aminuteorless Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I'm planning on purchasing the Saxon K meeting book and manipulative set for my almost 4 year old. I need some constructive play for him and I think he'll enjoy the manipulatives. Can I get by without the teacher manual? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) What is your purpose for the set? If you just want him to "play" with the manipulatives, then you would be fine. But the program is in the teacher's book. It contains all of the lesson plans, including what to do for the meeting (The meeting book just has the calendar pages and arrows to mark the numbers for each day that you do a lesson.). Edited January 6, 2012 by Lisa in the UP of MI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyjoh62080 Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 If you want to use the program you need to have the teacher's guide as all of the lesson plans are in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 but that said, I definitely recommend not using Saxon K. It's extremely expensive, very boring, and annoying to teach. YMMV of course. I highly recommend all the different Kumon books instead, and after those Singapore Earlybird math. There is a list of manipulatives that are helpful with Singapore. Even if you aren't interested in sticking with Singapore long-term, you will still really win by using the Earlybird series. Anyway, that's what I did. That'll cost you about 60.00 though once you blow through all the Kumon numbers, beginning counting, and beginning addition books plus the two Singapore Earlybird books. But don't buy them all at once.... If you have the money, Another lovely, gentle, colorful and really fun Kindergarten math book that is perfect for preschoolers is Calvert K math. It's really, really fun. My dd loved it. It was SUPER easy for K and perfect for any average preschooler. There are a ton of heavy card stock, colorful punch-out manipulatives in the back and some interesting instructions in the teacher's manual. I love the illustrations which are cute, colorful, with appealing clean look to them. There is also a little bit of critical thinking. Saxon math gets really useful in the 1st grade book, you can start it a little early too if your child is ready for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I am doing Saxon K with my 4 year old and I did it with my second child too. I bought it used and it wasn't that expensive and now for my other children it only costs $12 for the meeting book. The lesson only takes 5-10 minutes so I found it totally worth it. His book looked like the others so he really feels like he's doing school. I definitely think you could still use the calendar book and manipulatives without the teacher book but I think it is not a waste of money either and probably not hard to find used.....I would try to get a copy of the table of contents from the K book and just teach those to your child..... stm4him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I would definitely buy the teacher's guide used. You can get it for as little as $6something including shipping on Amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Kiddos Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I am planning on using the Saxon K with my almost 4 year old as well. I bought the book and meeting book used and it was inexpensive. Now I just have to find the manipulatives used! I have read through the Teacher's Manual and I really like the way that Saxon lays everything out. It doesn't seem boring at all to me but I do not have any experience homeschooling as others do. It seems like this will be a really great program to teach my son. So far, we have just been using some living math books and various things (counting, addition, subtraction, time, etc.) around the house for math. He has been begging me to "do school" so I think that this will be a perfect match. The teacher's guide seems like it has lots of good instruction for teaching all these new concepts. I don't know if this will help any!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I'm planning on purchasing the Saxon K meeting book and manipulative set for my almost 4 year old. I need some constructive play for him and I think he'll enjoy the manipulatives. Can I get by without the teacher manual? In the Saxon early grades books (K-3) the meeting book is a pretty thin book with calendar pages and some other pages used for the "meeting" at the beginning of the lesson (or the beginning of the day). It doesn't have any of the lessons. The meeting book is pretty much a consumable, since you will be filling in the calendars each day and adding colors, shapes or temperatures, depending on the level. The Teacher Manual is where you will find each day's meeting (this gets more difficult as the year progresses and some items are dropped as they are mastered), the lesson and in 1-3 the answers for the worksheets and assessments. Levels 1-3 also have separate student pages (typically in two volumes so the size is manageble) with fact sheets, worksheets and any master pages necessary to teach a lesson. There are "good" and "very good" TMs available on Amazon for $10-12 with shipping. You could buy the meeting book or just print out some blank calendars. (I sometimes found a blank calendar worked better, especially if I was not starting in August/September.) There are some good threads here on saxon manipulatives, possible alternatives from around the house and what people have found to be of higher importance (ie, really worth buying). I found that the K level was a gentle intro for me and my kids into daily school time and applying ourselves to math without complaining. The kids thought the manipulatives were great fun. One thing I liked about K was that it helped me teach the kids to count, add and subtract without being heavily dependent on hand motor skills. Califlower, my middle son, was quite young when we started and I don't think he would have lasted that early with a program that was writing intensive. IMHO, he needed encouragement to think mathematically without it hinging on his ability to write numbers down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aminuteorless Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 thank you for all the quick replies. I wasn't sure if the bulk of the teaching was in the meeting book or teacher book, but it sounds like the teacher book is definitely worth it. "Sebastian" my goals are very similar to the ones you expressed. I just want him to start thinking about math concepts but not use anything that is workbookish. I'm hoping this will give us the ideas and tools to explore math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 thank you for all the quick replies. I wasn't sure if the bulk of the teaching was in the meeting book or teacher book, but it sounds like the teacher book is definitely worth it. "Sebastian" my goals are very similar to the ones you expressed. I just want him to start thinking about math concepts but not use anything that is workbookish. I'm hoping this will give us the ideas and tools to explore math. You might also want to look at math storybooks at the library. Books like the Math Curse or the Math Start series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
give_me_a_latte Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 thank you for all the quick replies. I wasn't sure if the bulk of the teaching was in the meeting book or teacher book, but it sounds like the teacher book is definitely worth it. "Sebastian" my goals are very similar to the ones you expressed. I just want him to start thinking about math concepts but not use anything that is workbookish. I'm hoping this will give us the ideas and tools to explore math. We hit a wall with RightStart Level A and switched to Saxon K. It was a BLAST! Every lesson felt just like playtime....but it was definitely building math awareness. We finished it and have gone back to RightStart and are moving right along. It was a perfect first math for us. But as others said, you definitely need the Teacher's Manual. I stopped using the Meeting book after a month or so because I found it tedious. It's just a calendar...you could use any old calendar, really. But definitely get the Teacher's Manual! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) I'm using the Saxon K math workbook without the Teacher's Guide, but that is just because if I had to use the teacher's guide I would go stark raving mad and murder my entire family in their sleep. Why do I have a Saxon K math workbook? I'm still not sure. Probably because it's there and ds wants to write numbers and color blocks so he can feel like he is doing 'real work' like his sibs. There is better math instruction in those no-name workbooks you can get at Walmart. I think anyone with half a clue can figure out what to do with the stuff without the teacher's guide. AND I agree that if you can, you need to find a different math program. Unless you LIKE feeling like sticking a fork in your eye to stop the madness. I'm told Saxon improves by 5/4, but I can't bring myself to order it. Edited to add something positive: Try the Kitchen Table Math series. NO workbooks, best math instruction guide for early elementary EVER. Edited January 8, 2012 by Rainefox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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