calihil Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 For those who use or have used Horizons math in the lower grades (like K to 3rd), did you use the Teacher's Manual? If not, how did you use the work books? Just did a lesson every day and taught new things add they came up? Did you supplement at all? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smarson Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 We've used Horizons for K and 1 so far. For K I just did the next lesson and sometimes doubled up since they seemed to go so quickly with my eldest. For 1st I started off not using it but then one day I decided to take a peek inside and it had a few additional exercises to do with her daily to really improve those addition skills and skip counting. I didn't do everything it said in it, usually just used the first couple of problems in the section to 'teach' the concepts if they were new instead of teaching them on a white board or something prior to her doing her own work, but I did really like the additional items it recommended. She was better able to complete the assignment since she had been working on her skip counting and her math facts using flash cards. So, while I don't think the teacher manual is required at all, using it did supplement the program nicely. You could probably find the TM used at homeschoolclassifieds.com for a fraction of the cost... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 Yes I do. Not as much as I should, but I use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 For 1-6 I used the TM as an answer key. I bought the TMs used and they were well worth the little bit I spent on them. There are also extra practice/drill pages and cumulative tests in there if you want/need those. The workbooks are intended to be used at the pace of one lesson a day with a test after every tenth lesson. We treated those tests as lessons, which gives you 176 days. The instruction for the new concept is right there on the student page. Two of my three Horizons users never really used supplements. It truly doesn't need it IMO. (We did play around with some math enrichment as a family, living books, games, etc, but we do that with most subjects.) The third Horizons had a second full curriculum with a very different approach, but it was because of her specifically and nothing to do with Horizons. She has a wicked intuition in math and has always found it easy. She is also prone to a bad attitude. Practically that looked like a kid who could fly through two complete lessons in a flash and call it stupid. Variety kept her hauling forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I didn't find the TM's all that helpful, and didn't use them until it took less time for me to get up and go get the manual than to check my kids' work by doing the math in my head. Typically when I had questions, the TM didn't answer or address my questions. The things my kids struggled with didn't have instruction in the TM. The TM instruction often didn't really go directly with the workbook exercises. It had good added stuff--but I just didn't find it very useful/helpful for using the workbook lessons. There are times when a concept will come up in the TM before it comes up in the workbook (someone above mentioned skip-counting, and this is the most obvious example--in the TM, they worked on skip counting with a number for several days before it came up in the workbook--so if you are only using the workbooks, those sections can be a shock/surprise for the student. We often did those sections together until they were ready to take off with it on their own). Otherwise though, yes, I just gave my kids instructions and worked a few sample problems with them and then let them work. I also usually worked the first problem of a new concept right in their book for each page. My visual learner appreciated having an example to look at as he did his work. One other adjustment--my kids did struggle a bit with addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing--and we used base 10 blocks for several days to solidify those concepts. Also, instead of flash cards, we used a Math Shark to practice math facts. HTH some! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Not really. The one thing you'll really miss though is that the manual teaches the multiplication facts an entire half a year before they show up in the book. So what we did is use the Times Tales plus flash cards between 1st and 2nd grade - they should start second with the multiplication facts pretty much memorized. It's ok if they get stuck now and then. Keep practicing outside the book during second grade too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschickie Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I did not use the actual lessons but just as an answer key and for the worksheets. Dd basically did one lesson a day and I would sit and go over it with her if she had an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 We used the TM as an answer key only. We did one lesson a day. I did supplement with a combination of MEP, and some sort of word problem book (like FAN math or Zacarro Challenge Math). My children who use Horizon as their spine are stronger math students. I don't actually think that Horizons needs to be supplemented but my students needed extra challenges to keep them interested in math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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