Anybody care to review Horizons Pre-Algebra?

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

What do you think of it so far? Any weak areas? Areas of strength? What do you plan to move on to afterwards?

[SewLittleTime]

:bigear:

[Crimson Wife]

DD I'm guessing will probably start it some time in November. It all depends on how long it takes her to finish up her current Singapore book. She'll be using it paired with Singapore Discovering Math 1 in an attempt to spread out pre-algebra over 2 years. It looks good in the preview but we'll have to see how it goes once we finally implement it.

 

After that, it's still TBD whether she'll continue on to Singapore DM2 or switch to a more traditional sequence.

[teacalm]

DD10 (soon to be 11 6th grader), used it first last semester. She had a hard time doing it, and this is my mathy kid. She finished Horizons K-6, and part of the Singapore series, I believe up to 5A, and yet she did not breeze through Horizons Prealg. It's deceptively simple, that's my first impression. It's the same format as the previous years, 2-page per lesson. But, it does jump into pre-algebra concepts right away without introducing and not giving reinforcements. I need to supplement and provide extra practice for some of the lessons. I went back to Russian Math 6 and she finished up to Chap.3, and this year, I had her go back Horizons Prealg starting from Lesson 1 (she managed to get through lesson 43 the first time she did). She's doing much, much better this time.

 

I got impatient with her, and made the mistake of comparing her with older dd12, who finished her Glencoe Prealgebra without too much complaining except in the first 4 chapters. I guess dd10's maturity level needs to catch up so she can grasp the abstract concepts in her mind.

 

I'm happy that dd10 is happy with her math. It's not by any means easy, and looking through it, will prepare her well for algebra when that time comes.

 

I probably will use Dolciani's Alg. 1 Structure and Method with her, as this is the textbook dd12 is using this year, and I have all the ancillary materials:solution man., teacher's ed., practice problems, tests and etc.

[Trish]

We're using both Thinkwell and Horizons pre-algebra. It seems like there are enough problems if you use the additional worksheets in the teacher's manual. It has been challenging but thorough, at least that's how it seems 20+ lessons into it. I like the real-life applications.

 

I also REALLY like the fact that it's spiral. If they review something he's very solid on, I'll have him skip the section, or just do half the problems, or first and last. But it has definitely helped me ferret out areas he isn't totally solid on.