My children are triplets (GGB). I switched one of the girls last year to Math U See because she was frustrated with Horizons. She is currently doing Zeta at an accelerated pace and liking it.
They used Horizons for Math (3rd - 5th grade). However, this year (7th - Pre-Algebra), it’s causing a lot of anxiety for another daughter. It’s moving faster than the past grades.
In the past, the spiral approach worked great, but not this year.
I’m considering switching her to Math u See (Pre-Algebra) to avoid frustration.
Or… should I make her push through? It is requiring more discipline and dedication to focus on the material than she is giving, So, I am wondering if it’s an attitude thing vs. a curriculum issue.
When my son was in 3rd grade (he’s in 10th now), we were using Saxon math. He absolutely hated it and it was a struggle everyday. Being new to homeschooling, I made him push through. It was a mistake. We lost a year of math and he has been playing catch up ever since. I wish I would have known then that it’s ok to switch if something isn’t working. He has always struggled with math and I regret not switching. The next year we switched to Math-U-See and haven’t looked back.
I had exactly the same problem with my son. We used Abeka from grades 2-5, which is also spiral. I love the spiral approach but my son began to struggle when new topics were introduced at a fast pace. He was frustrated and began to hate math.
We switched to Math-u-See on grade 6 (Zeta) and that made a big difference for him. He still complains when he struggles with a story problem (that is a character issue) but his attitude toward math and his math skills have improved so much. He is currently using Pre-algebra and my daughter is using Algebra I.
You don’t have to worry about switching from spiral to mastery approach. Math-U-See includes a systematic review on every lesson.
I’m for switching too. Do the MUS placement tests to make sure your daughter is ready for Pre-Algebra, or if she might need some reinforcement with Epsilon or Zeta. My kids did Horizons 1-6 though, and then moved over to MUS Pre-Algebra. I thought Horizons Pre-alg. looked very confusing in its presentation, so it doesn’t surprise me that some kids would struggle with it. Plus, I really wanted (if at all possible!) to have my kids use the same program for higher math, and since Horizons doesn’t have all of the higher maths out, it made sense to me to switch at Pre-algebra so my kids could get used to a new program’s way of presenting concepts. My oldest’s only complaint was that we hadn’t used MUS all along, LOL! Anyway, I hope it works out well for you and your second daughter.
