plain jane Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I need to admit defeat and face my limitations. RS A is simply not getting done around here. :( I love RS A but I need a workbook for math. I know I'll still have to be there while he works on math but it'll be less teacher intensive overall. My plan is to use SM Standards once in grade 1 but I'm not sure what to use for K. I've only ever used Horizons K and RS A and have no experience with SM Earlybird. I'm leaning towards Horizons because I don't want to buy 4 different books like I'll have to do with SM. I've also used it before and I remember it being pretty fun and covered a lot. Is there any reason to not use Horizons K or any compelling reasons that I should use SM Earlybird for math instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plain jane Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. Ack. Is that different from the Earlybird math? Sigh. Off to go look that one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. I don't have personal experience in this yet---but have decided to use this with my k-er next year---also supplementing with other math activities (Family Math, Kumon) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 We LOVE Horizons math here! Dc do so well with it. Even ds1st who has HFA and a few other learning issues. We did not do book 2 with him though. Just book 1. He did GREAT going from K book 1 to 1st grade book 1. (I will not skip any other books though) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Ack. Is that different from the Earlybird math? Sigh. Off to go look that one up. Most people like it better, and it's cheaper to boot! No TMs, just 2 inexpensive workbooks. I use C-rods with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myfatherslily Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. :iagree: I know how confusing it is when people start posting other suggestions! I used both Earlybird and Horizons K with DD. I am now using Essential Math for DS and it wins, hands down :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. Why is the Essential Math preferred over the Earlybird series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I would pick Singapore Essentials also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Why is the Essential Math preferred over the Earlybird series? I used Earlybird and I found it geared towards a classroom setting. Plus, I bought the activity books, which didn't add anything to the curriculum. We didn't have problems using Earlybird, but I think other SM users preferred Essentials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulmomSDG Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I would pick Singapore Essentials also! :iagree: can I vote for Singapore Essentials (A & B) followed by Horizons K? This combo has worked beautifully for my 5yo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicagoshannon Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 We used both Singapore Essentials and Horizons K. You can't go wrong with either one. The things covered in Horizons that weren't covered in Singapore were money, counting by 3's and 4's, and maybe something else that I can't remember at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 :iagree: I know how confusing it is when people start posting other suggestions! I used both Earlybird and Horizons K with DD. I am now using Essential Math for DS and it wins, hands down :) I used Earlybird & Horizons K (book 1) with dd#2. :glare: Never again. She went through Earlybird like gang-bustas & it didn't stick a bit. I personally disliked the emphasis on writing number words. :ack2: Horizons K went REALLY FAST. We kept having to stop & go back through things. It seemed that sometimes we'd spend a week on something before going onto the next lesson. I think Horizons is a good curriculum, but start it with Horizons 1, not the K books. :( I love using a Miquon-like approach for K-math. You have a workbook if you need it. You have a guide (the First Grade Diary) if you need it. Otherwise, you have an awesome approach that is incredible to experience and leads well into SM 1 (from what I've read elsewhere - since we don't use SM). My dd#3 has a much better understanding of math fundamentals at her age than the other two did then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockermom Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 We did both Horizons K and Essential Math. Both DS and I liked both (and they both got the job done). We alternated... on no real schedule. We simply switched between whenever we felt like it. I was never crazy about how each Horizons lesson covered so many unrelated topics. It never bothered DS. Whenever we would do Horizons, DS always wanted to do several lessons per day. I did like that it covered topics that EM ignored. EM took a topic and stuck with it for several lessons. DS didn't mind that approach either. If I had to choose one to do over again, I'd probably go with EM, but that's not because there's anything wrong with Horizons K, though. I've never used Earlybird, so I'm sorry to not actually be able to answer about that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I vote Singapore Essential Math K. I agree with this! It's cheap and effective (especially when combined with c-rods). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustybug Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 :bigear: I'm currently using Earlybird, but the US Edition, and I'm not at all impressed. I've been thinking of switching to Horizons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I honestly haven't been much impressed with the Singapore materials I've looked at---but I'm thinking Essentials, combined with c-rods and a gentle intro into Miquon Orange may be effective for k. Could also throw in some MEP as well? Also Kumon books are great for filling in gaps in any curriculum imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Honestly, I think because Essentials is cheaper. Price tends to rule. We use Earlybird here (with teacher's manual) and absolutely love it. I've looked at Essentials and don't see how it would beat out Earlybird, especially with a younger learner. Earlybird does have some classroom activities in it, but a lot are easy to scale to individual use. Or, just skip the classroom stuff. There's still plenty more activities to use. Just choose the ones that work for you. You don't necessarily have to do them in the exact same order either. We rarely do the conclusion activities. And, we even more rarely do every single activity for a lesson. We always do the textbook stuff, of course. We started out using the activity book, but dropped it, as DD didn't need the extra practice. We also started out reading the little stories (The Tortoise and the Hair, etc.), but dropped those as well. DD is 4.5 years old and does wonderfully with SM Earlybird. What's better? She loves it! We're working on number bonds at the moment. Of course, this is all just my opinion. I'm very partial. :tongue_smilie: PS - We modified the learning-to-write numbers section since we use HWOT and their numbers are written differently. We simply practiced writing numbers on our own paper, when we needed. Why is the Essential Math preferred over the Earlybird series? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I used this. Aidan started playing tye computer games at 4.5 and we started the book for Kindergarten. We also used some hand manipulatives. We finished the book in a little over a year and he tested into Singapore 2a (only because we had not covered the multiplication. It Is great for pictorial learning. It also covers time and fractions. I think it worked well for K. Plus, it is cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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