I was asking earlier if anyone had used CLP math for elementary grades. I decided to go ahead and order it and see what it was like. The price was great. So, I compared it to these other math curriculums that I also have ordered in the past... Scott Foresman Horizons Math Plus by Harcourt MCP Math CLP Liberty Math Singapore Early Bird Mathematics Well, the verdict is in. I think they all have their good points, but I still find Scott Foresman to be #1 in my book. I assume it is not just the content (which is very good), but it's the presentation that really appeals to me. The color workbook is great but not too overwelming. It has a story to go with each chapter (K) and games/manipulatives to make the learning more fun. Each lesson has the instruction on it, therefore it does not require a teacher lesson plan in the elementary years. I also love that they offer a chapter book style version of their textbook/workbook. It is much easier to deal with the 12 chapters as seperate workbooks. The price is also very reasonable. My second choice is MathPlus by Harcourt. I used this with ds this year and I also used it in PS when I taught. I like the presentation as well. It is very similar to SF and uses manipulatives (mostly punch-outs that come with the workbook). It was always a success with my students. The only drawback to me is that it's an old series and I haven't really looked into the newer ones from this company. I do not like the size of these workbooks though. The pages are larger than the typical workbook. The workbook is very large and bulky too. Just a note on CLP. I like the content, but when looking through it my first thought were that it looked hard. Strange since I expected it to be easy or easier than most curriculums. I don't know why I thought that. The pages were packed with problems and it looked like a ton of repetition. It had only blue and black ink I believe and I truly love color. It didn't appear to have a lot of explanations on the lessons either. It may be that in the older grades you would need a teacher manual. Other than that I would say it would be fine for most kids. It just seemed like the trational workbook with lots and lots of practice work. Still, it's not what I would pick for myself or my kids.
