Can someone compare MUS and Horizons for me?

[hsmom]

We currently have MUS introduction to math. Now after having someone mention on another thread about Horizon math. I looked it up and it is very well priced and uses all the fun stuff my son loves to use!

So, could I use MUS intro (primer) then move to K? Or would we be repeating too much stuff?

Also what are the pros and cons of both in your opinion? I am really liking the looks of Horizon, but you know how "the looks" can get you into trouble. So, help from the hive would be awesome!

Thank you!

[tess in the burbs]

I started in MUS Primer. My son was only 4.5 and did fine! He moved through very quickly. My daughter was 4 when she started a year later and she too moved through very quickly. I would say only the clock/time stuff got them but it's near the end. I really liked how it taught it though.

My son continued in Alpha while daughter was doing Primer. But he wasn't able to regurgitate the facts, so I assumed he wasn't ready and slowed down. But months later it was still the same, so I moved BOTH kids to Horizons.

My son did the 1st grade of Horizons last spring..into summer...and was great! he knew every fact just fine. It was shocking! I even thought about going back to MUS, but he clearly preferred the bright colors of Horizons. MUS was boring to him. He was learning but not having fun. And at 6 years old I wanted him to have fun!

My daughter sailed through Horizons K that spring even though she did MUS Primer already that year. i was glad we did. Horizons covers so much more than MUS. It introduced new concepts and things both my kids hadn't ever seen using MUS.

In hindsight I see MUS was working fine and I loved it for the video portion and manipulatives. It works. But my kids really were bored. And while they were doing it, they hated math. Once we moved to Horizons it wasn't all perfect by any means(hard math is still hard you know?), but the variety of concepts allowed us to move on for the day and be able to pick up the challenging stuff later in the lesson or the next day.

I admit my original choice was between MUS and Horizons and I chose MUS for many good reasons. But I knew my kids were visual learners. I thought the colors would be distracting. I was wrong and luckily both programs weren't too expensive. I sold my MUS teacher stuff/DVDs easily. I kept the manipulatives!

IF I had another K kid to teach I would do MUS Primer(and yes, buy the manipulatives) and then go to Horizon K. Since both my kids moved so fast in MUS you could do both programs in a year or a little over a year. I like how some things were taught in MUS Alpha better than Horizons. And my son knows his facts better than my daughter. it's more memory work in Horizons so we pull out the MUS manipulatives and I teach her the MUS tricks. So if you had a friend with the MUS Alpha DVD it would be worth watching.

Knowing my kids were learning with MUS I seriously wondered if I went wrong by changing programs, but they enjoy math enough now. And I know to slow down better with Horizons. The variety is good for us all. So I can't have too many regrets. Math is still not my kids' favorite subject and it's all those darn math facts fault, lol!

are your kids visual kids? if so my experience led us to Horizons....but both programs teach. It's about sticking with something....and knowing when to change and when to stay. at this point we are staying with Horizons no matter how hard it seems some days...so good luck making your choice. I think understanding the difference in how the two programs teach is your best guide. both have lots of repetition but Horizons throws in the other topics for variety and color. MUS has some great ways to teach...so having access to the DVD on occassion would be a cool way to go ;-)

[LadyAberlin]

Well I don't know if I can help you or not, but I use both. My ds did MUS primer when he was 4 and now we are using MUS Alpha and Horizons K. I like using them together. Horizons spirals and is colorful. It has wider spaces for them to write the numbers. I covers a variety of topics at each lesson. MUS is black and white and moves slower. I like how much math u see works on concept development. Since I'm not real far into either one of them I can't really tell you much more. We are on lesson 15 in Horizons and so far a lot of it is review from ds doing the primer and the Singapore earlybird series. It is good for him though. They are doing tally marks and he hasn't done that before. I don't think that was in MUS primer. He also needs practice on writing his numbers and Horizons is really helping him with that. Math is really short right now. We do one page in MUS and 1 lesson which is 2 pgs in Horizons and he doesn't complain at all. It is the first thing he asks to do each day in school. If you have a more specific question maybe I can answer it better.