Supplementing Saxon?

[Michelle in OK]

I have read where several of you supplement Saxon math with Singapore (or with something else). I was just wondering why you supplemented and how you went about teaching both curriculums? My dds will be using Saxon 2 and 3 this year. I feel that the material in Saxon 3 is a little easy for my oldest right now but she is not ready to move up to Saxon 54. How do you avoid math burn out?

 

TIA!!

[HFClassicalAcademy]

I'll be watching this post, as I'm looking to supplement Saxon 2 with my ds and Saxon 1 with dd.

 

Liz

[Chris in VA]

I know some people do Saxon 4 days, then supplement on Fridays (or whatever day).

As far as ease of Saxon 3, I will say that we hit a wall around the end of January. We used it a year ahead, as it appears you are doing. Trust me, unless your child is particularly good in math, Saxon contains plenty of math for that age. Saxon 3 will help them solidify their math facts, and introduce things like division with remainders.

 

I supplement with math fact worksheets during the summer. I just posted a great site on my blog. But I think that's not what I'd supplement with Saxon--there's plenty of practice in that area, imo. If you supplement with practical math, it's more like a game. You could try some of the logic books for young kids, like the easy Mindbenders, or adding in more story problems (there are plenty of those available on line and also at places like Barnes and Noble). Just the change of pace keeps the burnout away. And you can gauge for yourself how it's going.

[Ria]

We didn't supplement Saxon with Singapore - we used both programs concurrently with our kids. They did a lesson in each course every day. I made no attempt to rearrange either book to match up topics, we just did the lessons as they came.

 

The kids were in a higher Saxon level than Singapore - for example, in 3rd grade my boys would use Saxon 5/4 and Singapore 3, the next year it would be Saxon 6/5 and Singapore 4, etc.

 

We did this for several reasons. I think Singapore is one of the best programs I've ever seen for teaching kids to think critically in math, but I found it woefully lacking in day-to-day practice of skills taught previously. I think Saxon excells in drilling kids on what they've learned, but lacks the critical thinking element of Singapore. So, we did both. I usually had the kids do either the evens or the odds in the Saxon lessons each day since they were doing two math programs, but they always had to do all the Singapore.

 

Ria

[Chris in VA]

Teeny hijack--

 

Ria, is Singapore easy to go into "in the middle?" Could my dd, who finished Saxon 3, go into Singapore on level (maybe 3rd, as Saxon skews easy early, as you know)?

[Donna A.]

Teeny hijack--

 

Ria, is Singapore easy to go into "in the middle?" Could my dd, who finished Saxon 3, go into Singapore on level (maybe 3rd, as Saxon skews easy early, as you know)?

 

Not Ria, but we do a Saxon/Singapore combo here, too, with all 3 of my girls. They just do the next lesson in each, every day. The Singapore lessons are short, and sometimes the Saxon lessons can be skipped or cut down a little in # of problems.

 

Anyway, to answer your question, not necessarily. You would need to give your child the placement test for Singapore because Singapore levels don't line up with American grade levels. They're very different methods, one complementing the other quite well... but don't assume that a Singapore level "equals" a Saxon level. It does not.

[Ria]

Chris,

 

Give your dd the Singapore placement test. Kids coming out of Saxon into Singapore often have problems with the word problems; however, Singapore 3 really doesn't have any of the intense word problems. It's a good level to start with IMO if your dd places there.

 

Ria

[Langhaven]

Is there a link that shows what the lessons LOOK like for Singapore. I looked at the placement tests, and my kids would be in a significantly lower level in Singapore than in the Saxon (where we are right now). I'd like to see how the page is set up!

 

Thank you, Pam

[Melmc]

Pam - I just had my kids take placement tests for Singapore because I want to supplement Saxon. They scored much lower than I thought they would given their standardized test scores and current Saxon levels, but they had no idea how to do/approach certain problems. I just kept giving them lower level tests until they could do do everything on it. For my 3rd grader (we started 54 on July first) we'll start on 2A. For my 5th grader (we started 76 on July first) it was 3B, but her confidence in math is low right now even though she does well with Saxon just makes careless mistakes so I'm going to start her in 3A.

[Margo out of lurking]

Ria, is Singapore easy to go into "in the middle?" Could my dd, who finished Saxon 3, go into Singapore on level (maybe 3rd, as Saxon skews easy early, as you know)?

 

Obviously not Ria, but my dd went from the early part of Saxon 6/5 and into Singapore 4. She'd been struggling with Saxon for awhile--maybe not "struggling," but having difficulty thinking through the problems.

 

She literally went from hating school and dreading math every day to enjoying it again. It was amazing watching her "getting" math after a year of expecting Saxon to spoon feed her answers. Two years later, it's not her favorite subject, but she doesn't mind it either.

 

* * *

 

Back to the OP, as far as supplementing, you can see that it varies as much as everything else! There have been some times when we've had two math periods a day, but the second period focused more on logical thinking. We might read a "living math" book, play games, do drill sheets from a math workbook, play a computer-math game, etc. We also have supplemented with Games for Math by Peggy Kaye, and Challenge Math by Zaccaro (sp?).

 

We've supplemented when dd's test prep book (for state mandated testing) showed that she was not performing as well as expected. This was a surprise, because I've always assumed Saxon taught to proficiency tests. We've supplemented when I felt she could benefit from more practice at logical thinking, something that seems to hang her up with math in general. And we've supplemented in the short term when my kids don't seem to be quite getting a concept but will pick it up if taught or reinforced a slightly different way.

 

If your dd is currently finding Saxon 3 easy, you might tweak Saxon. Is she already doing just one side of the worksheet? You might skip teaching her lessons that you are sure she already knows, and just allow her to do the worksheet that day, or you might skip five lessons at a time, giving her the review quiz every week until she comes to a spot that fits her better. Meanwhile, since you don't want to rush her into 5/4, you could let her work on other math activities, whether it's Singapore (another advantage is the low cost!), or another inexpensive math workbook.

 

The living math site (linked above) has loads of terrific ideas that work well as supplements, and would allow you flexibility to fit your schedule and your dd.

[arcara]

I read on this forum before that many people supplement Saxon with Singapore's Challenging Word Problems, instead of the whole program. No one's mentioned that so far on this thread, though. I've gotten this book for my dd to use this year.

[langfam]

We've supplemented Saxon with S'pore, using the word problems in the textbook and Challenge Word problems...about 3 a day. One level below though.

[Donna A.]

She literally went from hating school and dreading math every day to enjoying it again. It was amazing watching her "getting" math after a year of expecting Saxon to spoon feed her answers. Two years later, it's not her favorite subject, but she doesn't mind it either.

 

This was my oldest dd, too. After having built her confidence and learned a lot of skills that Saxon hadn't got around to teaching yet, along with the conceptual thinking that Singapore teaches, she's able to enjoy (or at least not mind) Saxon again. She picks up on things much faster now.

[Michelle in OK]

Thank you. I think I will sit down with her and let her test out of some of the Saxon lessons. I would just bump up to Saxon 54 but I know she needs to review her multiplication and I don't think she has been introduced to division at all. Right now, both my girls are strongest in math (it's also their favorite subject) so I would love to build on that while I can.

[Mom-to-three-sons]

I tend to agree most with Ria, that Singapore teaches more Critical Thinking in math, while Saxon teaches the foundations better, especially in those earlier, elementary grades.

 

I did not always use Singapore workbooks each year. I did use the word problems, in the workbooks and the one book set aside for Challenging Word Problems (could also be called Topical Problem Sums).

 

You do not have to supplement. There is plenty to do in third grade Saxon, but it does get old - been there done that X 3. Wanted to jump off a cliff myself, for the repetitiveness!

 

Maybe you could do as others say and let your daughter do one page each day in each. I found that Singapore tends to be about a year ahead of Saxon in difficulty, so I agree that doing one year ahead is about right. We started with third grade, and that seemed a fine place to start. I would not go to fourth as a starting place.