Horizons Math 5 Student Book 1: Jms051

The Horizons math books are excellent for young minds! My daughter, who has not even started Kindergarten yet completed the Horizons Kindergarten set at home before starting Preschool, the 1st grade set during her first year of Preschool, and the 2nd grade set while she was in Pre-Kindergarten. She has always had a love for numbers. I bought these books and began to homeschool her because she was already counting to 200 forward and backward at age 2,which is how she completed the addition and subtraction sections of Horizons Grade 1 with so much ease, and skip counting to 100 by 2's,3's,4's,5's,6's,7's,8's,9's and 10's at the age of 2, which is how she completed the multiplication sections of Horizons Grade 2 with so much ease. She loves math and does well with the spiral approach of learning several different math concepts all at once. I do agree that these books are not for everyone. My daughter was reading 1st Grade books on her own at the age of 2 but she was also a VERY late talker/listener. At 2 years of age, she could count well and read almost any word in print, but had trouble processing and understanding LANGUAGE. At the age of 2, we were told by doctors that our daughter may be Autistic. By specialist, we were told she had the characteristics of an Autistic Savant. She was diagnosed as being on the low end of the Autism spectrum because her only trouble was language. She is an only child. Initially, we put her in Preschool so she could be around other children her age. She was very young, we could only hope that she would pick up on language and get better. Well, she has. She didn't start processing and understanding language until she was 3.5 years old but she will be 5 years old this December and is not the same child. She talks a lot, ask questions, follows directions, tells us what she is thinking, what she thinks of others and much more. She reads 3rd Grade books and answers comprehension questions with 100% accuracy. Her language skills have improved and so have her math skills, we are now working on Horizons Grade 3 and she is doing well in a private school. The public school in our area would not accept her because she has a December birthday which misses the cut-off date for admittance. We have decided to keep her in private school and continue homeschooling her with Horizons math through the Grade 6 level, which is where the Horizons math books end, sadly.

We started homeschooling our oldest child beginning in 3rd grade. She had been in a Montessori school from preschool through 2nd grade and was advanced in math. We started with Level 3 because everyone said Horizons was so advanced. Overall the books are fantastic. They offer a variety of problems with each lesson. The lessons regularly provide review of past material. It is bright and pleasant to look at (no color is very dull for an 8 year old). Each lesson also provides a reasonable number of problems especially for a student who gets bored easily/tired of doing the same type of problem repeatedly. With that said, my only 'negative' comment is if you have a very advanced math learner. By the end of the 1st book, my child was getting bored with doing the problems over concepts she had 'mastered'. Therefore by the 2nd book, if it was a review concept, I would select a few problems from that particular section of the lesson (for example if there were 8 subtraction problems I would have her do 3 or 4). If a concept was being reviewed more frequently through a series of lessons, sometimes I would allow her to completely skip sections of review problems. We will continue with the Horizons program next school year.

I agree with another reviewer, this approach is for a very bright child. Saying that, my daughter really thrived with it. If your child is "average" or you don't want to push them too hard, stick with Alpha Omega's LifePacs. Alpha Omega Horizons are specifically made to go quicker. I loved this series, too. My daughter started at 4 (almost 5) and just finished up the 2nd workbook. I'm ordering the 1st grade set for her too. She LOVES math!

As a homeschooler, I want materials that are easy to teach, and interesting and easily-understandable for my child. This math series answers those needs. The workbook pages offer an interesting variety of problem-types daily, and with their colorful, illustrated pages, they are more attractive to a young learner than a black-and-white textbook. I prefer Horizon's workbook format, especially in the younger grades, because it saves time and prevents mistakes made when copying problems from a textbook to notebook paper. About 90% of the time, a teacher of younger grades could get by without the teacher's manual, but it does offer useful tips for explaining new concepts, and thoroughly outlines each day's work. The reduced-page, picture answer key makes correcting students' work a breeze, and the optional worksheets help reinforce the lessons being taught. I've used several other programs, but this is the best I've seen and used. I wish it was used when I was in school -- Math would have been my favorite subject!

The all time best math books I've found for lower grades. Great preparation if you want to move on to Saxon Math after Grade 3. Lots of colorful illustrations, liberal use of manipulatives ( the kind you can find around your house without having to invest a bundle in pricey manipulatives), and very little teacher prep time. It's easy enough to use so that even a beginning homeschooler needn't feel intimidated by the materials. Mastery style of teaching/learning, so children keep reviewing previously learned skills and building on already mastered skills. (like Saxon Math) I've used this book even for children who were learning to speak english, and they've done very well with this series. I highly recommend Horizons Math!