amyinva Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 My son is 9, and is pretty happy with Math Mammoth 4. I had planned to do one more year of MM, then switch him to Saxon. He will do CC Challenge, and I want him in Saxon a year before Challenge A to get used to it. My DD has switched to Saxon 7/6 this year and actually loves it! I don't think he will be quite as enthusiastic, but he will benefit from the discipline of Saxon, I think. He also would do well with a little more spiral. Here is my problem. I read recently that it is not advised to switch to Saxon later than 7/6. Looking at the placement tests, I think my son would place into 7/6 after this year. If I wait another year, I imagine he will be higher than 7/6. How bad is this to switch at the 8/7 level? Would you advise switching him next year, even though I love the way MM teaches them to look at things and would really prefer to do MM5? Has anyone done MM5 and then switched to Saxon? What level Saxon did you switch to? thank you! Amy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyinva Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Anyone? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Would you advise switching him next year, even though I love the way MM teaches them to look at things and would really prefer to do MM5? No. MM5 rocks. While I'm not a fan of Saxon myself, I'm quite sure I've read around here about people going into Saxon at the prealgebra level, presumably 8/7. Any student would be well prepared to start prealgebra after MM6 (indeed, there is a lot of overlap between MM6 and typical prealgebra topics; my dd started AoPS Prealgebra after MM5). If I wanted to switch to Saxon, I would complete MM5 at a minimum and then take the Saxon placement tests. MM5's treatment of decimals, fractions, percents, functions, scale problems, word problems, etc. etc. is excellent; it's probably my favorite level of MM, if there is such a thing. The bigger question is, if you love the way MM teaches them to look at things, whether you might be interested in secondary math that is not Saxon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenda in FL Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 It seems he might not match the math progression for Challenge anyway. He's 9 now, 10 next year maybe in Saxon 7/6, putting him in 8/7 the year before he starts challenge - Challenge A starts with 87 (or possibly Alg 1/2 - depending on your community). Is your daughter in Challenge now? If so then you probably already know the Saxon progression (doing pre-algebra two years in a row). In our CC community, all the kids seem to be using something different and they are at all different levels. They benefit from the math seminar regardless of the lecture. So do what you think is best for your son now - and when you are ready to switch take the placement test and start there. I will say that Saxon 87 steps up the difficulty level in comparison to the rest of the series. (Or maybe it's just the timing of puberty and Saxon 87 at the same time!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyinva Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 My DD is not in challenge this year. Our CC group allows kids to move around to different math classes, so if he's ahead, he could go do math with that level. Also, Saxon goes all the way thru high school, and after floundering with different programs with my older 2 in the upper levels, I feel like I need a program we can use all the way thru. It does sound like i should leave him in MM for next year, though. I was just concerned about switching him after 7/6 bc of what I'd read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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