Horizons Kindergarten Complete Set

My son is 5 years old with ADHD and we decided to pull him out of kindergarten 2 months into the school year. We weren't able to seek treatment because of his age and the school environment was just leaving him ostracized from the group and leaving his teachers frustrated that such a bright boy wouldn't (or rather couldn't) complete any classwork without them hovering over him when they have 20 other kids that needed their attention as well.So, after investigating curriculum options so late after the start of the year and not having prepared at all .. we knew we needed to have a curriculum that was laid out for us. I am teaching Language Arts and Social Studies and my husband is teaching Math and Science.So ... We are now two months into the curriculum and here are our thoughts on it:1. The packaging was damaged when it arrived and we were missing the dry erase tablet. Not a biggie but certainly a disappointment.2. The Language Arts (Phonics, Reading, Writing) is sometimes a bit overwhelming for my little guy but he is learning to read rapidly. We split subjects Monday and Tuesday for Math and Science, Wednesday and Thursday for Language Arts and Social Studies, and Friday for Bible Study and work overflow. Because of this, and the fact that we started 2 months into the school year ... we have to complete 12 pages of Language Arts a day. This takes my highly distracted boy about 3 to 4 hours to do. (I know, I know, yikes). We could lengthen the school year beyond 180 day but this is what we have to do to get to 180 days.((((NOTE: DO NOT GET THE STAND ALONE BOOKS WITHOUT THE TEACHER GUIDE!!! Some questions show you a picture of a person and you are expected to know that their name is Bob or Stan without any indication at all what their names would be .. .How am I supposed to know a picture of a girl is "Beth" when the question being circle everything starting with the letter B? I have to open my teachers guide and tell my son the names of the people on the page)))))3. Math: Math is great. Based on how many pages there are, he has to complete 8 pages per day. This is substantially more doable. However, it should be that way because with math there is a lot of instruction outside the book practicing how to count money and time so on his days the math tends to take about 3 hours in the morning.Science: Um... the health segments ... are .... not challenging enough for my son. He got almost all of this education in Pre-K last year. He blew through it in no time and we are not supplementing with our own material. We stick to material that is in line with what we found kindergarteners should learn in Kindergarten like life cycles and then we pepper in other things like planets and zoology with online material we find for free, the library, or through a couple of books we bought online.4. Social Studies: I really am curious as to why there is NO social studies at all. I noticed that almost NO "complete" curriculum includes Social Studies a the kindergarten level. I have been peppering in my own social studies as a result. We started homeschool around Christopher Columbus Day so I started with that and then have moved on to Native American studies which I'll wrap around to the first settlers around Thanksgiving. I have also purchased two books 180 Days of Kindergarten Social Studies and Kindergarten Essentials for Social Studies. Don't waste your money on the 180 Days book, it's awful, but the other one is gold! I'll definitely use that one every time we're in class. I really would have liked to have a daily social studies curriculum. (I also got DK Workbooks K Geography which is a good book).All in all .... I'm glad I got this to help start our year. Two subjects are entirely covered .... I just have to fill in Science, Social Studies, and Art.I have to seriously ponder if I'm going to do this curriculum for 1st grade or if I'm going to try another route. I notice next year has the same "Health" books instead of science and there still isn't Social Studies. :/Update: we just finished 100% of this curriculum. As stated, our son has AHDH and the first 5 months were a big challenge with his focus. But he did it!! We did have to supplement a lot especially in math. He needed a lot of help with coins and time.But .... with phonics, he learned how to read very well. We bought the Good and the Beautiful for next year.Updated Edit: We just started first grade with the Good and the Beautiful and it made me appreciate Horizons a million times more! TGTB is a JOKE! I can't believe people buy this for their kids as a full curriculum. We were on day 5 and there still was no written work at all, just class instruction and reading. Y'all, I threw it away because I didn't want to sell it and subject some other kid to that garbage curriculum.SPRIAL LEARNING IS TOUGH BUT IT IS 100% WORTH THE WORK.I just bought the first grade curriculum for my son, can't wait to get started next week! When they say it is a complete curriculum, they mean it is complete for writing, reading, phonics, reading comprehension, spelling, and vocabulary. Yes, you'll still need to supplement some, but the major components are there and I don't feel like we're missing anything major like I feel TGTB was.

I am glad to have a complete lesson with teacher's guide and I am using the books, but I honestly skip over some very socially outdated parts. For example, to learn "fr" they refer to a girl with "Frizzy" hair... or to learn "hi" they refer to a curvy woman and point to her "hips." Really weird for kindergarten in 2020. Also to learn "Gu" they say "Gun" and "Dad has a gun." Maybe not a sentence I want to use casually when teaching my 4 year old.

My son and I are currently working through the second semester of this curriculum. For the price I’m honestly quite satisfied. The lessons are planned out for you day by day and very easy to work through. (We spend between 1.5-2.5 hours per day doing the workbooks.) Requires little to no extra planning most days. (Which was super helpful to me as a first time homeschool parent! And remains important to me as I’m looking through my options for next years curriculum.) My son does sometimes get a little bored/annoyed with doing all the “work”. (Mostly just the writing) However, he is starting to get to the point that he can sit and (mostly accurately) read a short book on his own. And he actively is enjoying math and finds ways to incorporate what he’s learned into his day on his own. So for those three reasons I recommend this. THAT BEING SAID - I would not consider this a “complete” curriculum. The health book only contains about half the lessons as the LA and Math, and there is no science, social studies/history, music/art. So you will probably want to supplement in some way for those subjects that you want your child to learn at this level.

My son is 5 with high functioning autism and ADD. I have been teaching him to read for over a year. I do not use the health book, there’s too much material you have to search for; it’s not laid out. They want you to read an Alphabet story every day and the Alphabet poem. My son can’t handle doing that much, it’s too much. I do the Alphabet Poem and skip the story. He enjoys it as much as he can for him and his concentration. He can write his own name but doesn’t have enough fine motor skills for other letters so I have to make dots for him to trace the letters. They should have more tracing. With those modifications it takes and hour a day and that itself is tough. We do it 4 days a week. Friday is tracing letters.

I am a first-time home school mom and have loved teaching my son kindergarten with this material. The language arts portion was intimidating initially, but now that we are approaching the halfway mark I love it. I do not have a teaching degree so I am not an expert on reading instruction; however, I would say that your child must have a firm foundation with letter recognition and the sounds that each letter makes before starting at the kindergarten level. I especially love that I don't have to worry about what I'm going to teach each day. Everything is right there in the books. I always try to squeeze in art and other enriching activities, but if we get too busy I always feel confident that learning took place when the worksheets get done.