An In-Depth Review of Saxon Math 54 -- LONG *little update*

[elmerRex]

When we first started using Saxon Math 54 last year, I wrote a message post of my early impressions and people said that I should write again when I finished the text, so I share the following because I said I would and it is my hope that this review helps another family that is considering or wondering about Saxon Math. If you are not curious about Saxon, then do not read. This is VERY long and has taken a long time to write up, save yourself the time if you don't have interest in Saxon.

 

If you already read this, I added the part "Saxon Lessons by the Numbers" for your consideration.

 

Saxon Math 54 3^rd Edition In-Depth Review

 

Introducing Saxon Math 54

Saxon Math is a math program that is written for students with some familiarity with Arithmetic concepts and mastery over the fundamental number skills typically taught in K-2 or K-3 programs such that they are able to understand and think through simple scenario problems* even if they don't possess the arithmetic skills to solve the problem. Saxon Math 54 is meant to be used while learning and constantly drilling the math facts. In my humble opinion, Saxon Math 54 (or any grade 3+ program) is best used AFTER students have fluency with basic number bonds or number facts. There is a placement test for Saxon Math 54 available for free here.

 

*Example of what I meant:

“Teacher Bob has 10 balls, he needs 15 balls for all the kids in his class, does he have enough balls for the class?" a child should be able to tell that Teacher needs MORE even if he doesn't know how many more.

“There were 14 swans in the water. Half of them flew away and half were eaten by a crocodile. How many swans are left?†Without counting a student should know that there are NONE left because of understanding halves.

 

Overview of the Saxon Math 54 Program

This review is only covering the 3^rd edition textbook which was used and does not include commentary on the tests or any teachers supplies which I did NOT use. Saxon Math 54 is named that way because the content of these books were initially created without regard for a target age or grade level. The books were written to fill a need for gradual teaching of mathematics from the ground up with a certain level of difficulty and built in constant review. AFTER the book had been completed, a grade guide number was added to the cover to satisfy the publishers need to target the books at someone in order to sale them to schools.

 

Do not be fooled by the idea that these books are for “X gradersâ€. These books can be used with anyone who has the appropriate skill set, regardless of age though some basic modifications may need to be made for varying output or stamina abilities.

 

Saxon Math 54 3^rd edition contains

120 Lessons

12 Investigations (these same “investigations†were labeled LESSONS in the 2^nd edition.)

4 additional topics

 

Totaling to 136 lessons broken down roughly as 93 arithmetic, 20 geometry, 5 time, 4 statistics and about 10 additional topics, applied math or strategy lessons). Those are rough estimates and there is overlap for some lessons, I will have to check exact break down later.

 

Ideally, one would be administering a test after every 5 lessons to better track a students progress or understanding. Because we did not have the tests/teacher resources and because of how closely I was able to work with my son directly, I did not feel the need to even use the tests. Some will use them, some will not. That is a choice I encourage each teacher to make on their own, if we'd gotten tests for free, we would have used them. Since we would have had to buy them, we did not use them. (I am a cheap mama! lol)

 

 

Each of the 120 “Lessons†are made up of Four parts:

1. The Warm-Up. These are boxes at the start that call for you to do fact practice, and give some exercises for mental math and problem solving.

2. New Concept(s). This is where the new lesson is introduced and taught through some examples.

3. Lesson Practice. This is where a student is given the chance to practice on their own the lessons concept. This is strictly about the “New Conceptsâ€. Usually 2-10 problems. NOTE: For some lessons, there are additional lesson practice problems in the back if you need more practice with a lessons skill.

4. Mixed Practice: This is the heart of the program. This is where students practice, extend and review skills from previous lessons. This is where a student essentially does a “cumulative review†each day. Usually 26-30 problems.

 

Each of the 12 Investigations are distinct from lessons in that they do NOT have different parts and they do NOT contain mixed practice. An investigation has only 2 basic features:

1. Focus On – the topic of investigation with explanations and sometimes some manipulatives

2. Practice problems for the topic of investigation. Amount of problems vary.

 

For an Investigation you are instructed to gather a couple of objects to do and observe something with math. A lot of times you are supposed to use something from the Teacher Resource book, but I have a friend in Google and I fake it at this point.

 

In short Investigation is a shorter lesson because it is a lot less work. It is like meeting to do a simple experiment or discussion about math. The skills from the investigations are reviewed in Mixed Practices for various lessons so they are not “optional†in that doing them or not makes no difference to the other lessons. I read that these exact same topics that are Investigations in the 3^rd edition, were lessons in the 2^nd edition. I have no idea WHY this change was made, but I guess it had something to do with having a “feature†that Public Schools wanted and Saxon did it to continue to sell books in peace. In the home school, we know that such labels do not matter so much.

 

In the 3^rd edition, every single problem in the Mixed Practice is “referenced†back to the lesson(s) that the skill was taught in, so you can SKIP the investigation and skip every problem related to the investigation if you want to. Investigations were usually shorter days here so no big problem.

 

Each of the 4 Additional Topics have 2 parts

1. New Concept: The lessons is introduced, explained and examples are given to work through.

2. Lesson Practice: A few exercise problems given to help make firm your understanding of what you just learned.

There are 4 “AT†Lessons that expand on or teach new material. Aside from place value related to money, there were 2 on Roman Numerals and 1 on the Base 5 Number System. These are set up a little differently than the Lessons. There is no mixed review of Additional Topics built into the other lessons but there is often a review put into the WARM UP part of a Lesson. Topic A is showing money related to decimal number system which was introduced in an Investigation and practiced for several lessons throughout the book. Topics B and C are both on Roman Numerals are practiced for several lessons as an optional part of the warm up in the main lessons. There is no reinforcement of Topic D: Base 5. Which annoyed me because it meant I had to stop being lazy and make my own. (Oh well, at least it was cheap.)

 

If you skip the Additional Topics then you can ignore the Roman Numeral part of the warm ups because its the only thing that isn't taught but offered as practice in the main part of the text. Or if you want to stop and cover/introduce them, then you can and then you can practice them by using the Lesson Warm Ups for a few weeks until the student is proficient at it. You will have to supplement Base 5 if you decide to cover it and want more practice, this is simple to do.

 

***ADDED***

Saxon Lessons by the Numbers

Saxon is an intensive program--there is meant to be written drills, mental drills, problem solving, lessons, practice and review every day and Saxon is designed so that every student who uses this way of math is expected to have success if the teacher and the student will dedicate themselves to the method.

 

I did not count the text-examples that were used to teach a lesson, but I did quickly count up the number of problems in Math 54

.
Math 54 Lesson Practice Problems =       659

Math 54 Mixed Review  Exercises    =  + 3401

______________________________________

Total number of Student Problems  =     4060

 

Thats right, the student is expected to solve over 4000 problems in this text alone.

 

This probably isn't for the softer students who will be paralyzed by the fear of how many problems are on the page. Please also know that I did NOT include the problems/questions found in the Investigations which are apart of the Math 54 program, NOR did I include the problems from the AT, which are part of "supplemental" topics you can ignore.

 

 

My Personal Review of Saxon Mathematics 54.

This is no longer strictly facts but lots and lots of my opinions and feelings based on my experiences.

 

The Way that We Use Saxon Math.

Preparation:

I do each lesson ahead of my son. Meaning that I (or my husband) read through the lesson and work all of the problems out—we try and stay 10 lessons ahead of our son—and take note of where little jumps might be required. We make a note of which lessons can be combined (some are shorter than most others), sometimes lessons A and B are very closely related, so we teach them together.

 

Teaching:

We do math in 2 sessions. In the morning, we cover new concepts and practice those concepts. In the evening, we review and practice. My son is a weak reader so he could never self-study from Saxon Math 54. Using my words, I teach the lesson(s) for the day and we work through the examples that are in Saxon Math 54.Then my son does the lesson practice on a simple work sheet that goes in his notebook when he is done. After this this morning lessons are over. I check over his lesson practice ASAP and we talk about any mistake he made if he made any.

 

In the evening my son sits for quiet study time at the table where we monitor him and does the Mixed Practice for the lesson(s) that we covered that day. We check and grade his work daily, if he makes a mistake on the same type of problem more than once we give that extra attention for a couple of days to remedy the problem. For us, Saxon was such an amazing success :) We were all the way happy with Saxon Math 54 and are now using Saxon Math 65 with the same method and similar experiences. We intend to use Math 54 with my daughter for next year.

 

Summary:

Please realize that even though I taught the lessons in my words, we did the Saxon program. We used Saxons examples, lesson practice and mixed problems but mom (or dads') explanations. Saxon Math 54 was my sons first official math book, but not his first exposure to arithmetic or mathematics.

 

We did every problem, in order as it appeared. We have the eBook so were able to re-size and print the lesson practice and mixed practices so he wrote directly onto the pages but you could do your work in a dedicated math notebook or something, which is how my husband and I had WANTED it done, but this worked out fine too.

 

 

Basically, we loved it. I want to do it again with my younger kids when the time comes for them. I would recommend it to friends and I do recommend it. Saxon Math provides a solid arithmetic and basic math foundation for students with only good number sense and basic math skills to their credit at the start. After completing Saxon Math 54, my son does not make mistakes on anything that he's been taught. His skills are solid and he is almost always accurate. He is able to solve problems stronger than those offered in the book alone so I know he has not latched onto patterns but locked onto the understanding.

 

The Saxon method of thoroughly developing concepts slowly and constant review is genius, I love it. I have read online where people say that the newer editions of Saxon Math are not as good as older editions but I can not personally compare because I used only Saxon Math 54 3^rd edition, Student Edition. There is this nice video summary of the 1^st and 3^rd editions compared and I can see why the older editions might be more tempting to use, especially if the kid will be using them alone.

 

Now that I have been all the way through Math 54 by Saxon, I have to say that even though I :wub: LOVE :wub: Saxon and can only praise it for its underlying technique and teaching principles. These books are works of educational art for their problem sets alone. I **do** understand a lot better why some people do not like Saxon based only on its quality of teaching math.

 

It was not a deal breaker for us, because of how we used and are using Saxon Math. But if a child were to study from Saxon Math by themselves, I would probably feel differently. From reading I think that recommendation is to make sure that the independent Saxon pupil is a strong, fluent and speedy reader and use the older editions because they LOOK like they are easier on the eyes and minds of readers, but I have never used the 1^st or 2^nd editions of Saxon so I do not speak with experience, that is my understanding based on blogs, videos and reviews of others.

 

Common “Saxon Flaws†and My Experience with them:

Lots of Problems

Some people dislike Saxon because of the quantity of problems required—this wasn't a problem for us. Mom and Dad believe in practice, practice and practice. My son doing ~30 problems a lesson isn't a big concern for us. If Saxon came with fewer problems, we'd supplement to get more practice. Despite the length, we made sure that those lessons weren't a burden to him because we never left the son alone to do his mixed practice work. Instead we stood by and watched and kept him on task so the work didn't take too long. (His talking and daydreaming could take a long time, but not his working). In the beginning my son started out taking up to an hour to do 2 Mixed Problem sets in the evening but as we continued through the book he got down to 20-45 minutes and has stayed in that range of time consistently.

 

Math Teaching

Some people dislike Saxon because of the wording/explanations and this was--kind of--a problem for us. It didn't cause my son a problem because I pre-read and teach the lessons to him in my own words but I agree that this book does not always have fluid teaching explanations. Sometimes Saxon shows a long-way around a problem then they show a “one-step†way of doing it. Well, if you understand the previous topics well--which, with Saxon you should--then the “one step†method is the OBVIOUS method to begin with.

 

I think this could be a US way of looking at numbers but to me it seemed “clunkyâ€. If we'd used Saxons wording, I think that this could have been a problem for my son, but again, I pre-read and worked out all of the problems ahead of him, so I “cleaned up†the wording for efficiency. I do not know if fluent and native English speakers would feel the same way, but it did feel...“wordy†at times.

 

Vocabulary

I did not like the vague Mathlish terms “some and some more†in the explanations for the concepts. For us, addend is easier to say, think and follow in explanations. Saxon does teach the correct terms throughout the lessons though so this is not a big complaint. I just thought it weird that they weren't always consistent with vocabulary, this could be a language thing though.

 

Challenge Level

Some people dislike Saxon because it is “too easyâ€. This was not a problem for us, we felt that the level of difficulty was perfect for our sons every day math ability. I think that if Saxon Story problems are not 'enough' for you, you should supplement that, not skip the whole book if it works for you other in other ways. Before starting Saxon Math 54 we gave him some math problem each day that made him pause to think and we continued this practice while using Saxon Math 54 so there was no need to “supplement†the story problems in Saxon, we would continue this practice no matter what we used so this isn't a problem for us right now.

 

 

My Basic Ideas about Teaching.

Students are not here to GIVE purpose to a teacher in teaching, but to GET a service from the teacher.

As a teacher, the job is to assist students in learning, however they learn. The kids do not need me to be the “perfect teacher†in a way that makes no sense to them. They need me to perfect teaching them in the way that they learn. The books we choose are tools in the shed, but we are the artisan who has to know when and how to actually use them.I and my husband are the first and most important source of instruction for our kids in mathematics. We picked Saxon Math for our son because it is what he needed and it helps me to teach him the way that he learns.

 

Saxon Math 54 and 65 basically teach Arithmetic and some basic math skills so I do NOT need a Teachers Guide or answer key, but it probably would have been so much easier short term to have an answer key but in the long term, I am glad that I did this experience for my child—I think it made me a better teacher for him. It helped to prepare me to teach math for my next child because of the experience of working so closely to teach and communicate mathematical concepts to a child learner who thinks differently than I do.

 

My son loved the Saxon mathematics book. It was very satisfying to have lessons at his level and he liked the varied practice. His skills have grown and grown and grown using this method of gradual teaching and constant review. Saxon is a good level of challenge for him, I would say 10-20% of the problems were “challenging†for him mathematically, but Saxon challenged him with language (we do concepts bilingually), focus, persistence and diligence every lesson. Those are skills that he can take to problem solve later and so I'm very glad that he's developing those skills now with something that he loves.. My son has matured a lot in the several months that we used Saxon math and he is a better, faster, steadier worker now than he was before which is something that I love also.

 

So far, in Math 65 He does not make mistakes in anything that he's been taught. We are moving at a good pace with Math 65.

 

Important information about my sons prerequisite skills:

and skills I think that any Math 54 candidate should possess if they want to do well.

He understood numbers and quantities.

He could count and skip count fluently.

He understood place value and could add/subtract already.

He understood regrouping in base 10, but didn't always do it effectively.

He knew his number facts for + and - very well BEFORE beginning.

He knew his number facts for * and / well BEFORE beginning.

He also knew the concept (meaning he was not well-practiced with all of these concepts, but could summarize/explain them) of multiplication, division, inverses, and fractions.

We reviewed those math facts (almost) every day, even though he knew them.

 

 

PS: These are just MY thoughts and this is just MY review shared with the web-board because of requests made months ago. I am not telling others to do exactly as I have done, I am not calling any one who did differently from me wrong and if you tried Saxon but changed, then I am not saying that you were "bad" to give up Saxon. I am sharing this review to give my "hindsight" perspective on Saxon Math 54 and to say what I did and did not like about Saxon and how we made it work for us. Hopefully someone finds this helpful to them. If you do not find it helpful then I'm sorry you took the time to read it all :p

 

[Faithful_Steward]

Will you post a link for the Saxon worksheets? :)

[elmerRex]

Will you post a link for the Saxon worksheets? :)

Which worksheets do you mean?

 

We got the PDF of Saxon Math off of a teachers website and printed the Mixed Practice pages that we needed for my son to write on.

We just typed up a simple template document for Lesson Practice. My husband will have to figure out how to share this document online when he gets back.

[elmerRex]

Here is a sample of the simple worksheets we made for my son to complete his Math 54 Lesson Practice with.

 

 

Math54LessonPractice1-10.pdf As you can see, this worksheet just has the Lessons Practice with a few extra (*) questions or prompts thrown in. We got smart after several lessons and added a word problem or two to each of the lesson practice worksheets.

Math54LessonPractice1-10.pdf

[BusyMom5]

I love the worksheets you have made.  Do you have an on-line source for the 6/5 book?  I am wanting to make printable sheets for my DD.  It's her only complaint about Saxon 5/4- no worksheets. 

[elmerRex]

I love the worksheets you have made.  Do you have an on-line source for the 6/5 book?  I am wanting to make printable sheets for my DD.  It's her only complaint about Saxon 5/4- no worksheets. 

Oh, happy that you like them. I find that these make easy reference for when my son needs or wants to look back at something and because it is ONLY about the lesson and not the mixed practice, it makes it go easier to review the idea of a lesson when he is doing the mixed practice for each lesson.

 

Math 65 as a PDF is online also.

[MiMi 4under3]

 

 

Ideally, one would be administering a test after every 4 lessons to better track a students progress or understanding. Because we did not have the tests/teacher resources and because of how closely I was able to work with my son directly, I did not feel the need to even use the tests. Some will use them, some will not. That is a choice I encourage each teacher to make on their own, if we'd gotten tests for free, we would have used them. Since we would have had to buy them, we did not use them. (I am a cheap mama! lol)

 

 

I just want to point out that the publisher recommends a test every 5 lessons, beginning with test 1 after lesson 10. 

[elmerRex]

I just want to point out that the publisher recommends a test every 5 lessons, beginning with test 1 after lesson 10. 

Thank you, I fixed that error. If you see any others please let me know and I will fix them when I can.

[nknapp5]

Where are you finding the PDF's? I am wanting to look at Saxon 7/6.

[elmerRex]

Where are you finding the PDF's? I am wanting to look at Saxon 7/6.

 

You can search with Google to find the books by using "Saxon Book Name" + PDF. it is okay because schools have the texts online for free but do use carefulness because schools have the "newer" books. You can only find 3rd and 4th edition books, not 1st or 2nd edition books so you may not like the new books because they are stuffed with more content that old Saxon does not originally have.

 

I have found Math 54, Math 65 online. Newer versions (4th editions?) of Math 76, 87 and Algebra 1/2 have new names, but I **think** that the content is the same, but probably more "filler" content to make Schools use them that 1st or 2nd edition books wouldn't have. It was explained to me on this web board

 

Math 76 = Course 1

Math 87 = Course 2

Alg 1/2   = Course 3

 

 

Good luck.

[MaeFlowers]

Thank you for this review. I think Saxon is a great math program and works well for many families. We tried many programs after leaving ps and Saxon has been the best. I also used the 3rd edition that I found online of both 54 and 65. I never needed any of the teacher's materials. I also feel the tests are unnecessary. The daily mixed problems section seems to negate this (at least for me). The mixed problem section is the strength of the Saxon program.

I would like to add that, for an older student, 54 and 65 can be used completely independently. My ds takes his book to his room and comes to find me only when he gets "stuck". This is pretty rare. I check his work and, if he misses any, we work through them together. I don't worry if he does not master a concept the first time because it will be reviewed most every day from that point on in the mixed problems section. (This means I also do not bother with worksheets, etc.)

Last, and only because I don't want anyone to not try Saxon for this reason, math facts do not have to be memorized before you start either of these books! It will help them work more quickly but as long as they know how to add/subtract, etc., they should do fine.

 

[elmerRex]

I cut out parts to help me stay on track.

Thank you for this review. I think Saxon is a great math program and works well for many families. We tried many programs after leaving ps and Saxon has been the best. We never tried another math book, but we found Saxon because we knew what features we needed in a math book and looked for what matched that need--the book was Saxon.

The mixed problem section is the strength of the Saxon program.

Super agreement!

I would like to add that, for an older student, 54 and 65 can be used completely independently.

Yes, I think that this is the intent of the program--we had to change how we use it because of my son being "babish" and unable to read for himself. 

Last, and only because I don't want anyone to not try Saxon for this reason, math facts do not have to be memorized before you start either of these books! It will help them work more quickly but as long as they know how to add/subtract, etc., they should do fine. Yes, agree. I want to be clear that knowing the math facts before starting is *my personal* recommendation. I do not personally recommend using Saxon Math 54 if you do not know the +/- math facts already OR you are NOT going to practice and drill them daily until they are automatic. That is just me though.

 

I do feel that Saxon is a great math program, not perfect, but definitely great. But it is probably not a good fit for the student who is immediately scared of having to do "a lot" because it is a lot of work but the work is very good for the student. So far, we manage the text by being diligent and committed to the Saxon method--daily practice, lots of snooping and tracking of student progress and discussion of mistakes to be sure that students understand about the concept beneath.

 

Not counting the examples that are worked through between teacher and student to teach the lessons themselves Math 54 has over 4000 problems in it for the student and you are supposed to do them all, not skip. It can quickly be made painfully slow and perilous if you don't know or won't learn your math facts by rote early on.

 

[Guest]

Hi elmerrex! I'm so glad you didn't get scared off after the first thread on the topic metastasized ;)

 

That was a WONDERFUL review. Thank you!

[Faithful_Steward]

Yeah, I almost didn't say anything about the worksheets so I didn't derail your thread. Sorry! But seriously, when you first mentioned you were using Saxon with such a young child I couldn't imagine how he was going to cheerfully handle all of that work without a workbook! :)

 

I'm glad Saxon has worked so well for you. :)

[elmerRex]

Yeah, I almost didn't say anything about the worksheets so I didn't derail your thread. Sorry! But seriously, when you first mentioned you were using Saxon with such a young child I couldn't imagine how he was going to cheerfully handle all of that work without a workbook! :)

 

I'm glad Saxon has worked so well for you. :)

My son would have been fine writing on the page print out.

 

We could have printed out the Lesson Practice big for him to write on like we did the Mixed Practice, but we--mom and dad--felt he should be keeping a math notebook so we found a compromise in creating him a Lesson Practice worksheet for each lesson. With this compromise we got him to collect his lesson notes into a math notebook that is coherent and useful for a long time and he didn't care because he was just writing on his sheet.