Saxon: How do you use?

[erica471]

We are using Saxon Math 1 and neither my daughter or myself are enjoying it. The actual math problems are fine, but Dd hates the meeting book. Do you use it as written or modify? I get so tempted to skip lessons too, but I feel like we will miss something.

Being a first year and first time homeschooler I picked Saxon because of all the wonderful things I had heard from it. I can see it strengths, but it is so tedious sometimes! I nearly picked Singapore instead but am a little uncomfortable as math was certainly never my best subject. I'm determined to finish out the year with Saxon but I don't know if we continue with it.

HELP!:o

[Peek a Boo]

I have not used the levels that require a meeting book, but I *can* offer that many times the strength of ANY program is to work it as intended. However, I know a lot of people who DON't use teh meeting book and their kids don't seem TOO wierd ;) You might want to try replacing the meeting book time w/ Singapore --many homeschoolers use both programs. If you find that Singapore does well on its own, you can dump Saxon. Or you can decide that Singapore *isn't* right for y'all. I would at least encourage you to not skip lessons in Saxon --one of its strengths is consistent review. I happen to think math itself is VERY tedious --no matter what program you use, lol.

 

Can you describe any specific things she hates, or an example of how she reacts during the meeting time?

 

good luck!

[Old Dominion Heather]

In fact, we only do the parts that the kid doesn't already know. For example, I am making my child in Math 2 count by threes every day because he hasn't got them yet. My guys always liked doing the stuff with the hundreds chart, but we still jazzed it up and did our own thing.

 

Absolutely skip lessons if your child already know the skill. I still (sometimes) had my child do the sheet that went with the lesson, but I would just say "Today you are supposed to learn ____ and you already know that, so we will skip it."

 

I think you are teaching them not to waste time!:)

[erica471]

Thanks for replying. Its the last subject she wants to do. She complains that it is boring. She actually seems to get distracted by the maniupulatives. She went to ps for kindergarten and learned addition by touch math. Okay, I just asked her what she doesn't like about math and she said she doesn't like all the coloring? Huh?

You are right though, math is probably tedious in any form (I am SO not a math person).

[ArwenA]

Yes, the meetings weren't used here either.

[erica471]

I just read my post over and it kind of sounded like I was implying that she is ahead in her math skills. I think she is pretty much on grade/age target.

[tiffany k]

I'm using Saxon 1 with my dd5 and Saxon 2 with my ds7. They don't really care for the Meeting Book time either, and it does seem to be really repetitive. Now that we are 1/3 through, I am only having them do the parts that they like (the calendar and weather). If I start to notice that they have trouble with something that should be reviewed in the Meeting, then we'll add that back in, I suppose. I used Horizons and Singapore before, but I like the thoroughness of the Saxon teacher guide. I leave out or shorten the lesson parts if my kids have mastered that aspect and just have them do the factsheet and worksheet. Saxon makes me feel more confident that they understand what they are learning and they feel like they are "good at math" because nothing is ever assumed and there is lots of review. They still enjoy the Singapore and Horizon workbooks on their own time. I'm not a natural math teacher, so those approaches left me frustrated when my kids just weren't catching on to something. I hope you will find a way to make Saxon work better for you and your child!

 

Tiffany

[Audrey]

We don't do all of the meeting book activities, just the ones that will help with skills where ds needs the extra practice. He does like charting the weather stuff though, so even though he doesn't really need it, we do that anyway.

[nukeswife]

We've done math 2 with ds last year and are now doing math 1 with dd.

 

My son didn't need all the things to be covered in the meeting so we just did the parts he liked (mostly the money and pattern) but he didn't like showing me the money by picking coins out of a cup so I bought him some coin stamps (fronts and backs) and I made my own meeting strip in Word and he would stamp the coins needed to make that amount of money. Some days I'd make him use only the face of the coin stamps, other just the backs, and yet others I'd tell him to mix them up.

 

My dd is the opposite and loves everything about saxon. She was using Horizons K and dreaded it everyday. We switched to Saxon 1 and she loves it. She enjoys all of the meeting parts so even though I find it very tedious it's really helping her to go through all the repetativeness. She also likes all the coloring, so maybe you just need to weed out some of the part your dd doesn't like.

[dangermom]

We're now in Saxon 3, started with K, and I have always modified the Meeting part according to what I think she needs. As far as I'm concerned, all the scripting and repetition is there for if you need it, but it's optional. So I skip sections, pick and choose, and it goes a lot faster. We enjoy Saxon as a result, IMO.

 

I also skip whole lessons if it's too easy. Now that we're past the halfway point of this book that happens pretty rarely, but I think we skipped most of the first 20 lessons or so and several in the middle there. It gives us space to slow down when necessary and it's more likely we'll finish the book!

 

With Saxon 1 a lot of it was very easy and repetitive, and we finished it before the year was over. No one died, it was fine, and we just started 2, which gave us more space the next year--I didn't feel worried that I should be rushing things more.

[g007girl]

We tried using the Meeting Book, but it was just overkill! So, we dropped it and haven't had a problem. Like some of the others said, we'll do the skip counting, or a brief "what day is today" but, my kids were just bored. Math takes them long enough to do without adding all that stuff.

[Chris in VA]

We have used Saxon since preschool and are now on 3. What I've noticed about the meeting period is that skills are introduced that don't seem to really matter, but then those skills are incorporated into the lessons later. An obvious example of this is skip counting--first, the meeting has several weeks of skip counting by 4's, say, then multiplication by 4's is introduced in the lesson. If the child has consistently skip counted by 4's for several weeks, then the connection to the multiplication facts is a snap, and those facts are memorized very quickly. I think an example for Saxon 1 would probably be counting by 2's, then learning the + and - 2 facts.

That said, we did not use the meeting book for Saxon 1. We hung a large, colorful posterboard calendar (like they use in many classrooms) on the wall and added a symbol everyday to it. I used shaped post-it notes instead of cutting out the shapes--time saver. Dd would write the number on the sticky note, then post it on the calendar. I had a laminated sentence strip above the poster, and wrote the month in permanent marker on it, leaving room for the day of the week and the number part of the date. Every month we changed it. I also hung sentence strips on a notebook ring, and wrote out the pattern of the day on each strip. Dd took down the strip and completed the pattern with marker. (Sorry--is that Saxon 1 or 2--can't remember) We kept a weather graph for a while, too. Oh, and dd wrote out the number for the day on an index card every day and hung it with tape around the top of the wall by the ceiling.

So, we didn't use the actual meeting book, but covered just about everything in the meeting our way. Perhaps your child would like to do this.

I don't think you can totally blow off the meeting, because, as I said, you will notice the concepts need to be practiced. But there could be some parts you skip. Just look ahead and chose carefully what to skip.

[Brenda in FL]

I haven't read the other posts, so I am sorry if this has already been mentioned.

 

I spread the meeting time out over the week. Especially for those items that the child already knows (in fact - I may do those less frequently than once a week).

 

The only things I do daily is the skip counting, until the child can do it perfectly. I let them use the counting strip with the uinderstanding that they will have to do it everyday until they can do it without.

 

If the child has a probvlem with one of the other activities than we may repeat it the next day.

 

You don't want to skip the meeting altogether, because there will be concepts brought up in the meeting time that are not in the lessons. Counting by 7s and 12s for instance first show up under calendar.

[Excelsior! Academy]

I just cover the meeting type things at other times. I make sure we are skip counting, counting money, patterning, and know our calendar concepts. I think they are valuable skills, but you can find your own way to teach them.

 

To make a long story short, we skip the meeting, but I skim occasionally to know when to introduce certain skills that are not introduced in the lesson.

[TCoppock]

We are finishing up Saxon 3 and we do not complete the meeting every day. We always do the pattern, word problem, and counting money (because my DS needs the extra practice.) My son seems to have mastered the skip counting, reading temperature, telling time, and the calendar work however we rotate these skills just to keep them fresh. I do not see any problem with skipping parts your child has mastered.

[Philothea]

We are nearly done with Saxon K. I have also reviewed the Saxon 1 materials. I think the meeting book can look a little annoying, repetative or intimidating. It may depend on the age and temperament of the child. My son began Saxon K at about 4 years old, he thrives on the meeting book because he loves repetition. He does like the lesson more than the meeting but it always happy to do it every day. For easier lessons, I might just pass through them really quick and move on, doing two lessons in one day. But normally I repeat each lesson twice unless it was too easy. For things that my son forgets, he reviews and drills with his daddy throughout the day and week.

[erica471]

Thank you so much for all the responses. They were all incredibly helpful!! :D