In this presentation we share experiences of having implemented a French teaching program in a Swedish grade 1 classroom for the duration of one school year. The French teaching program, Arithmetic and Comprehension at Elementary School (ACE) takes a structural and relational approach to teaching and learning numbers in early grades. The aim of this presentation is to describe the implementation process of the ACE-program in a Swedish context and to discuss how principles of variation theory can develop the program. Following the structure and the principle of the program we found that the program, with small adjustments, is possible to implement in a Swedish grade 1. We suggest that the program may be further developed by adding principles of variation theory.