Quiver0f10 Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 I have narrowed my choice down to these two for my second grader. She will finish CLE Math 1 this year and I need to decide to either use CLE Math 2 or Horizons 2. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 I'm out the door for a run right now, but quickly I will say that CLE (2 and up) has the instruction directly to the student in the worktext, and it's in nice incremental steps. Also the drill is built right into the lesson-there is a checklist to the student at the top for them telling them to do speed drill, certain flash cards, etc. Horizons-you need to pull this all out of the TM, and my df that uses it, and another one that tried, said that starting in about 3rd grade the TMs are not very helpful for teaching HOW to teach the topic. Horizons is more colorful and less problems per day, if you need that. I looked very carefully at both and chose CLE. Gotta go-will ck back to see if anyone else chimes in-if not, I have more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 My friend who is considering Horizons and I (using CLE) have looked closely at this. CLE has better/clearer instructions, more space to write on the page and built in drill so it won in our comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 (edited) I have used Horizons grade 2 and 3 so I can't speak to the other grades. Each lessons is 2 pages (front and back) which can be removed easily from the workbook (some kids may appreciate this). The worksheets are colorful but the problems are close together so it does look like a lot of problems. There are seven different sections in each lesson, with each section covering a different skill. Some sections have only 4 problems, others have up to 16 or so (I cross some out of there are a ton, especially on some types of problems that are given every single day). The instructions are simple: "find the difference" "shade and draw the equivalent fraction" etc. The teacher's guide is very basic. Sometimes there are instructions like "show your child how to regroup using blocks" or something like that, but there aren't explicit scripted instructions. The TG does say which math facts to drill but there are a LOT more included in a lesson than CLE (CLE may have you practice two sets of flashcards, while Horizons has you do 4-6. There are worksheets that are labeled to correspond with certain lessons, and these are topical (one skill on each sheet). CLE has instructions and illustrations written for the student. Currently, we are doing multiplication with carrying and CLE shows the steps with highlighting. It is simple, clear and effective (I'd tried to explain and demonstrate and ended up confusing my kid). If you use their flashcards they are labeled and organized, and it is simple to use the ones you need (which IMO is just enough practice and not too much). The timed drills are in the back and there is a chart for the child to record their progress. Each CLE light unit follows a theme which makes it interesting and also ties math into various subjects. In the current LU (306) all the story problems and factoids relate to the ocean. CLE is divided into 10 booklets (Light Units) of 16 lessons each, which is perfect for my kid who feels accomplishment when he finishes a booklet. The TG for CLE offers really no teaching help in the 3rd or 4th grade (can't speak to others) but I haven't found I needed anything. It's cheap at least. The story problems in CLE are much better than in Horizons, IMO. Horizons throws a token story problem every few lessons which is very very easy compared to the rest of the lesson. CLE has a few story problems each lesson and they really make you think. They also teach the child how to solve story problems - at first they give hints, showing the child that the story problem is one of two types (either addition or multiplication, for example). Then later it tells the child that they are taking away that hint. They also show how information from one problem can be used to solve another, and discuss how some problems have unneeded information. I wasn't expecting the story problems to be this good but I am very impressed. Horizons is focused on getting kids to solve computation. There really isn't much application. CLE is much more focused on getting kids to understand the problem-solving aspect of math. Horizons would show a child two clocks and ask them to calculate the elapsed time, while CLE would give them a story problem relating to the LU theme (the one yesterday was about how long it takes to cook octopus legs). One other difference is that CLE has just a short little optional activity on quiz and test days (about every fifth lesson), while Horizons has a whole lesson PLUS the test every 10th lesson. So while there are about 160 days of lessons with both programs, Horizons gets stretched out to 176 if you don't want to make your child cry by giving them double work every 10th day. One last consideration is price. Horizons is about $75 for the TM and student workbooks. You still need flashcards. CLE is $31 for the LUs (the price goes up next month though), $15 for their REALLY NICE organized addition/subtraction flashcards (so worth the price!) and $9 for the mult/division ones. The TM is about $14 but you can easily skip it. CLE is a much much better value, IMO. Edited March 20, 2010 by ondreeuh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted March 20, 2010 Author Share Posted March 20, 2010 Thank you all ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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