savmom
- Reviewed on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
- Grades Used: K-3
- Dates used: 2003-2009
We LOVE Horizons. Yes, compared to similar math programs it is advanced and moves quickly. However, the beauty of homeschooling is that we can adapt any curriculum to fit our own personal requirements. It is easy to stretch 1 lesson over several days or a week until the concepts are thoroughly grasped. There are numerous websites with free lessons/worksheets that tie in nicely with Horizons.
Horizons offers plenty of review and practice in small manageable snippets. The teachers guide includes not only the answer key but also a daily lesson planner, scope & sequence, materials & supplies list, teaching tips, and activities as well as the necessary worksheets that are used for additional drill or practice. We like that it includes several different problem types in each lesson, instead of one problem type over & over. The lessons are short, colorful, and include the use of manipulatives (which you could leave out if your child already grasps the concept). Another plus is that almost all of the suggested manipulatives can EASILY be made yourself (or found around the house) in order to save $$.
I want to clarify something a previous reviewer said:
"If you are a natural teacher who can be given a direction like, "Teach the clock." Then this curiculum will work for you. I'm not. I want to know "How do I teach the clock?" "How do I help my children understand the parts of an hour?" "
That is not quite how the directions are written. If you read the lesson plan for when the clock is introduced (or any concept), it gives tips and activities on how to teach that specific concept. The idea is that once you cover a concept, you will simply refer back to the tips & activities when the teachers guide indicates. So, anytime you encounter the tip "Teach the clock," since you have already covered that in a previous lesson you just redo the activities. However, the lessons are not scripted (they do not tell you exactly what to say). Instead, they offer suggestions and it is up to you to chose what words to use to introduce/teach the concept.
For the children who learn best by mastering a concept before moving on to the next, or who are easily distracted by colorful workbooks, Horizons may not be the best choice. But if you are looking for a solid spiral math curriculum, you cannot go wrong with Horizons!
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bethm
- Reviewed on Monday, October 26, 2009
- Grades Used: 2nd
- Dates used: 2009
I bought this curriculum for my youngest son because I heard how wonderful it was. We started using it at the beginning of summer and worked throughout the summer so my kids' brains wouldn't collect cobwebs come September. This curriculum didn't work for him AT ALL!!! There are too many concepts in each lesson, it's too overwhelming to grasp a concept when there is so much diverse material on one page. For example, one lesson may cover telling time, skip counting, word problems, place value and addition and subtraction. MY head was spinning looking at the page, so I can only imagine how a 2nd grader must feel. This type of curriculum may work for a child who grasps concepts easily, and doesn't need alot of review, but for a child like my son, who gets overwhelmed easily, this was not the curriculum for him. IMO, a math curruculum shouldn't have so many concepts cluttered on on page. I ended up ordering Rod and Staff math for him, and life has been much easier.
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lisaluvs3kids
- Reviewed on Thursday, July 23, 2009
- Grades Used: k-1st-2nd-3rd
- Dates used: 2006-2009
Loooovvee this math!!! I have never used a teacher's guide for any of the years I've used so far (which makes my math curriculum each year cost around 25 bucks!). Many times my son will say, I don't know how to do this section and as I start to go into a drawn out explanation, he'll go "Oh yeah it's just a little different from that last thing we did." I don't know how it flows so well for us but it just does!!! Math has been the one subject he does almost independently every year since kindergarten. It's colorful, which he likes and it has fun little activities sprinkled here and there (secret codes comes to mind). Maybe he's just a math oriented kid, but I think he is so good at math partly because Horizons has been such a good match for him. Curious to see if my younger two will do as well with it as he has.
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donnajdoak
- Reviewed on Saturday, May 23, 2009
- Grades Used: 1st
- Dates used: Aug 2008-May 2009
My 6 year old daughter and I loved this math curriculum..I did find it to be advanced and moved @ a swift rate, however, supplemental worksheets are included with the teacher's manual to re-empasize anything my daughter didn't "get" right away. I found the manual to be pretty straight-forward and easy to understand and I am not a "math person." I was impressed with the amount covered. Toward the end of Grade 1 the student is adding triple digit numbers, carrying, recognizing numbers and word numbers up to 200, telling time, counting coins up to $1.00, figuring fairly advanced word problems, recognizing fractions, and dabbling in the beginnings of multiplication. We liked the spiral approach and will definitely use the Grade 2 curriculum. Hope this helps...
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