pace score and getting the % and tracking it in the permanent record and report cards?(I'm trying to figure out the benefits between doing it myself or enrollment in the distance learning) could you do a video of how to do that? I also was wondering if you use the computer type master programs?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

That's a good idea for a video. I'll write it down. I'm not sure how the distance learning works, but it's a simple thing to keep your own records. The PACE score keys have a test score key in the middle that you pull out. (You can watch my Test Keys Binders video if you'd like to see how I organize mine.) You score the test and it tells you how many points each problem is worth so you can calculate their percent. Then you can keep track of the scores either using the homeschool record keeping kit (it has a page for recording one year's worth of scores) or you can buy a pack of Supervisor Progress cards. They both have a place to write in the PACE numbers and scores for one year. At the end of the year, you can use the Permanent Record for to record their average score for each subject. (Add up the scores and divide the answer by the number of tests.) That's really all there is to it. The Permanent Record is their transcript. I haven't used the computer records program, so I don't have any thoughts on that. I did make an excel spreadsheet to record my kids' scores like the Supervisor's Progress Card, but I haven't got all the kinks worked out. The video I just made about Planning for High School shows the Permanent Record form. It also shows a little of the Sample Cumulative Record Folder that is helpful.

[@carlabryan1981]

Oh sorry, I ment have you used the word master and reading computer programs for the children. Thank you for help.

[@carlabryan1981]

Word building* computer software sorry

[@imaspinner76]

First of All Thank you Thank you for doing this video... I was positive I wanted to use this with my daughter and a friend had bought the manual sets and decided not to use them and so I bought them from her super cheap. Looking through them kind of scared me off. You make it... make sense. We are using different curriculum for math, science and bible etc. how hard would it be to only do the Word building and English paces for learning to read instead of using all the subjects or would you recommend using all ACE subjects during the 1st grade program?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I suppose the benefit of using it for all subjects is just that the cartoon characters' stories are developed in the reading parts of Social Studies and Science, but that may not matter for you. Since we use all ACE all the way through school it's fun for the kids to build relationships with the characters that go through school with them. However, using just the Word Building and English would work fine if that's how you'd like to use them. Those two subjects are the foundation for learning to read in first grade and they can definitely work independently of the other subjects.

[@imaspinner76]

Andrea Mills thanks for your quick reply... I myself was homeschooled 1-12th grade and we also used ACE and going into homeschooling I thought for sure we would use ACE. But then I was introduced to Classical Conversations and I LOVE it. But it doesn't teach me how to teach my 5yr old Right Brained child how to read. I started using All About Reading and while some of it clicks I feel like it's lacking. So now half way through the year I'm looking for different options.

[@4hisglory365]

Do you have any ideas what ACE PACES can help a struggling reader?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I can't remember for certain so you'll want to investigate further, but I think ACE's Videophonics set is for children beyond first grade who still struggle with reading.

[@annerichardson7088]

Thanks so much for your informative videos! We just received the ABC's with Ace & Christie complete Grade One kit, and I think I have everything organized thanks to the information you've shared here. I'm a little confused, though, that the binders are each designed to last six weeks. How will that fill an entire school year? I must be missing something. Can you help, please? Thanks :-)

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

During the first 12 weeks you'll be doing all of Word Building, Animal Science and some Math. After that, your First Grader will begin working more independently on the rest of the subjects. You won't need any manuals at that point. English, Social Studies, Science and Math will fill the rest of the year; you'll just assign daily pages and away you'll go!

[@annerichardson7088]

Thanks so much!

[@NikkiMatthews23]

I'm doing first grade with my daughter right now. This may seem like a silly question but what do the pages with the crayons on it mean? I've seen some where she needs to color but not all of them that have it are coloring pages

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

Think of it as a pencil rather than a crayon :) just something that needs written on

[@dianano4569]

I really want to order this for my grandchildren but can't find how. I grew up learning with ACE and I loved it but can't find how to get in touch with them.. I also had a house fire that destroyed my diploma and I need a replacement. My principal has passed but his vice principal is still alive.

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

We get most of our stuff from chirstianbook.com, but the website for ACE is www.aceministries.com/

[@S.Patierno]

Hi so are all phonetic sounds for each letter introduced at the same time?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

No. In Kindergarten we learn one sound per week. For instance, one week we learn A-Abby Antelope, another week we do A-Aging Ape and a third week we learn A-Arby Armadillo. Each letter has a phonetic symbol above it to distinguish it. Also, the sounds are done in an order to teach reading quickly in first grade so they're not done in alphabetical order. In Kindergarten, Week 1 is short A, Week 2 is M, Week 3 is S, and so on. (In First Grade the letters are reviewed in the same order but one letter per day rather than week while they learn to read.)

[@S.Patierno]

Andrea Mills I'm sorry just wanted to clarify ..for example when they introduce the letter A do they teach all the sounds a makes during that time or do they introduce short A one month then other letters and then long A?

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

They introduce them during different weeks. We learned short A during the first week. We'll learn long A later (I'm not sure which week). The 35th week is when we learn A as in Armadillo. It's the same in first grade except that instead of focusing on a letter/sound for a whole week, each one gets one day. The other vowels have two weeks (one for short, one for long) and there are two weeks for soft and hard G and C.

[@S.Patierno]

Andrea Mills thank you ..very helpful ❤️

[@JustSewTrish]

I bought my kit from christianbook. with the score key. i had no idea that i didnt need them. i do like having the math, she feels like a big kid checking them

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

I have all the score keys, too. It didn't occur to me till this moment that I could have used those to show what the PACEs look like. Oh well. I definitely think a lot of it comes down to personality. My boys were not careful scorers, so it wasn't very useful. But I would suspect my daughter would do fine if I taught her to score. Math is a good one to start with.

[@angelaholden9769]

I'm sorry, but my husband ordered kindergarten a.c.e. after I took my son PRE-K myself. He was way ahead of the material. That it was boring for him. Checking out first grade to see if it is any better.

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

ACE spends more time on phonics than other systems. Reading is a foundation that shouldn’t be neglected. In addition ACE doesn’t use grades, you should perform the diagnostic testing to see what paces your son should be starting on. You can do the diagnostic testing for free on school of tomorrow.com!

[@abbyhinojos-carrera]

if my daughter is already reading, what do you recommend for her? she is only 5

[@TheMillsFamilyVlog]

If she is already reading, you may just want to get the five core first grade subjects (Math, English, Social Studies, Science and Word Building) and skip the 12-week learning to read program. Word Building would only be necessary to learn writing letters. If she's already writing, you could just do the other four subjects. Another idea is to give her the diagnostic test (free on-line on their web-site or you can buy a paper version) to see exactly where she is ready to start.

[@abbyhinojos-carrera]

+Andrea Mills Thank you, I was gonna try the test, but she isn't interested so she gets distracted a lot. great video! thank you for your answer!

[@lorimitchell9025]

I did that curriculum. My mom would give us all 5 books ads she would mark where she wants us to stop.

[@imaspinner76]

First of All Thank you Thank you for doing this video... I was positive I wanted to use this with my daughter and a friend had bought the manual sets and decided not to use them and so I bought them from her super cheap. Looking through them kind of scared me off. You make it... make sense. We are using different curriculum for math, science and bible etc. how hard would it be to only do the Word building and English paces for learning to read instead of using all the subjects or would you recommend using all ACE subjects during the 1st grade program?

[@gracevilleroyalchurch5012]

Thank you for this explanation. I worked in the school using the School of Tomorrow program in Zambia, Africa. However, when the national office ACE closed, the running program eventually closed. When can the Learning to Read program be purchased online?