Curriculum Review: Horizons Math 2

For my younger daughter, E we needed something that moved faster and could hold her interest...something that would challenge her, yet not frustrate her. Something where she was able to learn new things, yet remained fun for her.

Horizons, by Alpha Omega Homeschool, is widely known for use with children that are "gifted" or "accelerated" in math. I began E in grade 2 when she was 7, and she just completed it a week ago, at age 8 yrs. 2 mos. We completed every lesson, every test, and every speed drill. Horizons math lived up to its reputation.

E and I both LOVED using Horizons. We both want to continue with it. E says, "I LOVE math. It's my favorite subject. It's FUN. " As a teacher, and mother of a child who excels in math, I also loved it.

Horizons begins with a speed drill 4 out of 5 days of the week. Then we move on to the lesson of a new concept daily, with an oral lesson, board work for examples, although E never needed these, as she catches right on, so we skipped examples and we would go straight to her assignments. Each lesson took me about 5 minutes to teach, and then took E anywhere from 15 minutes to maybe 45 minutes tops to complete. She got 2 B's on her work (160 lessons, 16 tests) and straight A's the entire rest of the year.

The program covered basic addition and subtraction, and by the middle of the year she was doing 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying, and "columns" of adding. She began learning her multiplication facts by mid year, also, and has them all down pat by now, a full year earlier than most math programs used in home school, public school, or private schools. Horizons math 2 also covered money, fractions, different kinds of graphs, decimals, thermometers, and basic geometry concepts such as area and volume, and 3-D shapes. One major thing that helped tremendously when she began learning her multiplication facts was the first half of the year the child learns by rote "skip-counting" by every single digit number. The 2 workbook set for students was in full color, which captured my child's interest with the pictures, while each assignment had her doing anywhere from 60-100 separate math problems. EVERY assignment had at least 1, and usually 2 or 3 story problems in which E had to figure out which operation to use (add, subtract, or multiply.)

As each concept is introduced, it is practiced in-depth for the next 5 lessons, while still daily introducing another new concept. Once a concept is learned, it is never forgotten, but touched upon again and again throughout the daily assignments and on tests, and built upon.

Horizons is not for everyone. If your child needs more time with new things, I would not recommend Horizons. I would also not recommend it for children who are distracted by colorful worksheets, or by constantly switching topics in one lesson. But for a child who likes math, who excels at it, or who is considered accelerated, Horizons definitely has been the best math program we have tried, and we will definitely be sticking with it.