question for saxon math (elementary) users

[freetobeme]

i have two rising 4th graders who have made it through lesson 100 of saxon 54. we may or may not finish before the fall.

does anyone have an opinion (;)) about whether i should finish all the lessons or just start at the beginning of 65?

they are strong in math, but i am not interested in hurrying them up. . .just wondered if skipping up was a reasonable option or a really bad idea.

thanks! :001_smile:

[Karen in CO]

I am in 54 with my dd and have 65 in my box for next year. You really have two choices - you can either continue on until you finish 54 then start 65 by testing to see how much to skip or you can stop now wait until fall to start 65 and start at the beginning with all of the review. If you continue, you will need to skip because they won't have forgotton how to do the basic operations. If you stop now, you'll have to start with review because the time laspe with make then need some refresher. The review is built into the beginning of the book because it assumes that you probably didn't finish the previous material and the kids have forgotten a lot of it over the summer.

 

My dd hates that summer-slide in math so we work through the summer then test at the beginning of the next book for placement. I think either way is fine. There is a lot to be said for relaxing in the summer and approaching the same material with a more mature brain.

[kittysmom]

We always finish a book, but when it's time to start the next one, I have my children just do the tests at first and we start at the point in the book when they find new concepts on the tests. My ds started Saxon 3 this spring and started around lesson 60 because everything before that was review.

[coffeegal]

Art Reed in 'Using John Saxon's Math Books' advices completing each math book before beginning the next. The previous book teaches the concepts while the next book reviews the concepts. We've run into problems when I attempt to move too fast. So, I agree with his advice. Finish the book before begining 65. :001_smile:

[Homeschooling6]

I wouldn't skip any lesson. 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! "

[freetobeme]

thanks for all the great thoughts! some of them i have had myself and others are new. all are helpful. we will most likely finish the 54 before beginning (and possibly skipping some review in) 65.

:001_smile: