We love Saxon too! I started my oldest with MCP K - 3. She loved the few weeks about measurement, time, etc., but the rest of the year was just page after page of fact practice. She didn't retain much with the mastery method, and she hated staring at those long pages of problems to solve. I switched her to 54 last year with the DIVE CD,and it was so much better. My 2nd dd, I started with a MCP-type program. She hated it, too, so I decided to give the lower levels of Saxon a try. My dd started leaving me thank you notes around the house for her new math program! She's doing Saxon 1, and her younger brother is doing Saxon K. I love the Saxon K program for preschool! It's fun, has short lessons and doesn't require writing! He thinks it's playtime with mom!

My 3.5y DS is doing Saxon K and my 5.5y DD is doing Saxon 1. We started late spring/early summer. We just use the calendar as we go. I had to scratch out some of the months I knew we wouldn't use and write in the months that they don't have (summer months). I just look to see what patterns they should be using during their 3 month of the program, for instance (maybe an AABB pattern), and we use that during that month. My DS loves doing his calendar everyday!

The main text has evaluations in it to place your student, mainly based on how well they can take a reading passage and concisely summarize it, and how well they can write a rather lengthy dictation. My dd is in 3rd/4th grade and placed in level 2. I'm already seeing improvements in her narration, and I'm hoping she'll be ready for level 3 after Christmas.

Thanks so much for your detailed response!!

Most of what my 1st grader is doing is in my sig.

There are a lot of us on this board who use this program and love it! We started using it in June, I think. I needed some remedial spelling work for my oldest. She really needed to learn the rules like this program teaches and needs the built in review. She also enjoys the program since we do different things each day, not just filling out pages in a workbook (which just wasn't sticking for her). If you have a program that's working well for you, I don't see any reason to change. But, if you think you need something else, I would definitely look into this program! Google it to find the website and learn more. You can also search this board to look for lots of great reviews! I hope this helps some!

But *WHAT* is the difference between these? Is it the 'brightness' of the color or what? Is it something that an 8-y-o will notice? Have any of you started will Crayolas, introduced Prismacolors or Sharpies, and have your kids get really excited about the difference in the outcome of their work? I know a serious artist would want the good pens, but will they (even the Sharpies) help her feel prouder of her work, or something like that? Besides the price, I worry about the permanence of the marker. Thanks for sharing your experiences! I want my kids to enjoy learning to draw, and I'm happy to give them the tools, if they really make a difference!

...between PrismaColor markers and Crayola for an 8-year-old? Or even between those and Sharpies? We're doing Drawing with Children and I know these expensive markers are recommended, but I'm wondering if they're worth the price. Will it really make that much of a difference for an 8-year-old? We've been using Crayola for the past few months. Please share your honest opinions! :)

I would make a list of all the subjects would want to cover each week, decide how many days per week we need to do each subject, and how long each subject should take per day. Go from there. Perhaps you should only start with 2-3 subjects for the 2-4 weeks and add more subjects as things are going well. Then you can feel like you're accomplishing something and gain confidence. Don't try to do it all from the beginning. Homeschool is always challenging, especially when you're starting! Be patient. Set short, acheivable goals!

I'm so grateful for the WWE program! It's given me a new appreciation for how difficult the mechanics of writing are for an elementary student and how necessary it is to work on this before moving on to original writing. I didn't realize how much my dd still struggled with this part of writing. Thanks SWB!

I have no experience with MUS, but my dd used Saxon 54 last year as a 7-y-o with the DIVE CD and did very well. I wouldn't call it "a lot of tedious, busy work." It's very thorough, and my dd learned a lot. I think a lot of people believe the above quote because they have their child at a level that's too low for their abillity, so they do get bored with the constant review. My dd doesn't love having to continue doing some of the problems, but I think it's really good for her. We had previously done a mastery course, and she did forget a lot as the year went along. We're supplementing with Singapore's CWP.

:iagree: I'm using it about 3 days a week with my pre-k, and he loves it! I've also heard good things about Right Start Math, but I don't have any personal experience with it. A friend of mine is using it with her 4-y-o, and she says they love it.

I know where you're coming from :) My kids at those ages loved doing 'school work,' so I think it's ok to get them some ETC books and a fun math intro curriculum. But, I really think an hour max should be enough. They shouldn't require constant attention and structure from you. They may be coming to you asking for something to do, but I think it's important to make kids entertain themselves. I think self-entertainment is an important skill for kids to learn. They learn so much when they learn to do this! One may learn that he loves to draw. One may learn lots about bugs while following them around outside. One even learn to read flipping through books over and over, day after day, on his own! Who knows!!!

I use Saxon a grade ahead, and it's working well. Sometimes I think some kids don't like math and say, "It's boring!" because they're not challenged enough. My ds (3.5) is doing Saxon K, my dd (5.5) is doing Saxon 1, and my dd (8) is doing Saxon 6/5. I love the constant review in the program!

And I will add that WWE will not teach your dc how to form letters. These 2 programs teach 2 different subjects. Your child should know how to form all of her letters before doing WWE. We will be using both of these programs this year, though not with the same children.

I would consider WWE for writing and GWG for grammar!

It helps my dd to have a timer on her desk. This might be stressful for some dc, but my dd likes it. Without the timer, she doesn't realize how much time is passing. With it, she has a goal and is really proud of herself when she has finished quickly. She also likes the 'extra' time she has at then end of the day to play.

It helps my dd to have a timer on her desk. This might be stressful for some dc, but my dd likes it. Without the timer, she doesn't realize how much time is passing. With it, she has a goal and is really proud of herself when she has finished quickly. She also likes the 'extra' time she has at then end of the day to play.

:lurk5: I'm still trying to find our "latin path," so I'm interested in hearing more on this topic!

Growing with Grammar seems like a straight-forward, gentle start to grammar. A lot of people on this board have given glowing reviews of the program. I will be using grade 1 and 4 for my dc. I've received my copies and read through them. I'm very impressed with it, and I'm looking forward to using it this year.

We use the tiles to build the words when we introduce the lesson. I think it's a good way to 'see' the phonograms as one entity. However, it does seem to take longer. But, it adds variety to the lessons. My youngest doesn't love the tiles as much as my older dd, so she uses the dry erase board more.

I'm using level 2 for 2 of my dc, and I didn't want to have to buy 2 sets of the cards. So, I typed up all the of the words on an excel sheet with a blank row next to each column. In the extra column, I mark whether she's mastered a word or if we need to review it again. I actually kind of like it more this way rather than the box of words. I remember which phonograms and rules I need to review with each child just using the cards. I do love the constant review system of AAS. We're really enjoying this program! I've ordered levels 3 & 4, and I'm really looking forward to them!

You could just get him to do the assignments on separate paper. That's what I'm planning to do so that the workbook will be non-consumable and I can use it again for my other kids.

I read on this forum before that many people supplement Saxon with Singapore's Challenging Word Problems, instead of the whole program. No one's mentioned that so far on this thread, though. I've gotten this book for my dd to use this year.

This past year was our 1st year with Saxon. We used MCP until then. She was 7-y-o (she'll be 8 in September) and did Saxon 54 without trouble. She particularly enjoyed the second half of the course. She said that her favorite topics were fractions and long division. We used the DIVE CD, which made it an independent subject for her. This upcoming year I'm planning on supplementing with Singapore's CWP and doing Saxon 65. This doesn't help you know if skipping Saxon 3 is ok, but it does let you know that 54 is doable by at least some 7-y-olds. It hard to find the right balance with math: challenging enough to be interesting, but not so much that it's frustrating. Good luck with your decision!