Thanks for the replies! I will have him take the placement test BUT the last time I had him take one...maybe when I was deciding what to use last fall...he made a lot of careless mistakes and so I'm afraid I won't have a good gauge, if that makes sense?? I guess I should let him know how important it is to not rush through so we can really see where he needs to be. Thanks for reminding of this! I do have the DIVE cd for 7/6 if we start with that. Can anyone share their thoughts on the pros and cons of waiting to switch to Saxon after Singapore 5A and 5B or just use it one day a week as a supplement with Saxon? bethben - did your son finish 6A before making the switch? How has the transition been if you are very far along in it? I can understand what you are saying and I feel like even where he's at now part of the reason he's not as quick with some of those easy facts is because we haven't reviewed them. It hasn't been a big deal and won't be hard to brush up on those but I can see where it would be more difficult when covering the upper level material.

I am researching math programs and my brain is totally on overload! I tried reading some old threads but I think I am just more confused! Right now I am mostly concerned with planning for my 5th grader, will be 6th in the fall. I want to choose the right path as he begins middle school. Since we don't know where the Lord may lead us, I want him to have an excellent education at home or be able to easily go into a public or private school at any given point in late middle school or high school. For background, he used A Beka in a private school K-mid 4th and we finished it up at home the rest of that year. I looked around and went with our program's recommendation of Singapore for this year (5th) and started him at a lower level because I heard it was very different and hoped he would catch on easier that way. So far this year he's worked through 3B, 4A, and will finish up 4B in a couple weeks. He is a pretty mathy kid (just needs motivation :glare:) and works a lot in his head, I have no idea what steps he uses, I'm sure the traditional method taught in A Beka, because that's what he writes out when I ask him to show me. I don't know that he will really use the Singapore methods we covered on areas he already knew but at least he's been exposed to them. I do believe he could use a little brushing up on some facts (mult/div) just to get his speed back up more in that area. We can easily do that with flashcards or probably online math games or drills. Now, I ordered Saxon 7/6 already to look at and consider putting him into. This is where I am stuck! At first glance it appears to be quite a bit of what he has covered (yes, I realize it has a lot of review in general and I'm fine with that) and I was still planning to work through Singapore 5A and 5B either before or along with 7/6. If you're still reading now for the questions...would 7/6 be the place to start after or during SM 5A/B? Then do I stick with Saxon after that or should I choose something else from here? I do know that I'm not planning to use SM after 5B or 6B at the most. I have looked at schools like Highlands Latin and Logos School and now I'm just totally :confused:! I read from Logos that they no longer use Saxon all the way because they feel like it doesn't teach enough of the thinking behind things (ok I'm not the best with words here), I can't remember what they use for high school but it's textbooks like maybe Houghton Mifflin? I'd have to look. I believe it was Highlands that uses Lial's and Foerster's. I've also looked at VideoText because I like the idea of having someone else teaching it. AHHHHH! These all look good as well. I am not a very mathy person but I can usually figure things out with good guidance. I worry about the time involved for me to learn it and then teach it since I have two other kiddos to work with as well. My hubby is great with math but VERY limited in time with his work schedule. I'd love to hear from others who have gone from SM to any of these (and from which level) and the success they're kids have had through middle and high school at home or in an outside school setting and then onto college. Again, he's not super motivated with school (but we are working on that) and I have a difficult time picturing him sitting for an hour with a math textbook and learning at this point so any suggestions for things like DIVE cds are welcome, too. I have no idea where his career interests will be, currently he is totally into army special ops. I'm sure it is a phase for a just turned 11 year old and who knows what he will want to do but I want him to be well prepared for whatever route the Lord has for him. I am grateful for any words of wisdom others can offer!! :)

Ok, totally posted this in the wrong place!! Moving it...somehow.

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I understand and can't help much because we haven't done R&S 3 or 4 yet so I haven't seen those personally. This is probably not what you are looking for but I'd finish up what you have with Abeka (since it's a consumable you wouldn't really be able to sell it for much) and then move into the next level with R&S. I will say though with levels 2 & 5 there is a lot of review in the teacher book helping you go over previously learned skills so if you went on and got R&S 4 it wouldn't hurt. You could then look through it and make sure there's enough to get him up to speed. If not finish the Abeka workbook then start R&S 4. Again, I am doing a lot of assuming going by the two R&S levels that we have, there could be a big leap in one of those levels in between that I wouldn't know about! Hopefully someone who has 3 or 4 will jump in.

I had one child use Abeka language in school through fourth grade and another through first grade. We went straight into R&S 5 and 2 with no problems! I like the simplicity of R&S, there is plenty of review, you can do a good portion orally, and the writing skills taught are great. HTH!

www.motessoriforlearning.com also has lots of resources to download!