I have a very bright kindergartner that we home schooled this year using horizons math and a combination of how to teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons and abeka 1st grade phonics and reading program. She still has a LOT left on the phonics program so we will be continuing it and I am considering using heart of dakota for the rest but math has been a fight every day for the last month so I have been considering changing her math curriculum to something different and am open to suggestions for 1st grade. Please let me know what you chose and why or if you've already completed it if you'd pick it again! I tend to over think things lol so I'd really love other's opinions on some of the math programs. FYI: I do NOT like common core. Thank you for all your help!! Carla
I have used many math programs with my kids. My 2 favorite are Saxon and Math-U-See. The other ones have used and liked are McGraw-Hill's Real Math and Lifepacs. I don't think Lifepacs is as strenuous or as challenging but it works. Real Math is a colorful workbook and my K currently uses it in conjunction MUS.
For K math, you need to decide where their strengths and weaknesses are. Is your child sick of math because it's too easy or too hard? My DD has been doing lifepack K math and it's just way too easy. The program has stalled out repeating very easy concepts over and over again. So we started skipping pages. I also use an app called Mathboard to drill simple adding and subracting (I can set the difficulty level). For the K level there are tons of freebies online. You maybe able to finish your K year without buying a new book, but start something new with grade 1. Switching completely mid-year may be difficult.
I guess I should have specified I'm looking to finish off this year with the horizons. Unless it's just a NIGHTMARE I don't see us changing mid year anything DD is a perfectionist. If her 9 is too curvy or too big she gets mad. Part, I know she will grow out of but I'm looking for a curriculum that would be better suited to her perfectionist traits *sigh* I double and triple guess myself especially when I feel like she is struggling. She says she likes it and always wants to start with it BUT.... it is also the ONLY subject we argue over lol. otherwise she loves school.
I like Miquon Math and Jump at Home Math. I have used them both and would use them again. http://www.timberdoodle.com/Jump_at_Home_Grade_1_p/469-510.htm http://miquonmath.com/
I always like to suggest Christian Light Education www.clp.org Click on Education. Then you can look at their courses by subject or by grade level. They have sample pages too. If you click on first grade math, when you get to the page where you order, you'll see a little box for each unit; click on the tiny Adobe symbol and the sample pages of that unit come up. I love CLE math. It's built on an incremental spiral, which means they introduce a little bit of new lesson and then review previous lessons through many lessons after that, just a few of each kind at a time. It's in ten workbooks per level, and after first grade the first workbook is a review of the "highlights" of the previous year. At the end of 2nd grade last year, my DGS blew the top off his achievement test in math. DO get the TM because there's some oral work in first grade that you have to call out, and you won't know what it is without the TM. Also, just in case the student didn't do well on the unit test, there's an Alternate Unit Test in the TM.
We are doing CLP this year. I think I would definatly see where strengths and weaknesses are in her learning. Be extra creative in the subjects she might nt enjoy as much. I don't like Common Core either. I recently did an online test for my 7 year old in Math, Grammar, Reading, and Vocab. He scored a 2nd grader in reading, and 3rd grader in everything else. I mean, he's smart, but (bless him) not that smart. It's awfully hyped up if you ask me, and asking them to show work on 42+5 is ridiculous. They have to write out to the side of the problem 40+2=42+5=45. DUMB and not needed. (soap box done). Welcome!!
For the lower levels I like BJU as well as Horizons. If you did not like Horizons, consider BJU. What I like is the format, you work the front side of a page with the child, then they complete the back alone (hopfully). If they did not get a concept, I always went to math drills website and printed extra items. It is colorful and appealing to young ones. For lower grades, I did not buy the T.M.'s. BJU press also sells a neat book of math manipulatives that are punch outs and cut outs on card stock. If you do not have plastic ones, this is a less expensive alternative. Edited to add that if you live anywhere Greenville SC, it is worth a drive to get the scratch and dent items. They are often highly discounted and the previous versions are almost free if you can catch them at the right time.
Any idea what the "right time" is? lol My SIL lives about half an hour away and my FIL lives here but is headed there this weekend and could pick up things for me as well. Hmmm.... to go look on the site....
