Well, its here. I didn't actually expect it to get here until early next week, so it was a happy surprise to have the box sitting on my front porch when I checked the mail. The kids are going nuts over the box and packing paper (like they always do when we order supplies if I let them at the boxes LOL) and I just finished looking over the health program for an initial opinion of it.
Overview of my purchase: I got Horizons Health K from Alpha Omega Publications for a K'er and 1st grader to do the remainder of this school year. I ordered the set and an extra student workbook for the two of them.
Student workbooks: my first impression upon opening the box was that the size of the books is PERFECT for my K'er and 1st grader. Its not too thick that they will get frustrated, but it also isn't so thin that I feel we got ripped off. I like that the pages are all perforated so I can pull individual lesson sheets out if we want, and they are only printed on one side as well. The pages are colorful and appear to be engaging, which will be a big plus for my dyslexic 1st grader. Getting her to really engage in a worksheet is sometimes difficult because of her reading problems. I like the parger print on the student pages themselves, and I think my oldest may be able to read most of the directions by herself with minimal help so I can work more with my K'er if needed on each sheet. I'm VERY happy with the workbooks
Teacher's guide: now THIS is the important piece to me. If a guide isn't well-written then I can't use it. I literally need to be told what to do and how to do it. The guide is nicely bound, although I personally would prefer a spiral-bound one I think (I'll probably take it to Staples today or tomorrow and have them do that for me) I like my guides to lay fairly flat since I'm left-handed and tend to make a LOT of notes in the margins when I go over a lesson before teaching it. The sections prior to the actual lessons are wonderful for helping me better understand the program and how it works, as well as seeing the progression of lessons through the scope and sequence. Overall, the print is a good size for me to read easily while teaching (definitely a better size than our k12 mamuals are LOL) Each unit starts with an overview of the lessons in it, telling you what you are going to cover and providing a list of vocabulary in the unit plus a full list of resources for the individual unit. Each individual lesson has a list for preparation and materials you need (with optional ones marked clearly as optional) and gives a basic overview of the lesson before breaking down the lesson for teaching. While it isn't directly guided like our k12 stuff is as far as telling me exactly what to say (our curriculum indents paragraphs that I am to read out loud to the student, it takes literally zero planning or thinking beforehand), it is well laid out with how to present the lesson. Each lesson has at least one activity included, along with a few related activities for further exploration of the lesson if desired. Overall, I'm very happy with my initial look at the guide, although I would make *minor* changes (like color-coding the top corners of the guide like the student workbooks are to make it easier to find your place quickly, and offering the guide as a spiral-bound edition as well as the current binding, but I think ALL programs should offer spiral binding in their guides as an option)
My initial conclusions: Horizons Health K looks to be a good program that was well thought-out and created to work well for a variety of learning styles. I think personally that for my family, a lesson will take 20-45 minutes to complete depending on the girls' attention spans that day and the number of activities we choose to do for the lesson. I feel that it will work well to accomodate our 1st grader's dyslexia and her "get down to business" learning style while also working well with my K'er and her creative, crafty style. Both enjoy coloring, and there appears to be a good balance of coloring pages to actual seatwork pages (like matching and tracing and such) From a teaching standpoint, I feel that it will work well with my need for hand-holding by giving me enough direction that I know what I'm doing while giving me the freedom of deciding how to present the materials at the same time.
So now, I shall get ready to get in my 4WD pickup truck and get out of my driveway with its foot of snow that needs shovelled out, so that I can take the Teacher's Guide to Staples for some spiral binding. It is literally the ONLY flaw that I can find at this particular moment in the program.
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