Doodle Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I used Saxon K last year with Doodle and we are working our way through Saxon 1 now (on lesson 52). I'm not sure it is working for me. The teacher's manual seems too detail, too scripted that I find myself trying to skim through it, but then ultimately missing the most important parts. I prefer a teacher's manual that is in outline form. A bullet list of what to be covered, with "how to explain" briefs as needed. Doodle doesn't need the constant/daily repetitiveness for a lot of the meeting information and I feel we are wasting valuable learning time. By the time we get to the "meat" of the lesson, his attention span has been depleted. I read on the forum how some will break the lesson into smaller chunks, but then again, I feel we are wasting time on unnecessary math review that could be used on perhaps a whole other subject for the day. We "do school" for about 2 hours daily in small time chunks right now. I don't want to add another chunk. I recently purchased Singapore 1 A/B to check it out, but haven't yet done much with it since I am determined to finish Saxon 1 my the end of the school year. I do not have the Home Instructor's Guide. For those who use Singapore, would that give me what I am looking for? I also own the entire Miquon series and we use that from time to time as a supplement. I can't quite wrap my head around how to use that as a main program. I've look at the Mammoth Math samples many, many times. I consider it, but with already having 3 math programs in the house, I think my husband would commit me if I purchased a 4th! I'm a newie. Help me out!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mama25angels Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 go ahead and try Singapore, I think it will give you what you need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I think the HIG makes all the difference. We started the year using Saxon 2 and Singapore 1a/b. I've dropped all the Saxon except math meeting several times a week. The Singapore hig has pacing suggestions, mental math exercises(math facts and also mentally figuring out larger addition/subtraction problems), manipulative work, etc. It's where the program tells you when you need to have math facts learned by. (which is unit 3 of 1b to have addition and subtraction facts). I have seen people who didn't use the HI G say that Singapore doesn't have them learn their facts and that's not true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarawatsonim Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 I'm completely in the same boat as you. DD5 is doing Saxon 1 and it takes so long her attention span goes. She gets tired and getting her to do other subjects becomes a fight. Even when we break it up through the day, it just seems like there is way too much time invested in a daily subject. I am seriously thinking about Singapore for next year, I hear a lot of praise for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Thanks for the information about the home instructor's guide. I think I'll go ahead to get it. I only have the student text for level 1A, but I have the text and workbooks for 1B. We used the 1A text for several days after I got it and quickly worked our way through to the middle of unit 3 before I put it aside and tried to focus on getting back to the Saxon book. Is 1 A/B suppose to be a year's worth of math? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted January 21, 2010 Share Posted January 21, 2010 Yes it is supposed to be a full year. Which is why I think the HIG is so beneficial. It has slowed us down and made the math program more complete than just some workbook pages. I didn't buy the HIG until we were about 3/4 of the way through 1A (when I decided to dump the Saxon) and I think the HIG is what makes it a complete program, instead of a supplement. By the time we do some math meeting (dd loves the calendar stuff and I use it as a continuous review of time, money, calendar), flash cards to work on our facts, a mental math exercise (similar to the Saxon drill pages but shorter), do the manipulative introduction to the lesson and play games they suggest (as per the HIG), go through the lesson and do the textbook explanation, workbook exercises, and then do a page in the Challenging word problems..... that's our math day and it's plenty. My dd just doesn't need all of the enless repetition from the Saxon, which I can understand some people would benefit from. When we did just the textbook and workbook, we were doing more lessons per day but weren't doing the games, manipulative introduction, etc.... We are about to start unit 3 in 1B, but I'm going to have to take a week or so off to finish our math facts. Without the HIG, I didn't realize we should have been working on the addition and subtraction facts. If she doesn't have them all down, we'll probably go on, but I want them at least introduced and partially cemented. So far, we've made it through 3's addition and subtraction. The book only has you go up through numbers that add to 10 (7+3 or 6+4), so we're almost there. FWIW--After we finish the Singapore, I'll probably use the Saxon to go back and review this summer....especially since I own it. Haven't thought too hard about it, but maybe just work through one side of a worksheet a day, without the rest of the lesson....unless I see she needs some work on an area. IN the future, I'll just buy one of those summer workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doodle Posted January 21, 2010 Author Share Posted January 21, 2010 Thank you Erica. You've been extremely helpful.:thumbup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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