Horizons vs CLE math

[3girls4me]

Can anyone tell me what the main differences would be in these 2 programs?

Thanks!

[Wonder]

I have not used Horizons, but we like CLE here!  Horizons is definitely more colorful, though.  From what others have said, as Horizons goes up in grades, sometimes there's not as much help for the teacher as some need.  CLE has more pages per lesson, but the content is more spread out with plenty of room for writing.  

 

Don't know if this helps or not.  Just "bumping" this for you. :)

[Mbelle]

We used Horizons.  As they mastered different concepts I would only assign a few problems from those sections.  For my second child we switched to another program in 6th grade as it seemed 6th grade was not advancing as much as the previous years and had more repetition of previous concepts.  We really liked Horizons through 5th grade.

[Mrs Twain]

It seems to me that people who are good at math are the ones who like Horizons. I have used it K-5 so far. We plan on doing it through 6 then switching to something else for pre-algebra. It is a good quality, advanced program. We add CWP to increase the difficulty of the word problems. We do the flashcards and speed tests as directed by the TM.

 

The Horizons TM is not scripted which is a problem for people who don't know math well.

 

I haven't used CLE Math and can't compare.

[lorisuewho]

CLE gives a lot of room to solve problems. It has a very simple layout. Black and white. The teacher lessons plans are very scripted. This program comes with flash cards and has an innovative way of rotating them in. I love their flash card rotation system.

 

Horizons is very colorful with cheerful illustrations. There is minimal room to work to solve problems. The teacher lessons plans say things like "Have the child do #1." "Next, have the child do problem #2" Sadly, I'm not exaggerating. I understand how to teach math and at this time I really don't mind what the TM says because I have a good grasp on how I want to present concepts.

 

Neither program comes with manipulatives that I know of. CLE has some hands on ideas in level 1, but I didn't see much after that.

 

I have used Horizons only for a few months but I really do like it. I think it is challenging and builds on concepts in a great manner. I have used CLE levels 1-3 with a different child, and he does very well with it. For the levels I have used I would say that CLE is a slightly slower pace, but is by no means slow or behind. I like them both, and they both work well for different children.

[Vida Winter]

If I could make a suggestion, also check out BJU math. It is similar in look and feel to Horizons (colorful) but incorporates a bit more fact practice into the lesson (via a daily review sheet) and leaves adequate white space to work problems. My 4th grader decided she did not like CLE (it moved too slow) and something about the Horizons crowded page layout did not appeal to her. We looked at online samples from a number of different vendors and she liked the look and feel of BJU the best. I let her pick the vendor on the condition that she stick with it for several years.

[3girls4me]

I wanted to add that we just got back my dd's results for standardized testing. She scored the best in math. 96th percentile. So now I'm thinking horizons is clearly working, yet she still dislikes it. Perhaps she just won't ever like math. I still kind of want to give CLE a test run. But I don't want to fix what isn't broken, as some of you on here say....

[Jasperstone]

CLE is very affordable, so you could buy a few Lightunits to get a feel for them.

 

Personally I love CLE maths! Math isn't my strongest subject, but it has been so easy to teach. And finally my dd 11 is retaining the concepts that she previously struggled with while using MUS.