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Horizons Pre-Algebra

Publisher: Alpha Omega
Review last updated: July 2011
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Horizons Pre-Algebra

Horizons Pre-Algebra course uses a traditional approach that also includes some use of manipulatives. Students who do well in math and who do not need the manipulatives might be able to work independently through most of the lessons. Some concepts and skills are taught directly from the teacher’s guide. Among those are the use of algebra tiles, fraction-decimal flashcards, a scientific calculator, and how to use a compass and protractor to draw a circle graph. There might be other concepts I’ve missed in this list, but at least the latter two would need to be taught to the student since they aren’t taught within the student text. This course would probably work best for most homeschoolers using a combination of some lessons being taught and others completed independently, depending upon the content and teaching tips.

This is a challenging course. While it reviews the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and number theory, it quickly moves into signed numbers, exponents, factoring, square roots, and order of operations. It continues through work with fractions, decimals, and percents including much practical application. A good deal of attention is given to graphs, probability, and statistics. Geometry covers perimeter , area and volume as well as topics like congruent triangles, and nets of solid figures (reproducibles for these nets are in the Tests and Resources book.), lines, angles, graphing points on a coordinate plane, and slope-intercept form. It even introduces trigonometry. Algebra covers performing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of polynomials, including factoring. Other topics such as the metric system and measurement are taught.

The Teacher’s Guide is useful. It lists concepts, objectives, and materials needed, but most useful are the teaching tips. Designed for a classroom situation, it mentions such things as students working on the board or students explaining problems for the class. Nevertheless, this course will work well for homeschoolers. Ideally, a parent working with a single child will use the teaching tips to teach the lesson with more concrete examples and explanations as well as the extra topics mentioned above.

Students will need a scientific calculator, protractor, straight edge, one dice, colored pencils, and graph paper. (Three pages of graph paper are included at the back of the student text.) Other items such as blocks, scissors, tape, a party hat, and coins are used rarely and are open to makeshift substitutes.

While other simple manipulatives are used from time to time, the most important manipulatives for concept development are the algebra tiles. These are printed in full color in the Tests and Resources book and need to be cut out. I recommend that you laminate these for easier handling. The algebra tiles teach algebra concepts using the “rectangle-building” method, similar to what is taught in Math-U-See. Personally, I very much like to use this visual representation for algebra to help students really grasp what is happening when they manipulate equations.

This book also has “formula strips” that are to be given to students for use in some lessons. These cover some basic formulas such as that for finding the area of a circle plus measurement equivalents such as 1 mile = 5,280 feet and metric-English equivalents. There are 24 of these strips to be used with different lessons, and formulas are sometimes repeated on more than one strip. The reason for presenting formulas this way rather than in the textbook is that the strips are sometimes used with quizzes and exams where it would not be appropriate for the student to have access to the text. Of course, students need to memorize some formulas. The teacher's guide indicates which formulas are not given on the ACT/SAT tests (and therefore not on the formula strips) and must be memorized.

Fraction-Decimal Flashcards are used in a number of lessons, but these must be purchased separately. Some students will not need to use them and can skip them. Their use is directed from the teacher guide, so students will not notice they are missing if they are working independently.

In the Test and Resources book are a total of 80 worksheets for the year, some of which may be used as quizzes. Only half of the lessons have a worksheet or quiz. These are noted in the individual lessons in the teacher's edition and are marked there as to which ones are appropriate for use as quizzes.

Every tenth lesson includes an interview with a Christian who uses pre-algebra skills in his or her career. Word problems in that lesson and some subsequent lessons are then based on the interview. Also in every tenth lesson, students are given a set of questions in multiple-choice, standardized test format to help with test preparation skills.

A reproducible “Horizons Pre-Algebra Readiness Evaluation” and answer key is in the front of the Teacher’s Guide. Sixteen tests and four exams are included in the Tests and Resources book. The Teacher’s Guide has reduced pictures of student text pages and quiz and test pages with answers overprinted.

The student text is very attractively printed in full-color. The number of activities and problems to solve does not appear overwhelming compared to some texts that are dense with problems. However, some of Horizon’s problems will take some time to complete. For example, one problem on p. 170 instructs the student to “Find the mean, median, mode, and range. Then draw a histogram and a box-and-whisker plot. Football scores one Saturday were 14, 0, 7, 26, 13, 27, 36, 37, 24, 7, 7, 31, 20, 19, 24, 27, 17, 10, 31, 24, 24, 27, 41, 34, 16, 13.” Many times there are charts to complete. Frequent word problems help student to understand practical applications for what they are learning. So there is plenty of work without pages appearing cluttered with problems.

The text is clearly written for a Christian audience with many references to church, pastors, a gospel magic show, designing shirts for a youth retreat, missionaries, and other church-related activities.

Pricing

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    Horizons Pre-Algebra Complete Set

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    Instant Key

    • Suitable for: group or one-on-one teaching combined with independent work
      Need for parent/teacher instruction: low to moderate
      Prep time needed: minimal to none
      Teacher's manual:Teacher's guide essential
      Religious perspective:Christian (Protestant)

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