Combining Horizons Math with Singapore

[Canada_Mom]

I've seen a few times on these boards that some of you supplement Horizons Math with Singapore. I like this idea and have decided that I'm going to add in Singapore Math this year since we're almost done Horizons 1 book 2.

 

I'd like to know how you moms who combine the two do it... do you do a page from each wkbk each school day? finish an entire workbook then move to the other program? alternate days? What works best??? I'd appreciate the advice.

 

Also, a quick question about Singapore... if I use Horizons as my "spine" and follow the TM's guidance regarding extra worksheets and practice pages, is it sufficient to just use the Text Book and Student Wkbk for Singapore? Or will I need that TM as well? I'm assuming for gr.1/2 I'll be able to get by w/o an answer key! :p Although, there sometimes are those days... :eek:

[Pster]

I don't know if this will help answer your questions but....I copied this for you - it's notes I copied when I had asked about Horizons math before.... hth!

 

With my son, I didn't start till he was in H3 (we started with S2b), and I think I'll continue that patter with my dd. (I've also used the Singapore Earlybird books, but I was pretty underwhelmed by them.)

 

Singapore does more with mental math and the word problems are *much* more complex than Horizons. They require kids to think more and explore individual problems in further depth. Horizons, by contrast, has more breadth (though less depth) and continues reviewing a variety of concepts day-to-day, while Singapore works on something for a chapter, then stops and moves on to something totally different in the next chapter with very little review.

 

I find them to be excellent complements to each other (ds is now in H6 and S5 -- mostly because we don't do S as regularly as we do H). When ds was in lower levels, we often did both books every day. Now it would just take him too long, so we pretty much do one or the other. Singapore doesn't take as many individual lessons (times sitting down to work on the book) each year as Horizons, so it still fits in.

 

------------------------- Last year for first grade my dd used MUS Alpha. She loved it at first, but grew to hate it. We then tried Singapore. We both liked Singapore.

 

This year I started with just Singapore and used the textbook, workbook, and challenging word problems from 1B. I noticed she hit a wall and needed more practice. I bought Mammoth math and she breezed through two first grade units doing 5 pages a day.

 

I finally bought a Horizons workbook to see what it was like. I love it. We bought the 1B book even though she is in second grade. She has been doing 3 lessons a day in Horizons to get caught up. It takes her maybe 20 -30 minutes to do the three lessons. I don't have the teacher's manual she is just using the workbooks.

 

The constant review of basic math facts, time, measurements, and money are what I love about Horizons. Horizons is advanced for what it teaches each year, but the actual sequence reminds me of what I taught in public school. Singapore teaches things in a very different sequence. Singapore has great mental math and word problems. It also helps her to think about math in a different way. We are behind where I would like for her to be, (we haven't started the second grade book in either program) but she is learning and gaining important confidence in math again so I plan to stick with this combination as long as it is working for her.

 

 

[Melora in NC]

We have been using both this year, and I think they provide a good balance. We do one lesson from Horizons each day. Some days there is a new concept that I need to teach or something that ds still needs help on, many days he can do most of it on his own. My ds (age 9) gets very sloppy with 3-4 digit addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems if he has many to do, so I often cross out about half of that sort of problem. We rarely do the extra practice worksheets, as there seems to be plenty of review for us in the student book. Singapore is more flexible. Some days I just teach a lesson & assign a workbook exercise or two. Other days I don't teach anything new in Singapore, and he just does a review assignment. We do use the Extra Practice Book, especially for areas that have been challenging for him. I bought the Challenging Word Problems but so far they have been too Challenging for us (I've seen it recommended that the Challenging Problems be used a grade behind, so I think we may do better with them down the road a bit.).

[jellybean]

I just use Horizons alone, I never thougth of combining the two of them.

[Ali in OR]

...and we supplement with Horizon. Since you are interested in the reverse this may not help except to give you an idea of quantity of math in one day.

 

I just have the Horizon workbook (just finishing 2A)--no teacher book, etc. I look through one lesson a day and cross out a lot of it. If there are 3 rows of addition problems, dd may just do one. If they've had similar problems on clocks/time many days in a row, I may cross it out. It's all to keep the workload reasonable. We then do Singapore--usually plan for 1 exercise a day and the textbook material that goes with it. Sometimes 2 exercises if they're short. When we finish a section, we will do the CWP that go with it. We work a lot of them together. We'll use some of the Intensive Practice too.

 

My main reason for adding Horizons this year was to expose her to a different approach and some different types of problems. I think we get that without assigning everything in a lesson. I don't worry at all about whether the two programs line up.

[rafiki]

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[Rhesa]

I use Horizons primarily, and Singapore as an addition. I don't have any real master plan, we use one for awhile, then when it seems we need to shake things up, I'll use the other for awhile. I don't have the TM for either one- we're using Horizons math 1 and Singapore 1A.

 

I love the way Singapore approaches math- their concepts of number 'bonds' makes a lot of sense to me. However, I did want my son to be familiar with a traditional workbook- Horizons meets that need. It can be VERRRY repititious- sometimes I cross out problems. And I'm not a big fan of number lines. But it has given him confidence--a big plus.

 

Anyway, hth- if I can answer any specific questions, I'll try

[Chloe]

My ds does one lesson of Horizons each day and one page in the Singapore Challenging Word Problems book (usually 3 word problems). During the summer he'll work through the Singapore Primary books at the same grade level he just finished in Horizons.

 

HTH!