Math: Horizons vs. RightStart & maybe a little Saxon

[give_me_a_latte]

I planned to use Horizons, all the way through. It looked like a solid math program, and seemed engaging and colorful enough in the early years to be "fun".

 

Then I bought Saxon K for a steal. Not super impressed with it, but figured we would play around with it during our Pre-K year, then just start Horizons for K.

 

But.

 

It is becoming more and more apparent that my son is not a fan of routine or workbooks. For example, he loves LOVES loves HWT Pre-K, when we do wooden pieces or the slate or sing, etc. The workbook? Not so much. He can write the letters no problem, he just doesn't want to do the workbook. Or Hooked on Phonics...he loves the DVD clips, loves the books, HATES doing the workbook lessons. He can read the words just fine, he just doesn't want to read the workbook lesson.

 

So.

 

I'm questioning if Horizons will be a good fit for him. RightStart seems like it would suit his temperament more, but the whole premise of RS is foreign to me. I'm not exactly good at math myself, especially conceptual math. And Saxon? Well I don't want to waste time playing around with it if I'm going to end up having to re-teach concepts the RS way. But I don't want to use RS if it's not a good, solid program.

 

Advice?

[jenadina]

It's definitely solid and it's not hard to teach even if you're non-mathy. My own skills in arithmetic have skyrocketed from teaching it to my son, and his math skills are excellent.

[Cynful]

I would also recommend RS. It's not hard to teach at all and really, I've learned more math myself just by teaching it. :) Well I guess not more math, but I've learned to do math faster and easier and also do it in my head. I don't think you even will need to re-teach the RS way. We didn't and both of my children did fine coming from Saxon/MUS into RS B. The only major difference is the counting and we just had fun with it.

 

Good luck,

[Crimson Wife]

I would also recommend RS. It's not hard to teach at all and really, I've learned more math myself just by teaching it. :)

 

:iagree:

I'm not at all an intuitively "mathy" person but using programs based on the Asian way of teaching math (RS for the primary grades, Singapore supplemented by MM later on) has helped me finally understand *why* the algorithms work. The scripted lessons make RS really easy to teach (much easier than Singapore).

[give_me_a_latte]

Definitely intrigued.....definitely. Goodness knows I could use a boost to my own mental math capabilities ;-)

 

After discussing both programs with my husband he says, "Why not do both?". So....would that be crazy? To do RS and Horizons? They're so very different I don't know if that would even work.

 

I think RS is such a unique nontraditional way of teaching math that I worry it won't be enough. I'm trying to cut that mindset loose, but in the meantime I feel like Horizons is my safety net.

[jenadina]

I personally think it would be overkill, but I know that some people *do* combine RS with other programs successfully.

[Terabith]

I started Horizons when we were about halfway through RS B. I did the second half of first grade workbook. I liked the spiral review to supplement and "remind" my dd about concepts we'd done.

 

But, from what I've seen of it, I am actually not wild about the Horizons K program. It doesn't mesh nearly as well with RS as the first grade and up books.

 

He's only four, though, right? At four I would DEFINITELY not do Horizons. There is a lot of writing. Even with scribing, I think it would be overkill. RS A, or Miquon, would be a better fit, I think.

[give_me_a_latte]

Yep, I had planned to hold off on Horizons until his K5 year.

 

I think I'm going to order RS level A and just feeeel it in my hands. Maybe ease into it for his PreK year. From what I've read it seems the foundation is laid really well after Level A and B, so I like your suggestion to introduce Horizons at midpoint Level B.

 

I'm sure I'll be revisiting this in a year after we've had RS in our hands. !!

[MerryAtHope]

Definitely intrigued.....definitely. Goodness knows I could use a boost to my own mental math capabilities ;-)

 

After discussing both programs with my husband he says, "Why not do both?". So....would that be crazy? To do RS and Horizons? They're so very different I don't know if that would even work.

 

I think RS is such a unique nontraditional way of teaching math that I worry it won't be enough. I'm trying to cut that mindset loose, but in the meantime I feel like Horizons is my safety net.

 

I've used Horizons 1-6, but not the K program. You don't need to do K before doing Horizons 1. So my thought would be to go ahead and try RS. Sounds like it might fit your child's age & learning style better--and if it didn't work out, you could still go to Horizons in 1st or 2nd grade. Horizons does tend to be on the advanced side anyway (we do it 1 level below grade level and my kids still test high in math).

 

I think at 4, you just can't know if a child is going to like workbooks later or not! At 4, he really should just be playing with manipulatives--in fact, after being gung-ho with my first, I let my 2nd play with manip's with no instruction for preK and for K, and in 1st grade I did half of Horizons 1 with letting her play with manipulatives every other day. That made a great 1st grade year I think!

 

Merry :-)

[Crimson Wife]

Stumbled across this thread while I was looking for a different one and thought it was relevant to the OP's question about combining RS & Horizons.

[give_me_a_latte]

Thanks everyone for the info and links! We're going to order RS Level A for now and see where it takes us!