lisamarie Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 My DS has been complaining for a while that his math is too easy. He turned 8 in October and is on set 103 in Saxon 54. Today I was looking for a new math book for my DD when I came across the placement tests for Saxon, so I printed off the placement tests for 54 and 65. DS took them and passed both with only 1 wrong. I'm not okay with skipping an entire text book, but any reason why I shouldn't let him just skip the rest of 54 and move right into 65? Maybe he'll quit whining that his math lessons are for babies.:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 The Saxon people say that you shouldn't give the Saxon placement tests to kids who are currently using the program as they will score artificially high. If your son isn't challenged with Saxon, you might want to try a different program. Singapore is excellent for kids who excel in math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK_Mom4 Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Sort of - for DD10, we did the 6/5 book and then skipped all of 7/6 and started in with 8/7, so we skipped a whole book. Since you already own 5/4, why not have him just take the tests? If he passes, then move on to the next test. If he doesn't pass, then you know where to start him in the 5/4 material. If he just cake-walks thru the tests, then you can start him on 6/5 without worry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in FL Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Sort of - for DD10, we did the 6/5 book and then skipped all of 7/6 and started in with 8/7, so we skipped a whole book. Since you already own 5/4, why not have him just take the tests? If he passes, then move on to the next test. If he doesn't pass, then you know where to start him in the 5/4 material. If he just cake-walks thru the tests, then you can start him on 6/5 without worry. There will be new material in the last few chapters of his current book. When you move into 65 then administer the tests until you get to the point with new material. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom4peace Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 I'd second the Singapore recommendation. I've used Singapore with to gifted boys, compacting where needed. There really isn't that much to elementary math, and Singapore really makes it sing. We use Zaccaro Challenge Math and some Theoni Pappas along the way, both which add more real math rather than just arithmetic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CupOCoffee Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 If you want to stick with the Saxon program, I agree with the others who have said to just let him start taking the 5/4, then the 6/5 tests and see how far he gets. Then start from those lessons where he starts to have trouble. I've done that. ~coffee~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 There really isn't that much to elementary math, and Singapore really makes it sing. This is the most amazingly accurate characterization of Singapore math and elementary math in general I've ever read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 We switched to Math Mammoth when in that situation halfway through Saxon 1. My daughter just was bored to tears with all the review that she found unnecessary. We have never looked back, and she really likes MM. Good luck deciding where to go next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 (edited) Evaluate your child -- you want the right level of challenge to ignite the passion, but still the right amount of review to increase speed and solidify concepts. Too much of one or the other leads to trouble! I have a friend who uses Saxon who lets her child do 2 lessons of new stuff everyday and only one full set of problems. Her daughter is moving through Saxon at double speed but still doing it systematically. My ds(11) skipped Singapore's year 1, year 3, year 6, and pre-algebra, and went straight into AoPS Intro Algebra at age 9. It will take him 2.5 years to finish, but he LOVES it and has always worked independently. I have never found there to be any problem, except the first month which was quite hard. As long as I don't let him use a calculator, he gets the elementary math practice in the Algebra text. The conceptual level of the material really excites him and makes him willing to practice the elementary math to get the answer. Win win as far as I am concerned. Good luck, Ruth in NZ Edited February 25, 2012 by lewelma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 Before we started with Saxon, we had only used workbooks before that, I had my dd take the online placement test. She tested into 7/6 and 8/7 wasn't even too much of a stretch. But since we hadn't done any formal program, I didn't want there to be any gaps, so we started at 6/5. In talking with the Saxon teacher after doing the test, I was told that math with Saxon should take an hour a day. In 6/5 she was doing a lesson in 1/2 hour (including oral mental math, facts practice, and all the problems), so she did two lessons a day. Most of it was just review, but it really solidified the basics and I'm very glad in hindsight that we had done this. 7/6 again was completed with generally 2 lessons a day. When we got to 8/7, one lesson took about an hour, so it was a lesson a day and has been ever since. All that to say that for me, I prefer to let my student work through the material faster than to skip anything. We've noticed that the newest "hardest" stuff is in the last 30 lessons or so in Saxon. If you really want to skip the rest, I would at least give him the tests and if he does well, then you know it's not necessary to do the lessons. If you see the same types of problems coming up wrong, go to that lesson and let him learn piecemeal. Just my opinion. My dd is now finishing up Saxon calculus - we've been very happy with their program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisamarie Posted February 25, 2012 Author Share Posted February 25, 2012 If you want to stick with the Saxon program, I agree with the others who have said to just let him start taking the 5/4, then the 6/5 tests and see how far he gets. Then start from those lessons where he starts to have trouble. I've done that. ~coffee~ Do I WANT to stick with Saxon? No. But DS does not like me teaching him math. We were using SM until last year when I got tired of him complaining about my teaching him. I bought Saxon 54 so he could work through the book himself and told him that as long as he averaged over a 90 percent on his lessons, I wouldn't bother him unless he asked for help. He uses the DIVE cds and it works sooooo much better. But no, I am not a big fan of Saxon due to my own experience using them in school. I just don't know what else to use for him that would allow him to work independently like Saxon does. DS won't read the lessons himself (I didn't figure this out until 3 months into the experiment-he would just do the work without going over the lessons) so I need a program that includes a cd/dvd of the lessons to ensure he's learning the new material. DH told me to just skip 65, but I was flipping through the book and noticed a lot of geometry and algebra skills that he hasn't learned yet so I'm not comfortable doing that. I do however like the idea of letting him watch 2 lessons and only do one problem set until he hits the point that he's spending an hour per lesson (right now it's about a half hour). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted February 25, 2012 Share Posted February 25, 2012 That's why Saxon worked so well for us - dd wanted to learn on her own. She prefers to learn by reading the lesson in the text and working the sample problems herself, but there are DVDs available. Your son may not be into "learning" the lesson as he's doing things he already knows how to do. That may change as he progresses. For us, I never graded the daily lessons as IMO that's the best place to make mistakes and learn from the correcting of them - student re-works the missed problems. The tests were graded so I knew whether the material was mastered or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 If you want to move faster without having to be the teacher you might try mathusee. A lot of people just let their child watch the teacher DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deniseibase Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 My DD, over her time with Saxon, skipped half a book three times. Each time, as it became clear that she already had figured out most of the material, I went through the rest of the book and put a post it bookmark on each of the lessons on material that she had not yet been exposed to. She then only did those lessons. And typically in a sequence of lessons there was a lot of material we could skip. For example, let's say she hadn't yet been exposed to adding fractions with different denominators, and for this book there was a lesson on that, followed by variations of the same lesson, but showing how to add fractions with negative numbers, mixed numbers, etc. Knowing that my daughter was strong in negative numbers and mixed numbers already, I'd have her do the first lesson and the last lesson. She'd get the basics in the first lesson, and then the last lesson, because of the way Saxon does review, would include problems from all the other kinds of fractions too. This took a little time on my part, and you have to know where your son is on various topics, but it worked really well for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nova147 Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 We are skipping our way through 5/4. We have the pre-DIVE version and I found that the tests given after each 5 lessons are useless for determining if the child knows the material covered in those lessons. In typical Saxon fashion, the tests cover material from all previous lessons, sometimes not covering one or more of the previous 5. I have taken to just picking 2 or 3 problems from each lesson to make a pretest, then covering what he doesn't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted February 28, 2012 Share Posted February 28, 2012 DD did 76 when she was 10/11 (so I can see how he might be bored with 54). She did the work and understood it, but didn't like it at all! So we moved on to something else. We did as others said: Took the test and worked where she got below a certain %. I said she did fine, but looking back, I wish I'd had her do 65 first, just to get a stronger base, even if it would've been easy-ish for her. She hit a wall while finishing the 76 and, 3 years later, is still recovering. :( She's rather advanced in every other subject, so I feel bad for her for the math, and am not sure what to use to help her gain confidence again and advance.... Anyway, I guess I'm saying, be careful how far you advance him. I agree with you on being wary of skipping a whole book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 So, it wouldn't be completely negligent of me to give a placement test ahead of time and only do the units he needs work on? I don't plan on doing that in later on but for early elementary, so much of it feels like repetition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 So, it wouldn't be completely negligent of me to give a placement test ahead of time and only do the units he needs work on? I don't plan on doing that in later on but for early elementary, so much of it feels like repetition. This is what we're doing and it is working well for us so far. A lot of elementary math is review each year or the same concept with more digits until you get to the logic stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 This is the most amazingly accurate characterization of Singapore math and elementary math in general I've ever read! :iagree: Another vote for Singapore for math gifted kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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