What do you think of this? Funtastic Frogs for K, then Horizons 1 in 1st grade?

[Tricia O]

We've got a lot of Funtastic Frogs stuff I bought since I thought Michael would like it for K. We do plan to use Horizons, but do you think it would be sufficient to do Funtastic Frogs for K, followed by Horizons 1 in first grade? :unsure: I can't even remember what he *should* be learning in K, and we've done this twice before. We actually used the MUS primer for both girls for K though, and want to take a different approach for him, since we didn't stick with MUS.

FWIW, Katie is newly in second grade and doing Horizons 2. Elizabeth is newly in fourth grade and is doing Teaching Textbooks 4.

[Sasha]

I bought funtastic frogs for my son's K year and I thought :tongue, we never used it. For my two boys those frogs were way to distracting, rather than lining them up on the log or liliy pad they just wanted to play with them. I do use the frogs as counters but I control the frogs and they watch, otherwise they are hopping all over the table :lol:

I'm not sure about Horizons, we ended starting first grade Rod and Staff and he's done great with it.

[Rachel]

I think it would work out fine. IMO, you can always switch mid-year if it's really working out terribly. The FF are fun or at least my kids think they are. With the twins for K, we didn't do any math. Now I have an up and coming Ker this year and I'm debating the same issues. I'm thinking of taking her a bit of a different track and actually doing a real math plan with her. I think starting with FF is a good idea.

[Heather W]

We have both in our repertoire and I'm switching to Math on the Level for several reasons.

I think either would be good for K. I have all the FF books and that would be a good deal for K and even grades one and two. There's a lot in there.

[Leslie Nelsen]

Tricia,

We are planning to use the FF for K this year. I've done MUS Primer with one child in the past, but decided to forgo it this year. I think this will be a fun way to do math and get in all of the K concepts. :)

[Tricia O]

I wanted to add that Michael already knows so much from watching us teach his sisters.

I found this online as a typical course of study (http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/kindergarten) for K math:

* Simple counting to 20 ***He counts to 100+***
* One-to-one relationship ***knows this***
* Concepts of more, less than, same ***knows this***
* Sequence of events ***knows this, but we have sequencing cards we can go over to be sure***
* Correspondence of quantities ***knows this***
* Ordinal-cardinal relationship ***knows this***
* Number-numeral relationship ***knows this***
* Recognition of basic sets ***not sure what this means***
* Meaning of addition and subtraction ***he knows this and even some facts from listening to us teach his sisters***
* Introduction to number line ***hasn't seen this yet, but I know he will in Horizons***
* Estimation ***not sure, we haven't really discussed this with him****
* Elementary geometry (shapes) ***knows very well***
* Calendar and clock ***knows to some extent, can tell time***
* Denominations of money ***knows coins***
* Basic problem-solving strategies ***unsure about this***
* Basic chart and graph concepts ***unsure about this***

He also knows how to skip count by 5's & 10's to 100, and can skip count by 2's to at least 50, though he misses a number here and there, partly due to doing it so fast. :lol:

[Melinda]

:hi: Tricia! My Micah, who will enter K in 3 years (:lol: I'm such a planner!) will probably only do FF and then move on to Horizons for 1st grade. Horizons K moved fast to introduce lots of basic concepts, but 1st slowed down enough for mastery. So we'll go for mastery in 1st, but fun practice in K. So I think your plan is great!

[Jeni]

* Recognition of basic sets ***not sure what this means***

Recognizing sets is recognizing a group of numbers and what they have in common. For example

{1,2,3,4} are natural numbers, integers and whole numbers

{2,4,6,8,10} are even numbers

{1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 3/8} are fractions

K'ers aren't expected to recognize integers of course (unless you just wanted to introduce that concept) but sets of odd number, sets of even numbers, fractions...things like that they would be expected to recognize as a set


* Estimation ***not sure, we haven't really discussed this with him****

Use a clean empty jar and fill it with Funtastic Frogs and ask him to guess the number of frogs. Then count them to see how close his guess was. Some K classrooms do this as an arrival activity everyday.

* Calendar and clock ***knows to some extent, can tell time***

I have my kids do calendar time every day until about 3rd grade. It's a spin off of Saxon's meeting book for us

* Basic problem-solving strategies ***unsure about this***

Teach him to recognize when to add and when to subtract. Very easy to do naturally without a text book. Also teach him different "tricks" to add and subtract like doubles plus one and "9 wants to be a 10" a la MUS.


* Basic chart and graph concepts ***unsure about this***

I include this in their calendar time. We do a birthday graph and weather graph. We also make charts, graphs and Venn Diagrams with some of our FIAR stuff.

It sounds like you've got K pretty well covered. :thumb: If he masters all these things before the year is up, move on to first grade objectives even if you plan to use a traditional text for 1st grade, it wouldn't hurt him to touch on the subjects before then and keep him challenged. ;)

Good luck

[Joli FL]

I am thinking of using Funtastic Frogs for my 4.5-year-old dd for Pre-K this year, not sure what I will do for her K year. Ds would not have done well with the frogs, as any manipulatives we have tried to use becomes a distraction. My ds used Horizons K math last year for K and it was a lot. We did one lesson per day, he understood all of the concepts completely, but it is bit much for a k'er in my opinion. The Horizons 1 seems to be slower paced than the K book. Ds will use Horizons 1 this year for 1st and I will see how it goes.

[deanna1949]

Sounds like your kindergartener is way ahead of the game. We ran into a similar situation--I started her during K with Horizons K, Book 2. She raced through it, went on to Horizons 1, Book 1 to finish the K year. Now, going into second grade, she's beginning Horizons 3.

We tried a tiny bit of Funtastic Frogs in K, but the book I had was way too easy, and I didn't want to buy more!:lol: