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Saxon users: Calculus timing help


Guest Barb B
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DS is on lesson 97 (out of 125 lessons and about 7 more tests to go) of Saxon advanced math. SHould we: 1. start calculus right after we finish adv. math (and risk stopping for the summer and having a hard time picking it up again in fall) 2. start it next fall (or perhaps near the end of summer). I don't like a long break with out math between adv. math and calculus, but I know that we won't get too much done next summer either and don't know with calculus stopping for summer after 3-4 months is good either.

 

Barb

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Is your son finishing five lessons per week and then testing? So, is he 6 weeks from finishing, or 9 weeks? (Will he finish at Christmas?)

 

If you can see that he'll be ready to start Calculus with Advanced Math *completed* by January, then I'd start it right then. It is reasonable that he could finish five lessons of Calculus per week, plus the test on Friday. (At least in my house...LOL.) If he can get through Lesson 60 in the spring semester, then it would make sense to "backtrack" to Lesson 50 when you restart in the fall. In fact, in anticipation of that, I'd probably have him work evens for Lessons 51-60 in the spring, and when you get back in gear in the fall, come back and work odds (rather than work the entire lesson set twice).

 

Another option entirely would be to move to a more traditional Calculus text for the spring, and then "repeat" the concepts of Calculus with Saxon starting in the fall.

 

How old is your DS? I found that my DD really benefitted by covering Calculus "conceptually" with lots of copywork and coaching at age 15, and then hitting it again at age 17 "for real" (grin) as she entered her math degree study.

 

Hope some of that ramble helps! :)

 

Lori

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Lori, Thanks for your advice! Yes, ds should finish adv math by Christmas (or a little into Jan). I am thinking we will start. I read in the DIVE cd website that he reccommends saxon calculus for 3 semesters. I like that idea (especially since I will be taking calculus for the first time along with ds). DS is 17 ( a junior) so starting with saxon should be ok. I don't know how far into the calculus book we will get - I think 5 lessons per week plus a test will be too much - I will have to see the book first I guess. But even doing 3-4 lessons per week should get us at least to lesson 50 by spring. If we don't do much that summer then I like your idea of backtracking 10 lesson - and doing just odds or evens then.

 

Thanks for the imput!

 

Barb

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