2nd Grade Horizons Math – First Impressions

You know what “they” say about first impressions…

We got our 2nd grade Horizons math book in the mail! I immediately opened it and started looking through it. I’m very excited to start using it. Drama Queen still has a little bit left in her 1st grade workbook left so we’ll finish that up first. She and I both are eager to use up the rest of that workbook as quick as possible!

Having flipped through it but not using it yet, these are the things that I like it about it so far:

1.) Having a good teacher book is always a plus.

• This teacher book has easy and detailed lesson instruction for each section of each lesson.
• It lists any extra materials you may need so that you can see it at a glance.
• It also includes a section of reproducible worksheets at the back and lists which lessons those will be used with.
• Another thing the teacher book includes is a readiness evaluation at the beginning of the book. That makes me feel comfortable, knowing that when Drama Queen is finished with her 1st grade book we can use the evaluation to make sure she’s ready to move on.

2.) The 2 student workbooks are colorful and well laid out.

• Each lesson has 4 or 5 different sections to it, each working a different concept.
• There is a chart in the teacher book that shows when new concepts are presented and how many lessons they cover, when they reoccur and how they overlap.
• Each concept is worked for 5 lessons in a row when it is introduced, and each time it reoccurs it is worked for at least 3 lessons in a row
• In short, the approach seems very thorough, spending an adequate amount of time on a new concept and revisiting the concept later with good regularity.

3.) There is a certain amount of flexibility.

• The lesson plans intend for you to sit down with your child and give some instruction before each section of each lesson, let them work the section, instruct for the next section, and so on.
• Since each lesson will at the most include one new concept or add one “new” revisited concept at a time, you could choose to give instruction for the newest concept, a quick review of the concepts you’ve been working on, and then let the child to complete the entire lesson on their own.
• The first thing my daughter asked me was, “Can I do as many pages as I want at a time?” Looking at the book right off the bat, I wasn’t sure. But after seeing how the concepts re-occur, it looks like it would be easy to let her do several lessons in a row that cover the same set of concepts.
• Also, each section does have a short instruction sentence that Drama Queen will be able to read by herself, and that’s a good thing.

I’m really expecting to get a lot of out of this curriculum. I hope I’m not setting myself up for disappointment but after all the recommendations I received for it, I don’t think that will be the case. I’m really looking forward to it!