Info for Horizons Math users of 3rd and 4th grade...

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I just wanted to share what I have learned about Horizons Math, so that it can help those who are using it but have a few snags along the way.

 

1.  You have to teach and drill multiplication separately.  Ideally, you would do this during/alongside the beginning of the 2nd grade book.  I used Times Tales followed by printing the Times Tales worksheets and doing one per day, followed by printing off the Internet, randomized worksheets, followed by flashcards.  It takes a full year to learn and memorize them so that they will stay in long-term memory.

 

2.  4th grade Horizons apparently was a huge transition year.  My dd found the 3rd grade somewhat challenging and most of 4th grade fairly challenging.  The 5th grade book is a total repeat of 4th grade math, all the way through the entire first half of the year.  This is very different from 1-3rd grade Horizons, where there are only a few pages of review from the previous year (usually about 30 pages)...instead, in 5th grade, the ENTIRE first half of the year is review.  In fact, I think some of the second half of the year is review, as well.  So, if you find 4th grade a little overly challenging, just be aware that things seem to slow down for a while.

 

I love Horizons Math.  It is the only subject/curriculum that has worked without any snags for my younger dd for the entire time we have used it.  

[JubilantNest]

Calming Tea, we are in Horizons 4 and I was actually thinking it may be too easy.  I have the workbooks for six, but no manual.  Since you have both 4 and 5, would you mind comparing the Scope & Sequence for both years and telling me what concepts I would need to teach to skip?   I don't think we need the review.  I know it is a lot to ask, so if you don't have time, I completely understand. 

 

Thank you.

[Soror]

Thanks, we are using it as a spiral review for BA. I'm using 3 now but thinking I need to move up to 4. I wanted something he could do on his own and his is well able to do that with 3. Now I'm wondering if the challenge level moves up enough it would be hard for him to do without assistance, considering his ADHD to have something he can do on his own is pretty amazing :) 

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Jubilant Nest, 

I would say, and this is definitely a bit of a guess...but if you wanted to skip a level, I am thinking you would skip level 4, not level 5. Since level 5 starts out so slow...it might be best to do that.  Send me a PM if you really want me to look at the PM, just because that way I will remember. It's in a closet I can get at in the morning.

 

Soror- IDK ..I think that 3 and 4 are pretty different in what they cover.  What about just moving up to Grade 3, book 2?  Usually book 2 of each year is where the new stuff is.

 

 

[SilverMoon]

I didn't find 4 and 5 to be that similar. Sure they're going to cover many of the same concepts, but 5 takes those concepts farther and deeper. They both covered metric somewhere around the 140s or 150s, but 5 expected more work with less hand holding.

 

One of my DC started Horizons with the 5 book and another started with the 4 book. They were in very different places at the end of those books, and I expect great growth from DD going from 4 to 5 this year.

 

I think Horizons does such an excellent job scaffolding skills that the longer a DC is in the program the easier it seems for them. A good example from this week is from the grade 1 book. My 6yo is near the end and just got to the first carrying lesson today. She has been building tens and doing that size of an addition problem long enough that they're automatic. At the end of that problem set she declared that it was *so* *easy* and why didn't they put that in earlier?? She already had every well-polished tool she needed for the job.

 

Fwiw, with my nearly two years of Horizons experience, I wouldn't jump books, but perhaps let them work ahead faster if they're bothered by the reduced challange level.

[JubilantNest]

Calming Tea: Thank you.  We are 1/4 of the way through 4 and haven't purchased the 5th year books.  So, if anything, I would want to skip 5, but it sounds like we shouldn't.  My daughter just gets so bored when she feels like things are repetitive...

 

Silver Moon: Thank you for sharing your experience with both 4 and 5.  That was really helpful.  I do let my girls work ahead, but then life happens and we miss days and never really get any farther ahead than we should be.  :)

[Professormom]

The beauty of horizons is the spiraling. It reviews and reviews, which helps cement the concepts into the student's head. And that is the goal of math at this age. They should come out of their elementary years of math knowing it backwards and forwards, upside-down and in their sleep:-)

 

Sometimes it is hard for an adult mind to process that that much repetition, and it's subsequent "boredom" lol, is actually a good thing. A child saying, "oh I already know that" isn't really a measure I use. Most kids will be able to look at something and recognize it and get through it. What I want is to be able to spring a multi digit, long division problem on a fourth-grader, months after they haven't done one (I understand this is an unlikely scenario, just using this for illustrative purposes:-) and have them be able to whip it out. Fast. Accurately. Without hesitation. Fast. To get to that point, you need lots of repetition and yes, boredom. That is what mastery entails.

 

I use Horizons and the beginning of each year, I usually skip the first 2 or 3 weeks, but not a whole book. This is because I often keep math going in the summer. Horizons was developed for classrooms, so you have those extra couple of weeks of "remembering" what was taught over the last school year, making up for a summer of no math practice. If you feel like you need to get ahead, try keeping it going all year, rather than jumping a whole level. You can also reduce some of the problem sets. If one of my guys is working on something I KNOW he knows well, I might let him do 7 out of 11 problems or something like that.

 

Also, even though each grade's book may seem similar skills in the scope and sequence, the LEVEL that they are presented at changes. The bar goes up so to speak. So it gets them doing longer, more challenging problems for each skill set. And getting them to do them faster and more accurately. Again, mastery vs familiarity.

 

This is all the stuff that will make life much easier for them in higher level maths. These are foundational skills. They should come out of elementary math doing them in their sleep because that will allow their limited short-term memory slot to be eaten up with more complicated processes. The elementary skills should be automatic and in long-term, hard-wired memory:-)

 

Sorry, this was a bit of a ramble. This is a topic close to my heart, lol. Good luck!

[Mrs Twain]

I agree about drilling math facts. I drilled addition and subtraction math facts daily with flashcards for several years, and I did the same for multiplication facts. Occasionally we drilled division flashcards.

 

I would not recommend skipping any of the books. As other posters mentioned, work ahead over the weekends and summers, or double up lessons if you would like to get ahead.

[Annabel Lee]

This is where the teacher's manuals come in handy.  I just followed the instructions for which facts to drill each day.  It usually says something like, "Drill addition facts 1 - 18 and multiplication 2's through 5's".  On the same day, the speed drill would be subtraction to balance it out. The speed drills as well as additional worksheets are in the TM.

 

I stayed on an Abeka-like schedule for learning facts, though.  I made sure to do any the Horizons lesson said to, plus anything from my own schedule not listed there.  Abeka introduces fact families in order, 1 to 12.  It was just easier to keep track of things that way.

[FriedClams]

I wouldn't skip any books in horizons, either. I agree that grade 4 is a beast and 5 is lighter. But, lighter isn't redundant or unnecessary. My 2 did horizons 1-6, and we did every problem, every day. They are rock solid in math and I believe drill and consistency are huge reasons for that.

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I don't recommend skipping any books. I was only answering a direct question from someone with a unique situation.

 

However, I think that 3 of my friends dropped Horizons in 3rd or 4th grade.  2 of them dropped it because "It suddenly jumped into multiplication way before they were ready and the child was totally lost."  One dropped it in 4th grade, worrying that if it continued at the level of complexity the child would be miserable through 5th grade. So my point was not to say, that 5th grade should be skipped, but that 4th and 5th dovetail perfectly to get to a very high level of arithmetic proficiency.  In the first year it could seem pretty tough but after that it's smooth sailing.... I agree that Horizons scaffolds really well. I think this writer was really gifted and did an amazing job of writing an awesome math program.  In fact, I remember about 6 years back that Horizons was the darling of the WTM boards- before Singapore really caught hold.  

 

My point is that I think that there are very few choices for traditional, affordable, easy to teach SPIRAL math programs, and I'm interesting in more people learning about Horizons and being able to get through it more easily.  

 

 

[SilverMoon]

One of my favorite parts is that it feels like the author actually enjoys math.

 

Fwiw, not every kid needs all the extra drill. I quit using the TM for anything but an answer key after the first month. I'll add extra drill with an app if I think a kid needs it, which isn't often.

[JubilantNest]

I wasn't trying to say that I am completely anti-boredom or that I feel the need to skip books.  I think we have all been in the situation where a kid is upset and asking, "Why do I have to do this again?" and you look down and see a problem type that has been aswered 100% correctly the last 50 or so times similar sets were presented.  On occasion, that is fine; I just would not want to subject anyone to a whole year of that!  I do understand the need for mastery...  You have no idea how many times we've had crying fits about TimezAttack.  :lol:

[Soror]

I don't recommend skipping any books. I was only answering a direct question from someone with a unique situation.

 

However, I think that 3 of my friends dropped Horizons in 3rd or 4th grade.  2 of them dropped it because "It suddenly jumped into multiplication way before they were ready and the child was totally lost."  

Hmm, it seems obvious we're headed towards multiplication to me, it seems (so far anyway) very similar to the way it is done in Beast Academy. I actually printed up and color coded a multiplication chart for my 2nd grader last night to help with our skip counting.

[Mbelle]

I have done Horizons with two children.  After getting through Horizon 6 with the oldest I felt like that was the book with a lot of repeating.  I skipped Horizons 6 with my 2nd child.  We went on to Saxon 8/7 instead. 

 

We felt like Horizon 4 was the most intense.

[SilverMoon]

DD/6th won't finish 6 either. He is fluent in all the 5 material, and really, really wants more algebra in his math diet. He'll start AoPS prealg later this month.