Horizons 4th Grade Math By fourth grade, math asks your child to stay with a problem longer and carry work across several steps. Horizons 4th Grade Math is a print-based, teacher-led math curriculum that gives your child daily practice through that transition. The full course runs 160 lessons across two student workbooks plus a teacher's guide, covering multi-digit multiplication and division, fractions (including adding and subtracting with unlike denominators), decimals through the hundredths, introduction to ratios and simple equations, geometry (lines, angles, circles, perimeter, area, volume), prime factorization, elapsed time and time zones, both standard and metric measurement, and coordinate graphs. Horizons uses a spiral curriculum design, which means concepts are introduced briefly, then revisited again and again across the year with a little more depth each time. This contrasts with mastery-based programs, which work through one concept thoroughly before moving to the next. Spiral curricula are usually a better fit for kids who get bored doing the same kind of problem repeatedly, and for parents who'd rather their child see a concept multiple times across the year than spend a whole unit on it once. The teacher's guide walks you through each day's lesson, with daily lesson plans, answer keys, teaching tips, learning objectives, and 40 supplemental worksheets for concepts your child needs more time with. A manipulative schedule at the front of the guide lists which manipulatives appear in which lessons. The manipulatives themselves aren't included in the kit, and many families will consider them optional. Horizons 4th Grade Math- includes occasional Christian references in the lessons—a change from the nonreligious K-3 levels of the series. Horizons 4th Grade Math is a good fit for a fourth grader who's ready for a full math curriculum, and for a parent who wants a fully scripted lesson plan rather than building their own. The colorful pages and spiral approach make it a particularly good fit for kids who lose interest with extended drilling on one concept.
