Anyone here use it? It's getting good reviews on the Sonlight forums. http://www.aleks.com It even has a free 1 month trial I'm tempted to try it with Noah.
Go for the trial, 30 days would definitely give you a good taste of it to help decide. I have heard of it but never looked into it....we're using Horizons and it's a good fit for us (and now that I own all the TM for k thru 5, why switch now as long as its working for all my kiddos). Rhonda C.
We're horizons users too. I'm surprised at how advanced Horizons math is... I just cant stop looking into other curriculums for some reason lol.
I chose Horizons because its advanced. My girls have always done well in math at PS (but we're held back by the class) but they don't love math so if they knew how much of Horizons was ahead, they'd freak out. My 2nd grader is very "against" doing anything before she's supposed too....not sure why. My oldest is aware that its ahead and lives with it. But after she was tested at Christmas of 3rd grade at the PS at grade level and then within one month of standardized test prep (at the school), jumped over 2 grade levels at the testing they did when we "exited" there school.....all because they just hadn't bothered to expose her to those math concept (even in her gifted ed class)....she went from a 3.6 to a 5.8 with a few practice tests. So when we moved and started HSing last March , I bought Hor 1 and 3, and they did it all in 2 months (now we did skip things they obviously knew but several items were new and I wanted them to be ready for 2 and 4). They are. My 4th grader could be done with Hor 4 except she's completed Bk 1 of Keys to Fractions and I've slowed her down a bit because she was getting burned out with more than one lesson per day (she used to want to do 2 but now the material is getting harder so we're going to a more normal pace). Asked her if she wanted to go to TT6 after Hor 4 since she was getting a bit tired of Horizons but after looking thru the Demo, she's rather stick with Horizons....so we will. Love the K books....and so does my son....he's such a math guy at this point. Hope you figure out what works best for you guys. Rhonda C.
When my oldest switched from Horizons to Saxon in fourth grade, we were able to skip a whole book! I like Horizons, too. Phillip is in the second grade book. What I really like is the way it introduces Algebra concepts to them at such a young age. I miss that with Saxon.
I love how the Kindy and 1st grade Horizons Math it made learning all the new concepts so easy. I went with Kindy Abeka for some odd reason (I had a workbook already, I guess thats why) but Abeka seems to make it much more difficult on my son. It's throwing new things at him left and right it seems. I know Abeka and Horizons are alot alike in 2nd and 3rd grade books but the kindy books seem alot different in their approach. I'm going to break down and order Caiden the Horizons kindy set today. He's just so confused with math right now we've given up abeka math and are just moving through MUS really slowly. I think I might have ruined his love of learning math with Abeka.... poor kid. I'll have to bring out the chocolates to bribe him to sit for a lesson, theres nothing like a little chocolate to make math seem fun!
We used mini marshmallows one day.....he loved it. Lately, I've been giving him a penny for each sight words he gets right (sight words are NOT his thing)....then I have a ziploc of change. He gets his $$ but he has to count it out...thus reinforcing his math money skills. Obviously we aren't doing this daily (or Momma's bag would be broke) but so far, he's earned 31 cents and 38 cents. Sure wish they hadn't changed the nickels pic though....that throws him...even though the size is the same. Rhonda C.
