Math that is like Horizons but gives the "why" behind math?

[newbieoftwo]

My ds loves Horizons K, but is flying through it. I'm trying to find what he will go into when he has finished.

He loves the colorful pictures and he likes worksheets. The spiral method also works better for him than mastery. He doesn't like to use manipulatives very much unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

I love Miquon and Singapore, but they were both bombs for him :leaving: (thankfully dd is more like mommy and is already loving working with c-rods ;))

 

I am not a fan of Horizons.... any ideas???

[CactusPair]

bump

:bigear:

[Jpoy85]

Saxon is spiral. Its hands on but not super colorful.

[SilverMoon]

I haven't used Horizons that far down, but I've heard many times that the K book isn't a good one to use for measuring Horizons. It's a different flavor than the 1-3 books. By your description, the 1 book may be just the ticket.

 

About manipulatives, they really do bring the concepts alive. Perhaps a pile of 2x2 Lego bricks would be more his style, since they're more toy than school. Build stacks of 10s with them, and leave some loose for ones.

[besroma]

We love RightStart, but that might not work for him since he does not like manipulatives. If he simply doesn't like c-rods and Miquon, RS might be a possibility.

 

Have you looked at any of Rosie's Education Unboxed videos? Or Crewton Ramone?

 

My sons love manipulatives because I let them play with them outside of our math time. They build towers with base ten blocks. They like to build them as tall as possible, which is great because they get more practice with place value of larger numbers when they tell me their tower is worth 930. :tongue_smilie:

 

I use Miquon, SM, LOF, RS, and MEP (not all with the same child). I also use Horizons for spiral review to supplement the mastery maths. I, like you, don't like Horizons as a spine, but I do love it for spiral review.

[newbieoftwo]

We currently have almost every math manipulative available on our our shelf. I am somewhat of a math geek and love to work with math concepts through play time. DS only likes them on occasion and is very particular about making the exact picture on the lego box only. To him, legos are not a toy, but rather only follows the instructions that come in the box :glare:

[newbieoftwo]

I thought about RightStart as the abacus is the only math manipulative we don't own, but it also focuses on addition for multiple lessons and even if the difficulty varied, he would tire of it. I am not currently using Miquon or C-rods with him and have passed that down to DD.

 

He loves Horizons and Life of Fred. I might try Singapore on the whiteboard. He doesn't seem to mind as much when we work out problems on there.

[boscopup]

We currently have almost every math manipulative available on our our shelf. I am somewhat of a math geek and love to work with math concepts through play time. DS only likes them on occasion and is very particular about making the exact picture on the lego box only. To him, legos are not a toy, but rather only follows the instructions that come in the box :glare:

 

I have one of these children (DS1). My advice: Take the Lego instructions away. ;)

 

Once I did that, DS was forced to build things on his own. At first, it was mostly from memory of the instructions. :tongue_smilie:But eventually he started building other things. Basically, I let him have the instructions the first week maybe, and then I take them away, and the legos all go in one big bucket.

 

He also doesn't use manipulatives in his math. The ONE topic he needed them was making 10s (8+5=10+3=13). We were using Math Mammoth at the time, and I had to pull out the base ten blocks. He was confused at first, then got it. He was 6.5 at that point. I don't know that he would have been developmentally ready for that topic at age 5, and he is very mathy.

 

Here's an idea for you... Pick up a copy of Math Mammoth grades 1-6. Continue using Horizons with your son. When you get to a new topic where YOU need help presenting it in a "why" manner, refer to MM and teach it at the white board (you can even hold MM in your hand without ever showing it to your son). Then let your son do the practice in Horizons, now that you have taught him the concept. You could do the same thing with Singapore, but I figure MM is cheaper for the grade 1-6 package via HSBC.

 

You might find that when he's older, he's more able to handle different presentations. A 5 year old is different from a 7 or 8 year old. Maturity may help some.

[blondeviolin]

MEP Reception could be fun. The printing of the posters might be a pain/expensive, but then you'd be done. The further years aren't particularly colorful in MEP, though.

[newbieoftwo]

I have one of these children (DS1). My advice: Take the Lego instructions away. ;)

 

Once I did that, DS was forced to build things on his own. At first, it was mostly from memory of the instructions. :tongue_smilie:But eventually he started building other things. Basically, I let him have the instructions the first week maybe, and then I take them away, and the legos all go in one big bucket.

 

He also doesn't use manipulatives in his math. The ONE topic he needed them was making 10s (8+5=10+3=13). We were using Math Mammoth at the time, and I had to pull out the base ten blocks. He was confused at first, then got it. He was 6.5 at that point. I don't know that he would have been developmentally ready for that topic at age 5, and he is very mathy.

 

Here's an idea for you... Pick up a copy of Math Mammoth grades 1-6. Continue using Horizons with your son. When you get to a new topic where YOU need help presenting it in a "why" manner, refer to MM and teach it at the white board (you can even hold MM in your hand without ever showing it to your son). Then let your son do the practice in Horizons, now that you have taught him the concept. You could do the same thing with Singapore, but I figure MM is cheaper for the grade 1-6 package via HSBC.

 

You might find that when he's older, he's more able to handle different presentations. A 5 year old is different from a 7 or 8 year old. Maturity may help some.

 

Thank you! We will try taking the instructions away for lego time.

 

I heard that Math Mammoth has a lot of problems on each page, but I never though to just teach out of it instead of showing it to him :001_smile: