4kiddies Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 I have a rising 1st and a rising K'er (as well as two preschoolers). My rising 1st is halfway through the Calvert 1st grade math text. We only use Calvert for Math and I am not using the teacher advisory service. I am happy with the program and my ds is doing well with it but lets be honest, its expensive--especially when I will have 4 kids doing it). What other programs should I be looking at? I have looked at Saxon but not enough color. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 We've found CLE to be great for dd, but it's not real colorful. Another that we've used and enjoyed is McRuffy, which has lots of games in the lower levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 We are loving Abeka (search with my name for more details). BJU gets good reviews. So does Aces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 We use Right Start, which is kind of expensive up front, but if you use it for multiple children, you would just have to buy additional worksheets for each level. The worksheets themselves aren't colorful, but there aren't many in the early levels anyway, and the manipulatives are certainly enough color for me. We even did the measuring/volume lessons with colored water. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwlKnits Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 We LOVE Horizons. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. :) I have a rising 1st grader as well. Their workbooks are full color and I credit them with DD choosing Math as her favorite subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 We use Right Start, which is kind of expensive up front, but if you use it for multiple children, you would just have to buy additional worksheets for each level. The worksheets themselves aren't colorful, but there aren't many in the early levels anyway, and the manipulatives are certainly enough color for me. We even did the measuring/volume lessons with colored water. :D We love, love RS! Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elfinbaby Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 I went to a book fair today. I'm planning on using Saxon 1 for my K'er but you are right - she's going to want a little color. I'm going to browse around tomorrow but I'm looking at Singapore's K book B for a little fun. It's about $14 and has 156 p. It'll do I think. Doesn't Saxon 1 have some use of manipulatives?? Maybe that will help. I don't know - I'm kind of in the same predicament. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Math on the Level is a bit of an investment upfront, but they do have a return policy if you don't like it! It's a set of teacher guides, so you can reuse it with each of your kiddies. With four, it works out to be a good price. See the table at the bottom here: https://www.mathonthelevel.com/content/view/57/70/ Lots of people buy the Rightstart games to go along with this too. Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohsmom23 Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Another vote for Horizons! We are using it for kindergarten and really enjoy it. The pages definitely are colorful which is part of the reason it's such a hit with us. We started off with MUS and my dd did not care for it because the pages were so boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4kiddies Posted June 27, 2009 Author Share Posted June 27, 2009 Thanks! I will look into all of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtolgd Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I will second CLE...not too colorful, but wonderful for my 2 kids! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I didn't see Singapore mentioned... We're loving it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dobela Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I have seen Horizons and it looks great. We however chose to use BJU for math and I am more impressed all the time. My son loves the color, I love the way skills are taught. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I think RightStart would be be great for a family with multiple children. It's about $150 per level. Divide that by four and you are paying about $35 a year per child, and it's an OUTSTANDING program. RightStart is not colorful because it is not a workbook. It's a teacher book that you teach from. But there are all sorts of fun manipulatives (abacus, clock, number cards, tiles) that are very colorful. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I agree with the RS rec too - definitely less expensive when you use it with more than one child. It's fun! To add color, I bought colored cardstock and copied the finger/tally/dot/clock cards on different colors. Becca loved that there were very few worksheets in the A level. We're excited for level B. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I didn't want to buy Abeka due to their religious connections, but it saved us. DD was ready to go to PS because she wouldn't have to do math with me anymore! I am so glad her preschool teacher gave us some samples... While taking pictures of the Abeka curriculum... I have tried several things and DD was ready to... When we did Horizons it was all worksheet. The TM... Abeka Arithmetic saved my homeschool! Before... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Singapore. You need more votes for this ;). We love it. It does need the help of the HiG, though, starting at grade 1. It is a very visual program if used correctly, but it is also very good for teaching dc to think mathematically. We've used: MUS I like it a lot and dd used Alpha-Zeta (minus Gamma) along with SM Saxon Not my style at all. Way too much repetition. The mental math was great, but I don't think the word problems are as good and if you use that I recommend supplementing with better word problems. We school all year in the early years so the first bunch of chapters of each book were a totally waste for us because our dc didn't take 2-3 months off. MEP I love that, but it's definitely challenging and needs the teacher's guide, IMO. It's great for teaching dc to see math well. Miquon--I didn't have the diary, and wish I'd had because there's a lot of great potential for this program I didn't know about. MCP--someone gave me a partly used one. I didn't care for the look or style, but that's just personal opinion and I didn't end up using it much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Another vote for Singapore! It's excellent for teaching kids to visualize problems and to think mathematically. It's also reasonably priced, simple to use, and fun! Another one to look at, which is quite "Singapore-like" and very inexpensive is Math Mammoth. If you buy the Light Blue series, which is a complete math curriculum for each grade level, it's about $28 per grade, or you can buy a bundle of the Blue Series books which cover all of grades 1-3 for about $40. They are PDF downloads (or on CD) so you can reuse them for all your kids, just print out new worksheets as needed. They're also colorful! One of the best things about MM is that it was designed specifically for homeschoolers; all the "teaching" is right there on the page with the problems to be worked, so there's no need to buy (or read) an additional teacher's guide. (Answers are all included in the PDF.) The author, Maria Miller, is also very helpful and answers email quickly if you ever need assistance. http://www.mathmammoth.com/ Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 I have not chimed in, as we haven't actually started, but we'll be starting Singapore next week. It's very colorful. :) Our primary math curriculum is Math-U-See and so far it's been working out great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Definitely check out BJU Press Math! It is very colorful, reflects the NCTM standards, teaches math concepts rather than just processes, addresses problem solving well, uses manipulatives appropriately, and is just plain FUN while still being a very solid program, all the way from K-12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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