Thank you. We never used manipulatives and now I wonder if that was a mistake. Well, I take that back. We used her "My Little Pony" figurines to learn basic addition, subtraction, and groups! ;)

What's a C-Rod?

Awesome - thanks!

That's really good to know! I sure hope so. She really does know the concept, but yeah, she gets confused because of so many steps and she's not the queen of fortitude. She's in that "it's too hard" for me stage.

I have a 9 year old who is exactly like this. SHe catches on to the concepts quickly but very few of her math facts are automatic. To make sure she was getting the concepts, I let her use a multiplication table for her work and she did everything perfectly. Because she doesn't know her math facts, she's making silly addition and multiplication mistakes. I'm just drilling, drilling, drilling. Flash cards, drill, ad nauseum. I don't know anything else to do. In order to move on, she HAS to know them. I know no other way for her to move on.

Perhaps what I saw didn't show any pictures in the book that were there - but the Saxon book I saw was all writing that I saw and smaller fonts and much more on each page. I just looked at a MCP and it's got color pictures and larger font. That aside - that should not be my deciding factor, and you ladies have helped me see that part of my reticence about Saxon IS just superficial. I know my kid - and she sees small font and no pictures and she shuts off. She'll have to get over that, eh? Eventually she will HAVE to use books with smaller fonts. Where yours and others argument is most persuasive is this:

This is one of the most persuasive arguments for me to switch to Saxon.

For me, popularity doesn't mean as much as what works for my daughter. Heck, apparently so far as I can see, I'm the only one here who loves Seton and use it completely! ;)

Mind officially blown.

Thank you for this information as well. I am leaning more towards MCP, but you Saxon ladies are making some good points I must address! :)

When I was researching this a while back, CA was meeting or exceeding ALL the common core standards and they were discussing how they were going to deal with those requirements that exceeded: if they were to dumb down the curriculum or if where they exceeded could stay. I am not thrilled with CC and from what the HSDL says, it's something that *may* in the future affect our choices as home schoolers. That concerns me greatly.

butting in to say "THANK YOU!!!!" for this link. My jaw dropped at some of these videos and I think they're a big ticket for my math reluctant 4th grader!!!!

I am very sorry hun. This parenting gig is so hard sometimes! :grouphug:

Thank you - I do think that I will get the Teacher's Guide if we choose MCP.

I'm going to check with the school and see if she can do MCP for 5 and 6. If she can, then I think we will do MCP. I'm liking what I hear *EXCEPT* for the quote about not following the math standards. I need to research that one out more!

I'll have to look and see if the teacher's guide is included in the price of the curriculum. That's been great advice all over this thread. I will purchase it separately if need be. It sounds like just what we will need.

If they go until 7th, I'll be thrilled. I guess we'll have to switch at some point, but I am really fighting against Saxon and I'm not sure why it's so visceral for me.

We're having one HECK of a time with long division right now - and yep, we're doing 4th grade.

I liked what I was reading until I got to this: This does concern me. If we switch to MCP next year, then to Saxon the following year, how far behind might she be?

I seem to hear the same things over and over and I like what I hear. I am leaning towards MCP but I am wondering if it's because I don't really *feel* Saxon. Perhaps that's something I need to get over before the decision is made, eh?

The way you explain this is the way her math books work presently and I very much like them. Saxon seems so foreign to me. She will HAVE to switch to Saxon in 6th grade as that is the only offering at that grade level, so the other part is do I switch her now or give her one more year of what she knows so she can concentrate on the other harder parts of 5th grade that will be new to her.

Hmmm, thank you!! You are actually the first person I've heard that shows such love for it. That makes me want to research it more. I got to get a look at a Saxon Book for a few moments and it seemed much more complicated than it needed to be. I need to find one that I can live with for a while...and MCP too. I can't afford to buy them and then not use them, KWIM?

I *think* what we are doing is a mastery approach/traditional math book. It's not a book that the general public uses very often so I can't really say for sure. It seems to be teaching the way I was taught in Catholic school in the 70's. I am wondering if it would be better as my daughter struggles with the application of the concept for a while before she breezes through it. She understands the concepts before she actually remembers the steps to do it if that makes since.

I've never understood the attraction of overdeveloped butts. However, I come from a family of all flat butts that need belts to hold up our pants cuz our butts don't, so I do see the attraction of finding SOME definition. I'm way out of touch anyway becauseRock hard abs and overly muscular bodies are not attractive to me.

I do the full boxed curriculum from Seton Home Study School. It's more traditional though and it's very Catholic based. I have always appreciated the boxed so that I knew I was keeping her both grade appropriate and a well rounded curriculum. I'm not sure I could do it as well.