grantmeawish Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 This is my first year homeschooling, so I am totally new at this. I had my 2nd grader take the Saxon placement tests and it put him in 3. I honestly like the lessons and the pace as it builds, but my son is finding it boring and dreading math. I would like to stick with it, but maybe that would be silly if we can move up. Did anyone start with Saxon 5/4 or switch to something more challanging? I want him to enjoy it but also have a good foundation. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 My son did Saxon in school. He was bored to death. He does Singapore now, quite happily. He's the type that you teach a concept, practice it a bit, then move on, reviewing occasionally. Doing mostly review problems completely kills his love of math, and he doesn't need that much review. Does that sound like your son? If so, switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 My oldest was bored to death by Saxon. She just didn't need that incremental method with so much review. I switched her to Singapore and she loved it! Now I'm finding that Singapore is just too fast with too little review for her sister, so I'm moving her to Saxon :). Different kids have different needs. You could try skipping ahead to a topic that would be new for you son. A lot of people only do the front side of the worksheets in Saxon K-3 if the child is doing well. You could double up on lessons. These are just ideas if you don't want to buy something new. If you think your son just needs another method, then try something else, like Sinapore or Math Mammoth. It takes all of us a few tries to find the right curricula for our kids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Placing at Saxon 3 means that he is needing work somewhere within the 140 or so lessons of that year. Does his independent proficiency end at Lesson 14, or at Lesson 107? Photocopy a few of the Friday (5th day) review pages and have him do those as a "test." If he can get 90+% correct, then skip the prior 4 lessons. For example, if he can correctly do the math for the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, and 25th lessons, but crashes and burns on the pages for Lesson 30, then start teaching at Lesson 26. Tempt your son by telling him that if he does well on these "tests," then he can skip a certain number of lessons. ***It is up to you if you want to use those unused pages as review/reinforcement, but just speed up the work and skip the "sit down and listen to the lesson" part until lesson 26. Or you may just want to skip to Lesson 26. You are the parent and you can always go back and do just the concepts you think he needs if you missed something.*** Caveat: Allegedly, Saxon is notorious for introducing important concepts in the lesson a few weeks before it actually shows up on paper. If you skip lessons, you may want to watch out for sections labeled "New Learning." ***You can also use this strategy when your child begins any new Saxon year to determine if the beginning-of-the-year weeks of review is necessary or can be skipped. *** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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