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What math do you like for 1st grade?


Queserasera
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I used RightStart with my two older kids at that age.  But I'll agree with others that if Horizons is a good fit for you and your student, you might as well stick with it.  For a friend whose child didn't like math with Horizons (but the mom wanted something with fewer moving pieces than RightStart), she switched to Math Mammoth and really likes it for early elementary.

 

Hope you don't mind a bit of a tangent....

 

 

I love Rightstart. You couldn't pry it out of my cold, dead hand for preschool through second grade.

Now, after having done it twice I know I could teach math in that manner without the program - and I am loving cuisenaire rods more and more - but the scope and sequence and progression of Rightstart A-C are pretty awesome.

My second favorite way to teach math to littles is with manipulatives like beads or c-rods and an old school arithmetic primer. Hall's is one I am loving right now. But again, I wouldn't have been able to teach like if I hadn't learned from a program like RS how to do it. We tried and it was a big fail, because I didn't properly understand teaching elementary arithmetic and quantity awareness.

 

Arctic Mama, I know you are a big RS fan...Would you consider using RS with a kid who just does not click with the abacus?  DS5 just refuses to use it to do math (he'll make pictures on it but just does not like any actual numerical exercises with it), but has been making tons of progress with C-Rods.  For whatever reason he loves those!  I have been doing a mix of some topics from RS A, Singapore Essential K book B, and Education Unboxed activities.    We'll finish Essential K soon, and I like a bit more structure than just using the videos.  I can't decide if it is worth modifying RS to use C-Rods as the main manipulative until he decides he is willing to use the abacus...or if we should jump ship to something like Miquon that would incorporate the C-rods naturally and then I could bring my RS knowledge to the table. 
 

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I agree about not switching from something that is working. If you feel like it's going to fast, maybe spend time doing flash cards or games between lessons. We use Miquon but supplement with some Kumon word problem and money books. I also find fun holiday printables online and give my 1st grader those to mix things up.

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I did Horizons K and the first book of Horizons Grade 1 before switching and it gave my child a good grounding. The reason I switched after that was that Horizons K seemed to move at a faster pace than the first grade book and my child did not need so much repetition - I moved to Singapore with some MEP and LOF. 

 

If Horizons is working I would stick with it - don't change unless you need to.

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Horizons worked for us through 3rd grade. Midway through third it got super hard for my non-mathy child. We switched to cle and are so pleased. But I loved horizons through I guess half of 3rd. For my next child we are switching to cle earlier just to stick with the same program.

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We alternate books between Singapore and Miquon, and it's going well.

 

If all that's wrong with Horizons is that it's a bit easy, feel free to just go through at whatever speed works best. You're not limited to the book with the "correct" grade number on it.

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I really like Horizons, but it moves very slow for my mathy kid, so I combine and skip lessons, cross out problems, etc. It is pretty easy to adjust the pace as you need to.

 

Is your son in K now or 1st? Horizons K is more like 1st grade math than K math. Horizons 1 finishes with telling time to the quarter hour, counting groups of coins, understanding basic fractions (1/4, 1/2, 1/3), recognizing basic 2d and 3d shapes, measuring with inches and centimeters, adding/subtracting 3-digit numbers without regrouping, adding 2 digit numbers with regrouping, and very basic word problems.

 

I also use Math in Focus because it goes deeper in regrouping and has much better word problems, but it includes very limited exposure to the other topics. I want to go wide and deep, mastery and spiral, so I do both.

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I really like Singapore and recently changed from Standards to Math in Focus because it goes more in depth than Standards (more word problems, hands on, etc.) However, I was finding that, unlike her older brother, my 6 yo DD seems to be having some trouble mastering math facts through 10. So I have added MEP Level 1 and it is working beautifully for her. MEP approaches number sense from so many different angles that she seems to effortlessly be absorbing math facts, math fact family concepts etc. She loves the story and logic elements as well. MEP is available for free too!

 

 

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Horizons is good as long as you pick and choose a bit once he gets into the older grades.  Also, definitely supplement with conceptual work.  The best supplement in our house has been Zaccaro's Primary Math.  You can buy it and just do the level one problems either this year or next year.  My5th grader is doing the level 3 and Genius problems, so you can see that, for a first grader it might be a little too hard.  However, definitely buy the book and have it on hand so you can start with the level 1's next year.  It's VERY important to supplement with something conceptual. I cannot stress that enough (maybe by telling you that we are now paying more than 1400.00 this year for my  7th grade son to be tutored in the area of problem solving and conceptual skills?)  We had tried supplementing with Challenign Word problems and found it too different and not easy to use or friendly for a non Singapore user.  I wish we had tried Zaccaro's!  So...anyway Horizons is great.  But do supplement.

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I really like Singapore and recently changed from Standards to Math in Focus because it goes more in depth than Standards (more word problems, hands on, etc.) However, I was finding that, unlike her older brother, my 6 yo DD seems to be having some trouble mastering math facts through 10. So I have added MEP Level 1 and it is working beautifully for her. MEP approaches number sense from so many different angles that she seems to effortlessly be absorbing math facts, math fact family concepts etc. She loves the story and logic elements as well. MEP is available for free too!

 

I did this exact combo (MIF and MEP) for 1st grade with Sophia. It was perfect. We're doing the exact same combo this year as well.

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If you were just curious to try a secondary math program for the sake of comparison, I would second the advice to try a free program like MEP or a vintage program that someone suggested earlier. I have Ray's Primary Arithmetic which I use along with RSB for grade 1. I highly recommend the Oral Exercises for developing a basic number sense of 1 through 10. The oral word problems are good, too. Having a child express a math solution verbally can be really helpful, and Ray's requires this. 

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