I just opened Saxon 3...

[Just Robyn]

and I can't believe it. :( Telling time to the hour? Ordering numbers to 100? More sheets of single digit addition? Is this some kind of cruel joke? I expected sheets of addition and subtraction with regrouping/carrying and borrowing - whatever you want to call it (which he can already do *pretty* well, but could use a bit more practice). I think this may be torture for all of us. The only idea I have right now, other than trudging through it, is to use mammoth math, or something else divided into skills, and try Saxon 5/4? Any ideas? Has anyone done Saxon 3, and what did you think of it? What will we be getting into with Saxon 5/4? We have done Saxon K, 1, and 2.

[yslek]

One of my friends was slogging through Saxon 3 with her ds a couple of years ago. About 2/3 of the way through, she looked at Saxon 5/4 and decided he was ready to start it. She was really glad she switched at the time. HTH

[Chris in VA]

There's a lot of review in the beginning of the Saxon books. YOu can skip some.

Don't skip the meeting thinking it's too easy, once you get to the place you want to start, because it sets up the other skills. But in the beginning, esp if there hasn't been a summer in between, you can just give some of the chapter tests (the ones every 5 lessons, you know) and see where he places. I'd find where he gets under 90%.

 

Remember, too, that you are going for automaticity in the number facts. If he can do 100 in 3 minutes, you are there. If not, keep going.

[Erica in OR]

I agree, there's a lot of review at the start of each Saxon book. Middle DD finished Saxon 2 just after Christmas and we've started Saxon 3. The majority is extremely easy review, but we've kept going, mainly adjusting using to the meeting strip every day and the reduced timing (45 seconds) for each addition practice sheet. I would recommend continuing with Saxon 3, mainly because of the clear way it describes one of the later tough concepts, long division. The Saxon 3 book explains it well, using hundred/ten/one dollar bills and dividing them among groups. Older DD is doing Saxon 5/4 this year, and it glosses over the reasoning behind doing long division, and turns it into more of a plug and chug - multiply this, then pull this number down. They don't tell why, it's just "that's the way you do it". If you do skip ahead to Saxon 5/4, don't skip drilling the addition/subtraction/multiplication facts, and the skip counting practice. It's invaluable to later work in Saxon 5/4.

 

Erica in OR

[BabyBre]

Remember that the first 30 lessons or so in Saxon are review. We found that we could skip the first part of the book because we didn't break for summer. In fact, I just opened up Saxon 6/5 for the first time to take a look at next year, and found identifying digits, identifying even and odd numbers, etc! I think we can skip those.

 

To determine where to start dd each Saxon year, I give her the assessments until she scores poorly or it becomes obvious that she's come across something new. We've done this for the last two years and it's worked out great, meaning that we haven't created any holes by skipping lessons.

[EKS]

It does get harder. You could test through the first several lessons if you wanted to.

[Just Robyn]

Thank you all. I'll give him the assessments to see where to start like many of you suggested. Calming down now and taking one of these. :chillpill:

[PollyOR]

When we used Saxon, I skipped the first 30-35 lessons.

[lulubelle]

My ds just finished Saxon 2 today! We have looked at the Saxon 3 book. He has some math anxiety and is not so sharp on his timed tests and quick recall for addition and subtraction facts, so we are taking a month or so off to help him gain more confidence and more practice. We will begin Saxon 3 from the beginning so he can gain confidence and quickness in his math facts.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

We have never skipped lessons when starting a new book. What I have done is use that month as a breather for cementing skills, from number handwriting to quick recall of facts to proper set up of problems.

 

However, when we finished up Saxon 3, I did go directly to 6/5 instead of 5/4. It worked well for us. There was enough review and a gentle enough start that the kids were fine. DH encouraged me to go ahead and try this by saying that if it was too hard, then we'd put 6/5 on the shelf for a year, but it it worked then we'd bought a year of flexibility.

 

(I am considering skipping the first few lessons of the next Saxon book for my youngest because the lessons in his current book have been very easy for him. I want to ramp him up a little bit.)

[oldskool]

Last year DS was in third grade (1st year homeschooling) and used 5/4. He came out of PS and had used Everyday Math. You could try it and see how it works. 5/4 seemed like an easy transition for DS and we are now using 6/5. The format is different from the earlier Saxon levels, so I do let my son write his answers in the book rather than rewriting all of the problems on another piece of paper. I think that helped a lot because his hand didn't get tired from all the rewriting.

 

Lesley

Edited February 22, 2010 by oldskool

[Macrina]

Thank you all. I'll give him the assessments to see where to start like many of you suggested. Calming down now and taking one of these. :chillpill:

 

Yep- this was me in September. We tested through half the text book but the second half has been a great fit. We're about 15 lessons away from completing now, and she's so much more prepared for the next text this way.

[Georgia On My Mind]

All of Saxon and most other math curricula is review for the first 6 weeks of lessons. If your child is competent in those skills and doesn't need review, do as suggested and do the tests until he hits a place where he needs instruction to continue. Home schooling allows us to use our brains and not be tied to the curriculum. That does't mean there is anything wrong with the curriculum, it just gives us flexibility to know and customize any curriculum to our children. Math is the only discipline you learn by repetition. It takes some students more reps than others. Most of the popular math curricula are designed for traditional classroom instruction where there are multi levels of competence in math, hence the lengthy review in the beginning of each book. It is to bring the class up to speed and hopefully most will be on the same page as far as learning new math.

 

Once you know this, it frees you up to speed through the first 30 Saxon lessons or other math curricula and get on with it. We are in Saxon Algebra II and are finishing lesson 100 this week and will begin doing Geometry every other week because we know we can finish Saxon Algebra II and make a dent in Geometry to have some skills under our belt for the PSAT next October. We did the PSAT this year as a 9th grader for practice and to see where we needed to concentrate our efforts in math, Geometry was our only weak spot. Testing through the first 30 lessons each year has bought us time every year to complete Saxon early and concentrate on projects or subjects we can't zoom through so easily. This knowledge is from my years as a professional educator and an out of the box thinker home schooling my 9th grade grand daughter. Hope this is helpful for someone in the Hive.

[s.z.ichigo]

We just did the tests for the first few dozen lessons of Saxon 3. I would definitely not skip right to Saxon 5/4. Saxon 3 is very meaty, once it finished with the review portion.

[selh09]

Quick question....My dd just started Saxon 1 last week after finishing Saxon K the week before and it is VERY easy for her. Would it be wise to test her and skip ahead in Saxon 1?

[BabyBre]

Quick question....My dd just started Saxon 1 last week after finishing Saxon K the week before and it is VERY easy for her. Would it be wise to test her and skip ahead in Saxon 1?

 

 

I don't think it would hurt. We did it. You know what she knows, so when you see something she's unfamiliar with, teach that lesson and move on.

[momee]

Move on but keep concentrating on that drill :)

[selh09]

I think that's what I'm going to do...Thanks for the advice!

[TCoppock]

There's a lot of review in the beginning of the Saxon books. YOu can skip some.

Don't skip the meeting thinking it's too easy, once you get to the place you want to start, because it sets up the other skills. But in the beginning, esp if there hasn't been a summer in between, you can just give some of the chapter tests (the ones every 5 lessons, you know) and see where he places. I'd find where he gets under 90%.

 

Remember, too, that you are going for automaticity in the number facts. If he can do 100 in 3 minutes, you are there. If not, keep going.

 

:iagree: This was the best advice I got when I was going from book to book. I went over the problem missed on the tests and made sure we reviewed those lessons and then continued on with where the last test left off.

[Teachin'Mine]

What worked for us was doing two lessons a day instead of one. (We did this for 6/5 and part of 7/6.) We've been using Saxon since 6/5, and even though she tested for starting in a higher level, I didn't want to miss anything. The mental math was especially important - we did that orally. Constant review, especially in the early grades, is awesome for math. I'm really glad we did it the way we did as she's solid in her basics and it made the higher levels so much easier. She completed geometry last year - not Saxon as it wasn't available yet - and is in Algebra II now.

 

We found that even those repetitive timed practice sheets were great for speed. I wish they had those and mental math for the higher levels of math too.