Opinions Wanted: Saxon Math

[kolamum]

My 5th grader is currently using Saxon 6/5. He's just over halfway through it at this point. Our school year officially ends in 4 weeks time. We changed math curriculum a bit late in the year because the other one just couldn't keep up with him. I'd like him to start the next book next year without having this one hanging over him.

 

Yes, I know it shouldn't really matter, but there's a whole role of independence taking place next year in regards to some of his education & how it's done. Thus I'd like him to have "fresh" everything so he feels it's all new & special & doesn't attempt to slip into habits from previous years. Make sense?

 

I know Saxon always has plenty of review in their books, & unless we have to come to a screeching halt with decimals he'll be somewhere in the mid 90's. Will there be enough review in the next book to NOT set him up for failure? I've been debating this back & forth for the past few weeks & thought I'd ask for opinions.

 

I will be taking another look at the programmes {I have both books} this evening ot make a firm choice, but what would YOU do?

[mom2hunangirls]

I'd let him finish 6/5 out and then if needed, test him through the review in 7/6. My reasoning would be to let him get the instruction as intended for new material, not trying to figure out what was introduced when the lesson assumes prior knowledge. Make sense?

For example, we are on lesson 65ish in 5/4 and it's just now getting to be really new instruction. So it has seemed easy up until now, but we are just hitting new stuff. My dd would get more of a confidence boost getting to test out of lessons at the beginning of a new book. She would be deflated if she had to figure out something in lesson 4.

[jennyradmer]

I do not think the amount of review will be a problem. The strength of Saxon is the spiral review. The possible problem with independent work with Saxon is that there is so little practice with each new topic. When I tutor using Saxon, I always have to bring in extra practice from other sources so the student feels like they have a basic understanding of the new concept in order to work independently in the future.

[Hunter]

I would not skip lessons. The "review" isn't completely review. The problems were created to allow the student to DISCOVER things. It's easy and maybe even unnoticed, IF no problems were skipped.

 

I'd be more likely to start the SAME book over again, than to start a new one without finishing the last one.

[kolamum]

Oh ear me, no I would not start the book over again! That would be a huge set back to his tender little ego. Not to mention it took 60 some odd lessons to find a substational amount of stuff he didn't all ready know. We'd actually be finishing it but we took 1.5 months or more off to focus on division because we had a minor "fall apart" when it came to long division. So I back tracked & spent a month working on simple division. Then we moved to long division until we were confident with that, roughly another couple of weeks. Then we returned to the book & went flying through it. For the past 2 weeks he's done 2 lessons a day because one is always, content wise, repeats of what he knows.

 

I like that. I love the spiral approach with Saxon. It works for him. FWIW, until this year my son has never skipped math lessons at the start of the year. Mostly because until last year we didn't use a formal math curriculum. We used TT & his level never showed up. That's a long boring story. I had him using a different level & we bounced around a bit & used some Fred. For him starting with Lesson One in a new book will not hurt him, or his ego, one little bit. He wouldn't even consider it to be wrong. ;)

 

We've had fair enough review in regards to the new material this year, but then again I pick & choose which problems he does based on the fact that I want him to review the past knowledge & spend more time on the newly gained lesson. We also do a LOT of mental math as we were struggling with vision issues which were only recently given a firm diagnosis. By mental math that means if a problem can be done orally, it was. All his fractional adding & subtracting has been done aloud thus far. Only recently for converting fractions have I had him start using paper. His mental math leves are just amazing, but that is also apparently very common for children with the diagnosis he has. Who knew!

 

Thanks for the opinions I am reading them & considering each one. :)

[Hunter]

I wondering if Saxon is the right curriculum for you. Saxon is time consuming. I've liked that at times back in the 90's when we had very little curricula other than math. We had plenty of time for it and it gave some structure to our otherwise hodgepodge of resources.

 

I started my boys over in math books many times, for various reasons :-) They survived. It doesn't sound like that would be a good fit for you though at this time with that book.

[LindaOz]

Oh ear me, no I would not start the book over again! That would be a huge set back to his tender little ego. Not to mention it took 60 some odd lessons to find a substational amount of stuff he didn't all ready know. We'd actually be finishing it but we took 1.5 months or more off to focus on division because we had a minor "fall apart" when it came to long division. So I back tracked & spent a month working on simple division. Then we moved to long division until we were confident with that, roughly another couple of weeks. Then we returned to the book & went flying through it. For the past 2 weeks he's done 2 lessons a day because one is always, content wise, repeats of what he knows.

 

I like that. I love the spiral approach with Saxon. It works for him. FWIW, until this year my son has never skipped math lessons at the start of the year. Mostly because until last year we didn't use a formal math curriculum. We used TT & his level never showed up. That's a long boring story. I had him using a different level & we bounced around a bit & used some Fred. For him starting with Lesson One in a new book will not hurt him, or his ego, one little bit. He wouldn't even consider it to be wrong. ;)

 

We've had fair enough review in regards to the new material this year, but then again I pick & choose which problems he does based on the fact that I want him to review the past knowledge & spend more time on the newly gained lesson. We also do a LOT of mental math as we were struggling with vision issues which were only recently given a firm diagnosis. By mental math that means if a problem can be done orally, it was. All his fractional adding & subtracting has been done aloud thus far. Only recently for converting fractions have I had him start using paper. His mental math leves are just amazing, but that is also apparently very common for children with the diagnosis he has. Who knew!

 

Thanks for the opinions I am reading them & considering each one. :)

 

 

I love Saxon and it is working really well for a number of my kids.

 

Since he is doing 2 lessons a day and is finding much of the work to be review, i would probably give him just the tests from where he is up to until he is not passing the tests, then take it from there. You may find that he will be able to progress quite quickly through 6/5 this way, while at the same time allowing you to see any areas that need work.

 

I also highly recommend this book... http://www.homeschoolwithsaxon.com/ It has a lot of hints on how to most effectively use the program. I ordered it from the site and it arrived in Australia really quickly. You can also email Art Reed (author) directly and he will give advice about individual situations. My friend had contact with him about her daughter's maths and he was really helpful.

 

HTH

[kolamum]

Yes, I do agree it can be time consuming. We've not honestly tried a LOT of math curriculum. He really enjoys Saxon though, not sure what that says.. My son really straddles two grade levels. Due to the way i chose to teach him math before going with formal curriculum he knew a LOT of stuff above his grade level, but not everything he should have ON his grade level.

 

So for instance he knew a lot about fractions, but not about division. He's now into decimals & square roots. He's got the square roots down, but he's struggling with decimals in regards to grasping the way they're presenting it. Of course we had a huge chuckle over the way metric measurements on being taught because we use metric all the time. Still, makes for a fun math time.

 

The other thing is, my 11 year old is quite mathy. He's really good with numbers & can generally pick things up quite quickly as well. Occasionally a new topic will throw him for a loop & we slow WAY down until he's grasped it & feels super confident with it. I did debate putting him in TT, but his knowledge in regards to their placement test has him higher then I'd like to see him. I didn't like Math Mammoth at all, but we only tried the blue books. However, if that's the way they chose to teach then I'm not sure I wanna try the yellow books on grade level, kwim?

 

What I peeked in of Horizon's I wasn't super keen on either. I've also all ready purchased the Saxon book because my son pleaded about how much he liked it. He's silly like that. ;) I'm not opposed to other math curriculum, perhaps I'm just not aware of what's out there. Off to peek at the link Linda shared. :)

[kolamum]

Yes, I do agree it can be time consuming. We've not honestly tried a LOT of math curriculum. He really enjoys Saxon though, not sure what that says.. My son really straddles two grade levels. Due to the way i chose to teach him math before going with formal curriculum he knew a LOT of stuff above his grade level, but not everything he should have ON his grade level.

 

So for instance he knew a lot about fractions, but not about division. He's now into decimals & square roots. He's got the square roots down, but he's struggling with decimals in regards to grasping the way they're presenting it. Of course we had a huge chuckle over the way metric measurements on being taught because we use metric all the time. Still, makes for a fun math time.

 

The other thing is, my 11 year old is quite mathy. He's really good with numbers & can generally pick things up quite quickly as well. Occasionally a new topic will throw him for a loop & we slow WAY down until he's grasped it & feels super confident with it. I did debate putting him in TT, but his knowledge in regards to their placement test has him higher then I'd like to see him. I didn't like Math Mammoth at all, but we only tried the blue books. However, if that's the way they chose to teach then I'm not sure I wanna try the yellow books on grade level, kwim?

 

What I peeked in of Horizon's I wasn't super keen on either. I've also all ready purchased the Saxon book because my son pleaded about how much he liked it. He's silly like that. ;) I'm not opposed to other math curriculum, perhaps I'm just not aware of what's out there. Off to peek at the link Linda shared. :)

[...................]

I don't recommend skipping lessons. But I'm not sure what other option would be best for you. To be honest, having fresh books in front of one, isn't going to make a person independent. Although its a nice symbolic thing, I think having 5 other fresh books and one old one could still be symbolic of a new beginning. You can also change his desk location or appearance, set up his own checklists, re-decorate his area if the school room, and many other things to not only symbolize, but actually facilitate independence.

 

Food is a good motivator for boys this age...

[HecticMama]

We've done Saxon since K, and are now at 7/6. About the first 20 lessons are pure review. After that, each lesson adds something to the concept, and you don't want to miss anything. The last 20 lessons are almost totally new concepts. I suggest you look through the lessons you haven't done yet and assure yourself that those concepts are ones your child has under his belt. I understand the desire to start "fresh," but there's nothing wrong with starting in the middle and not repeating the review lessons in the next book (checking that nothing new has been added).

[Beth in TN]

 

I also highly recommend this book... http://www.homeschoolwithsaxon.com/ It has a lot of hints on how to most effectively use the program.

 

I second this recommendation. We used Saxon for many years with my oldest. This book saved my sanity and eliminated my DD's tearful math sessions. It's a quick read and thoroughly explains each textbook and how to use them to get the most for you student.

 

HTH

[zenjenn]

Now, I have a child much younger child than yours, but who is also an accelerated math student. She is a 2nd grader doing approximately early 4th grade math at this point (though it's hard to pin down - read on...)

 

You mention a prior curriculum couldn't keep up with him. I think with students like this spiral may be an exercise in frustration. (We used Saxon briefly when we pulled my oldest out of school because that's what the school was using - and I HATED It - I thought it repetitive to the extreme - but that was Saxon 1 and I hear Saxon 4+ is much better.)

 

I have very recently become a huge fan of Khan Academy as a core math tool for independent learners. It's online, it's free. You can sign your child up for a free account and also *practice* math skills with a record of success. I think it is an amazing, amazing tool, and great for accelerated math student who want to learn quickly and independently. It's a great supplemental tool for anyone, but I have been watching it become a core tool for my true mathy one. A lot of people think it's non-viable for a curriculum but frankly I fail to see why. I even spent some hours watching videos and working problems in more advanced topics myself just to get a feel of it - and I fail to see the problem with it. It offers basically infinite practice and review as needed, without holding students back who already have mastery over a topic. The only thing is I guess some elementary kids might find it heavy-handed. Salman Khan is very *clear*, but also very no-frills. If the student is going to tune out if there are no cartoons and color illustrations I guess it might not be for them.