Skip Saxon Math 3?

[mom2jrcsc]

My about to be 7yo dd completed Saxon Math 2 last year and excelled. She thought some of it was too easy. Since she's advanced and acted bored last year, I was advised to put her into 5/4 this year instead of Math 3. But I get nervous at the thought of skipping material and jumping around. Won't she miss something she needs? What about all the math facts we haven't covered yet? Will she be able to do 5/4? I was going to give her the Saxon placement test, but there's only a test for K-3 and 5/4 and up. There's not one to tell you whether to choose Math 3 or 5/4. Has anyone ever skipped Math 3? Is it possible? Please help with any opinions.

[JudoMom]

There is a big change in format between 3 and 5/4 (no workbooks, about 25 problems/lesson in a textbook format). If you think she's ready for the change, I would consider taking a few weeks and cementing all of her math facts and then moving her into 5/4 (my boys do only odd or even problems once they get into 5/4). I would be wary because of the format change, though, and I would do 3. I'd give her the assessments and once she has difficulty with an assessment, I would look back about 5 lessons previous and start there. Don't hesitate to combine lessons, or skip lessons with Saxon if your dd knows the material.

[Sue G in PA]

I would NOT skip Saxon Math 3. There is too much new material covered. Besides, I think 5/4 gets progressively more difficult and a soon-to-be 7yo, no matter how advance, would just not do well, IMHO. My ds10 did 5/4 this past year (1/2 the year before we switched) and some of the material really had him frustrated. Now, he is not an above average math student, but I don't think it really matters. Your dd is only 7. She will be ahead even doing Saxon 3! Think ahead to the future. Exampe: My dd11 is ahead in math. She did Saxon 7/6 as a 5th grader last year. I was going to push her into Alg. 1/2 but decided against it b/c I really want her to truly "get" the material. I want to give her brain a chance to mature so she can really grasp that abstract material. Your dd might be flying through it now but later, when she is 9 or 10 and moving into Pre-Alg. material (at the pace you are keeping now), she might get really frustrated. You don't want that. Do Saxon 3. Move ahead as quickly as she wants, but make sure she really gets it. Make sure she has a solid grasp of her math facts (add/subt, mult/div). You can always supplement w/ Singapore Challenging Word Problems for some added challenge. JUst my opinion, but I think Saxon 3 would be a better fit.

[Ria]

We never used Saxon 3 with any of our kids...we just went from Saxon 2 into 5/4. We also were using Singapore with them, so I'm not sure if that made a difference, but they did just fine.

 

Ria

[Chris in VA]

I used Saxon a year ahead, so we finished Saxon 3 this year. I have to say, for my daughter it became challenging around the end of January (about 5 months in). There was just a bigger leap than she was ready for--prior to that, it was almost laughably easy.

 

I don't like the change in format in 5/4. I really wish they could just continue with the same format until pre-algebra! I've heard there are workbooks for this level, but they are only sold to schools.

 

If I were you, I'd stay in 3 and just let math be an easy subject for her. It's good to be confident in something. You could supplement with more practical math ala WTM on Fridays, if you want. And you can probably skip several lessons in the beginning.

[Mom2GirlsTX]

We switched our dd off of Saxon after Saxon 2. Actually we started off just supplementing Saxon with Singapore before moving on as dd was getting bored with Saxon. After awhile, we realized that we could speed up with Singapore easier and dd liked it so much better we switched to it. I think you could supplement with Singapore and then move to 5/4 safely.

[arcara]

This past year was our 1st year with Saxon. We used MCP until then. She was 7-y-o (she'll be 8 in September) and did Saxon 54 without trouble. She particularly enjoyed the second half of the course. She said that her favorite topics were fractions and long division. We used the DIVE CD, which made it an independent subject for her. This upcoming year I'm planning on supplementing with Singapore's CWP and doing Saxon 65.

 

This doesn't help you know if skipping Saxon 3 is ok, but it does let you know that 54 is doable by at least some 7-y-olds. It hard to find the right balance with math: challenging enough to be interesting, but not so much that it's frustrating. Good luck with your decision!

[TracyR]

I wouldnot skip levels. Even the Saxon company doesnot encourage skipping levels. I believe that its somewhere towards the middle of the program or so that it picks up the pace in teaching square roots and such. Plus not many 7yr olds (or 10yr olds either:>) are ready to write math problems outside of a book. Not that its not impossible. I just use a dry erase board with my oldest daughter. But I couldn't see my child at 7 being ready for the format of Saxon 5/4. It may begin with review but it quickly picks up the pace.

 

I like the suggestion of the first poster above. I would give her the assesment tests and once you hit a certain point where she begins to struggle that would make your starting point.

[Melanie]

We skipped all of the early elementary levels and started the kids directly in 5/4. My oldest was eight when he started, and my youngest was seven. They've done very well. :)

[EKS]

Math 2 is easy. Math 3 is much meatier in the last half. Math 3 is where they finally learn all the math facts. If I had to skip anything in the K-3 levels, it would be 1 or 2 but not 3. Also 5/4 is a huge format change, with needing *someone* to copy problems out of the book.

 

Perhaps Saxon moves too slowly for your daughter in general. If that is the case, you could treat Saxon as review or reinforcement (if you want to stick with Saxon) and use something else to introduce new concepts, such as Singapore. I think the combination of Saxon and Singapore is a good one as each has strengths that complement the other's weaknesses.

[Donna A.]

Totally agreeing with those who said not to skip level 3 entirely, for the reasons already stated. Do the assessment tests every 5 lessons to move along faster, but don't completely skip it.

 

The reason I say this is because I skipped level 3 with my oldest dd partly because I wanted her to be "on grade level". She was 9 at the time -- we'd changed curric quite a bit before that, and when I finally tried her in Saxon at level 2, she LOVED it. Because she was a little older and Saxon reviews quite a bit in the beginning, I thought she could handle the jump from 2 to 5/4. BIG MISTAKE. She wasn't ready for the jump in format, or for writing out all her answers. And the lessons in 5/4 are way longer than in 3, so it was quite a struggle for her. You said your dd is pretty good in math, BUT, she's only 7, and math is pretty abstract concept. While it may seem easy to her *now*, it'll most likely catch up to her. I would NOT jump ahead to 5/4 just because you "can" or because she might get bored with some of the lessons. If she's bored and it's easy, then skip individual lessons... but don't skip the entire level.

 

Now, if you were to begin supplementing with Singapore, I think that later down the road you'll be able to skip levels in Saxon if you want to. Skipping 5/4 isn't a bad idea if she completes 3 and has her facts down cold, she could go right into 6/5. Lots of people use only "real life" math + learning their math facts w/o any curriculum and then go right into 6/5 when beginning Saxon. So I agree with those ladies who suggested doing both Sing and Sax, as I'm not confident enough (nor do I want to spend the time) doing math via only "real life" lessons. We're using the Sing/Sax combo with all 3 of my girls, and it works pretty well.

[Hoggirl]

We skipped Saxon 2. My ds was in public school for kindergarten and 1st, but during first he went "up" to grade 2 for math. However, we did ALL of Saxon 3. After that I let him "test out" of the first 40 lessons in each Saxon book. This equates to the first 8 tests. As long as he got a 90% or better, I would allow him to just then start on Lesson 41. He was able to accelerate quite well this way. Perhaps you could do that with Saxon 3??? The main thing that I recall with Saxon 3 is that this is the text where the children really get the math facts down. But, I wouldn't skip the whole thing. But, perhaps the testing out option would work for you. I found that the first 1/3 of any Saxon text was all review, but I can't say if this is true for Saxon 3 since that is the one book we did in its entirety.

[Langhaven]

Now that I have upper high school kids, I would no longer advise to skip any significant portion of Saxon. Eventually the kids get to harder math and going through sequentially, as well as at a developmentally appropriate age has solved a lot of frustration issues with my children.

 

The only thing I skipped was K and put my kindergartener into Saxon 1. That puts them ahead in the Saxon time table and that was enough to be plenty challenged by the time they got to Junior high and did pre-algebra in 8th grade.

 

JMHO, Pam