DiannePf Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 My DD, 6th Grader, is currently doing Saxon Math 7/8. She excels at it but tells me it is sooooo boring! My hubby and I wonder if it is simply too easy for her. I want for her to enjoy math sinse she does so well at it. I'm not planning on changing curriculums right now, in the middle of the school year, but I would really like some ideas on how to either supplement/make it fun or change it entirely for next year. Any suggestions? Thanks!! Dianne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted December 4, 2011 Share Posted December 4, 2011 My kids both used Saxon 8/7 (in 5th and 6th grade, resp) and were bored. The incremental spiral just did not work for them at all. We all hated the book. We made it work by radically selecting and cutting: we grouped lessons together that covered similar topics, only did the lesson practice and selected mixed practice, eliminated completely the fact drills/warmups and aimed at getting through Saxon in the minimal time necessary to master prealgebra. (For 5th grade DS, that meant speeding through the book in five months. We left out all geometry lessons). The Saxon advocates will call this a wrong use of the book and make a big deal out of how you are supposed to do all problems in all lessons. For my kids, this was not necessary for achieving mastery and being well prepared for algebra. After getting through 8/7, we switched to Art of Problem Solving Intro to Algebra and loved it. My kids have never since mentioned being bored with math! AoPS has just come out with a prealgebra book which I have not seen yet. There are also the problem solving books which I hear are great and can be used as a supplement. (Had the AoPS prealgebra book been out, I would have ditched Saxon in a heartbeat - but at that time, I did not know about any other curriculum.) If your DD is doing great, you could try cutting down on the repetitions (which drove us insane) and see if you can streamline the curriculum and get done with it faster. I can highly recommend AoPS for a student who is good at math and who wants to do more interesting and challenging work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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