Abeka K/Horizons K ?

[momtotkbb]

A recent IRL discussion of these two programs made me wonder what others thought. I would post a poll - but don't know how.

 

So here's the questions:

 

Do you consider Abeka K math and/or Horizons K math to be a true K level program for the average 5 yo K student or are they more on an end of K/1st grade level?

 

Do you consider the Abeka phonics and/or Horizons phonics programs to be a true K level program or are they more in lines with a 1st grade program?

 

In particular looking at the programs for 5 or 6 yo boys. The group of mom's where the discussion came up felt Abeka and Horizon's K programs were more in line with first grade programs and too "hard" or required too much for the average K child, in particular wiggly boys.

[FO4UR]

I haven't tried Abeka, but I did try Horizon's K. I think it's more inline with most 1st grade maths. My wiggly willy ds was not very motivated to understand math with it- and the TM didn't help the teacher on that end. He just wanted to fill in the blanks and go play. It didn't draw him in - kwim. It was frustrating for us both! He got through about 50+ lessons and still didn't understand the concepts outside of the workbook. I dropped it and went with Miquon, Singapore...

 

eta: we went to SM 1A and it has been wonderful!

[RootAnn]

Math: I've never used A Beka K, but did go through quite a bit of Horizons K with my dd#2 and just started my second child on A Beka 1. I think Horizons K is more of a 1st grade program. I know A Beka 1 is a bit advanced for many PS first graders, but my oldest "got it" just fine without a formal K math program.

 

If you have a wiggly willy, I wouldn't use a formal math program in K. My oldest is STILL a wiggler (although a girl) and we use movement as much as possible to keep her "into" her subjects. When she was in K, we just used a lot of manipulatives (money, Legos, animal crackers, M&Ms, stuffed animals, etc.).

[myfatherslily]

My only experience is with A Beka Letters and Sounds K. I didn't buy the rest of the phonics stuff, we just used the workbook along with Word Mastery. I felt that it was a very good, thorough program, even to the point of being too much so. We skipped alot of pages that I felt were simply unnecessary for us. But I think it's excellent to have all that practice there for those who need plenty. My DD is still preschool age and will being Kindergarten this coming fall. I think it's very well in line with K-level phonics work, at whichever age your child is ready for that level and wouldn't hesistate to recommend it for a 5-6 year old child who's just starting phonics.

My DD is not a wiggler, though:) I know that A Beka has more than just the workbook and it's not even intended to be used EVERY day. There are charts and cards and some optional games you can buy, I think. I know my DS will need a more hands-on approach than DD, when he reaches that point. For DD, in addition to Letters and Sounds and reading the words directly from the Word Mastery pages, sometimes I wrote them on the chalkboard for her, sometimes we used scrabble tiles or felt letters (which my mother painstakingly cut at least a hundred of back when I was a child... it's quite amazingly really!). So there are certainly other ways to make it more interactive.

 

We're just starting to get into math and using Singapore, so we have no experience with K math yet:)

[mom2att]

I've used Horizons Phonics K and Horizons Math K with my youngest this year. I would say the math is rather advanced, but with an approximate 1 page (front & back) per day pace, it's not out of reach for most k'ers. I will add that we did not do every problem, and we're getting really sick of number lines. We made it through the first book at the page per day pace, but a shortly after starting book 2 in the K series we cut back to just one side of the page (instead of front & back). Ds is a young k'er, and it was too much, too fast at that point.

 

Now Horizons Phonics is something else entirely. It is incredibly advanced--I am really amazed that there are schools that use this as their K program with a classroom full of 5 and 6-year-olds--I don't know how they do it. It starts out simple enough, but after going through beginning and ending consonants, it flies through vowels, diagraphs, dipthongs, and every other phonetic combination you've never heard of. There are four books in the K series, which means the student is expected to complete sometimes 2 front and back pages, sometimes 3, sometimes even 4. This is an incredible amount of work for a k'er, IMO. We have taken the whole year to get through the first two books only and are ditching it after that. It's too much work, too much writing, too much, too fast, and that's at a much modified pace (we only do one page front & back each day). My first child, who was reading at 4 and devoured workbooky-type stuff, probably would have loved it. My youngest, who is pretty much an average k'er, is surviving. For K I would consider the first two books only. I think the third and fourth books are 1st grade material, and advanced at that.

[calandalsmom]

We used Horizons K math for my middle child and we loved it. I didnt find it terribly advanced. We used it between Singapore Earlybird and Singapore 1.