renmew Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 I will try and make this short. My almost 5 year old dd is in a pre-k type of class. Her reading is coming along well, thanks to 100 EZ, but I realized I was neglecting her math. So, one month ago I ordered Essential Math K, book A, and she is finishing it up already and pretty easily. I was assuming I would just continue with book B, then stick with SM. A good SAHM friend, who used to teach, just cleaned out her attic and found a new condition set of Saxon Math 1 An Incremental Development. Looking at it, I think she could move right from Essential Book A to this Saxon program. Questions- Does anyone who is familiar with both programs think this would be a good idea? The guide for the Saxon is $40+. I just can't do that right now. Is the guide that important? The book looks boring. Any experience with kids thinking this also? Thank you for the help. You are all so experienced. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AFwife Claire Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I have never seen Essentials, but I always use Saxon 1. I think anyone could go straight into Saxon 1, without really any previous math at all, so your daughter should be fine! I don't use the TM at all with Saxon 1. The worksheets are pretty self-explanatory, as far as teaching the concepts, I think. I am sure there are helpful things in the TM (and I did use it with my first 2, I believe), but nothing I remember as especially earth-shattering that you would not be able to function without! My 3rd, 4th, and 5th kids have done just fine with me not using the TM. My kids have never been absolutely thrilled with Saxon math, but I don't think they hate it or think it is incredibly boring, esp. at the younger ages. Then, they just like spending time with me, coloring towers and drawing pictures for the word problems! I think Saxon gives a good, solid foundation, with no fancy bells and whistles, which I like. In short, it's free, and I would use it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 Thank you! Yes, I was thinking she could move from one to the other pretty easily. We will just go ahead and head on in. Even after this month of working in the Essentials book, I am feeling much better about her math. And those two Saxon books are thick, so I don't see her moving through them at lightening speed or anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 We used Saxon 1 last year, honestly, I wouldn't have done it without the TM, it was the bulk of the program. Saxon wasn't a good fit for us, it took nearly an hour a day for Saxon 1 (we used it for K). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 We used Saxon 1 last year, honestly, I wouldn't have done it without the TM, it was the bulk of the program. Saxon wasn't a good fit for us, it took nearly an hour a day for Saxon 1 (we used it for K). The student workbook I have has two sided lessons, labeled a and b. Did you do both sides in one sitting? Does the TM have the actual wording to use to teach the lesson? I have never used Saxon, so I don't know how the workbook pages are intended to be used, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in FL Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 I also use Saxon with my kids and I wouldn't do it without the TM. As another poster said, the bulk of the lesson is in the TM including items that are not included on the worksheet. (Daily skip counting, money, clock, patterns, calendar, to name a few). Saxon heavily uses manipulatives in the 3 primary books. You need the TM for those instructions. We do the lesson, fact sheet, split the daily stuff up over the week, and only do one side of the worksheet. I also agree that a K'er can start right away with Saxon 1. In my family we do only Saxon 1 meeting and lesson activities and no worksheets or fact sheets. Then in first grade we do all aspects of Saxon 2. ETA: Yes, the TM is a scripted lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 I might look to find a used TM, then. Math is not taught well at my school in general, so it is definitely something that will be necessary for me to cover at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 So, one month ago I ordered Essential Math K, book A, and she is finishing it up already and pretty easily. I was assuming I would just continue with book B, then stick with SM....snip... Does anyone who is familiar with both programs think this would be a good idea? My son used Saxon 1 at school. Yes, the TM is the bulk of the program. The worksheets are the same on both sides, with different numbers. One is meant to be class time, and one is homework (in a school setting). I'm using Singapore EM K with my middle son. I personally would not want to teach Saxon 1 or go through Saxon 1 (seriously, the homework sheets by themselves bored ME to tears, as they hardly change at all from day to day). Singapore is a great program. Book B of EM K is much meatier than book A. I'd recommend staying the course. Singapore is an excellent program, and way more interesting/challenging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Check out used book fairs. I found the TMs for 1-3 for $4 each. I added the worksheet books from Rainbow. We started to homeschool in 2nd and kept him in SM, which the PS was using, sort of. (They skipped from here to there and failed to cover much of the material!). When ds was in 3rd we made the switch to Saxon. We followed the TM and completed side A of the worksheet together. Later he would complete side B on his own. We did not skip lessons or problems on worksheets. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 The student workbook I have has two sided lessons, labeled a and b. Did you do both sides in one sitting? Does the TM have the actual wording to use to teach the lesson? I have never used Saxon, so I don't know how the workbook pages are intended to be used, We did both sides, not always at once. Yes, the lessons in the TM are scripted. According to Saxon, you are supposed to do all problems. The first side when after the lesson and then the other side later in the day as "homework". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renmew Posted November 7, 2011 Author Share Posted November 7, 2011 My son used Saxon 1 at school. Yes, the TM is the bulk of the program. The worksheets are the same on both sides, with different numbers. One is meant to be class time, and one is homework (in a school setting). I'm using Singapore EM K with my middle son. I personally would not want to teach Saxon 1 or go through Saxon 1 (seriously, the homework sheets by themselves bored ME to tears, as they hardly change at all from day to day). Singapore is a great program. Book B of EM K is much meatier than book A. I'd recommend staying the course. Singapore is an excellent program, and way more interesting/challenging. Hmmm... this is making things more difficult. I really like Singapore, but have heard that Saxon can be quite thorough. Dd is still so young, I just don't know what kind of student she will be. I know ds would never do Saxon. Is anyone here from L.A? I need to go to a convention or bookstore that carries these things so I can compare. There were a couple families that home schooled on my last street, maybe they would know where to look. Thank you for the replies and info. What I wouldn't give to be able to do this full time! Still thinking about taking ds out of school and teaching him at night. Not sure yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farming_mum Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 We started the year with Saxon and we bought K, 1 & 2. Using the placement tests my DD was to start on K and my DS was ready to start 1. It has proved very easy for them and therefore boring, thank goodness I also got Saxon 2 as I moved the kids up a level. I'm quite disappointed with the program overall . . . the worksheets are quite through but the paper quality is very poor and easily rips if you erase work. I think the teachers manual would be wonderful if you only had one child but with more than one child I found the program very time consuming and I only used the TM for any clarification that I thought the children needed. We find the meeting book great as my children need revision with how calendars work, months of the year, days of the week etc. But again the paper quality is poor. We have decided give Singapore maths a go as it has a great reputation and with illustrated pages it will hopefully excite the kids to open their math books with a smile :) I don't recommend Saxon unless you only have one child and can put the time in following the TM to the letter. Good luck anyway :) We will continue the Saxon math meeting book until I feel the kids are confident with all aspects of a calendar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted November 30, 2011 Share Posted November 30, 2011 We are using Saxon K, 1, and 2 at my house. It takes about 20 minutes to quickly run through the Saxon 1 lesson, and only about 5-10 minutes for Saxon K. Saxon 2 sometimes takes 20-40 minutes. I can usually get all three done in an hour. They do the worksheets (1 and 2) independently and a lot of the meeting strip stuff too. I don't make them retell me things or answer questions that I know they've mastered. That is a waste of time. Once they know the routine and get into a grove it doesn't take that long. I use ruled paper for them to write out their counting. It doesn't have to take that long as I used to think. It is very thorough and I've come back to it after trying several other things. stm4him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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