We love the spiral math concept and Horizons is colorful, simple, and complete math curriculum. The teachers manual allows for "open and go" teaching, other than having to gather a few math manipulative some days. (purchasing the complete manipulative kit would make teaching even easier). The TM adds additional activities for supplementing if your student is not grasping concepts. The TM also offers a script for teaching new concepts which i found very helpful. Some days, i was able hand the TM to my 8th grade son to teach my 2nd grader for the day. There are math concepts presented in the TM that are not included in the students workbook, so using the TM is needed to get the full math lesson presented to your child.

I think we will be switching to a different Math Curriculum for next year. While this book gives you the answers, it does not explain how to do some of the concepts that they are trying to teach. Grade 2 Math is not complicated, but there was the odd Math concept that was a little tricky to figure out. The teachers guide was of no use when it came to explaining how to teach new concepts.