Voyages

Thanks to Unknown Variable for bringing up the Voyages Curriculum. This curriculum provides an excellent example of NCTM math. Here's what their own website has to say about it. I seriously want someone to explain to me how a second grader can successfully master "algebraic thinking" without knowing the basic facts of arithmetic.

http://www.metrotlc.com/mtl_voyages.asp
Voyages • Grades 1-2

Metro recognizes what teachers have known all along: most students benefit from an instructional model that includes a variety of active learning strategies. Voyages’ two distinct lesson formats meet these diverse learning needs.

• Excursions lessons feature teacher-led, hands-on, real-life activities. These dynamic, interactive lessons typically take two to three days to complete.
• Anchors lessons develop critical mathematics skills and concepts while emphasizing the language of mathematics and algebraic thinking.

This is another website describing the Voyages curriculum. The following is the list of topics from the Grade 1 curriculum.

• Topic 1 DATA COLLECTION and ANALYSIS
• Topic 2 WHOLE NUMBERS and DECIMALS I
• Topic 3 GEOMETRY
• Topic 4 WHOLE NUMBERS and DECIMALS II
• Topic 5 MEASUREMENT
• Topic 6 FRACTIONS
• Topic 7 PROBABILITY

Some things to note quickly:
1) Data collection and analysis (including Organizing Data and Graphing Data) before such basic ideas as Numeration to 20, Addition Basic Facts, Strategies for Addition and Building Numbers from Tens and Ones? Are they insane?
2) Of course, the idiotic obsession with probability at all levels. Teaching likelihood to first graders?
3) Sub-topics like Addition Basic Facts, Strategies for Addition, Subtraction Basic Facts, and Strategies for Subtraction sound reasonable enough. However, as with many NCTM math concepts, such phrases often conceal much silliness. Is counting on your fingers a valid "strategy" for addition? My experience with NCTM curricula tells me the answer is yes, even though I have not worked with this particular one.

If anyone reading this has experience specifically with the Voyages math curriculum (or knows someone who does), I would love to hear from you. I am sincerely interested in seeing a set of these books, but I do not wish to support their program by buying them myself.