Finishing Saxon 6/5...starting 7/6

[sahm99]

Ds is slowly but surely approaching the end of Saxon 6/5... He will start with 7/6 in August. I am wondering whether skipping the last 20 or even 10 lessons in 6/5 is reasonable? In this case I could have him slow down to 2-3 lessons a week over the next month or so, and then switch him to 7/6 directly. Otherwise we'll keep up the speed of 5 lessons a week and the go directly into 7/6... I would not consider this if there was a break betweenthe two levels, but in both options he is going to work through anyways... (which I want, because of "attitude reasons";)...

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Ellie]

Seems to me it would be better to finish 65, and then to zoom through the beginning of 76. Wouldn't 65 be *teaching* and 76 *reviewing*?

[KarenNC]

I haven't done 6/5, but we have just begun 7/6. I would also suggest reversing the order---so far the beginning of 7/6 has been very basic review.

 

I had someone tell me that, in Saxon, the first 40 or so lessons are primarily review, the next 40 are on level, and the last 40 are the challenging ones. I wouldn't skimp or skip the challenge in favor of the basic review.

 

Here's the TOC for 7/6

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product_slideshow?sku=993494&actual_sku=993494&slide=1

 

and the one for 6/5 (hit "next" at the bottom of the screen to go to the next page in the TOC)

[sahm99]

Thank for your replies! ...We'll do as you advise and do all the lessons!

[Homeschooling6]

I wouldn't skip any lesson in either book. In Art Reed's book he highly recomends that children do all the lessons. No skipping.

 

Here is a quote of Art Reed's website(click on the link to read more):

 

"NOT FINISHING THE ENTIRETY OF THE TEXTBOOK: Not requiring the student to finish the entirety of one book before moving on to the next book in the sequence. RATIONALE: The beginning of the new book covers the same material we are skipping in the other book, so why repeat it? FACT: The student encounters some review of this material in the next book, but this review assumes the student has already encountered the simpler version in the previous text. The review concepts in the new book are a bit tougher than the one's they skipped in the previous book. This does not initially appear to create a problem until the student gets to about lesson thirty or so in the book, and by then both the parent and the student have gotten so far into the new book that they do not attribute the student's problem to be the result of not finishing the previous textbook. They start to think the material is too difficult to process correctly and do not see the error of their having skipped the last thirty or so lessons in the previous book. They now fault the excessive difficulty of the current textbook as the reason their child is failing. SOLUTION: Always finish the entirety of every Saxon math textbook. Because all children are not alike, if as you're reading this article you have already encountered this particular phenomenon with your child, there are several steps you can take to satisfactorily solve the problem without harming the child's progress or self-esteem. So that we can find the correct solution, please email me and include your telephone number and I will call you that same day – on my dime! "

[Chris in VA]

We finished 6/5 in April and are now on 7/6 lesson 33--Yes, it's review, but there are some differences in the phrasing and the way things are introduced. We are just now getting into reducing with GCF, but, again, the way things are being phrased is just slightly different.

 

I know Saxon--this will come into play later in the book. I always caution parents to remember how intentional Saxon is, and, if you choose to skip or test out of some of the review, you may be missing something that will make it easier to do the rest of the book.

[Homeschooling6]

Here are the rest of the articles regarding HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY USE JOHN SAXON'S MATH BOOKS FROM MATH 54 THROUGH CALCULUS