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Long time lurker, first time poster. My DD is a young K-er (Sept birthday) and we have been using Saxon math. We will be finishing grade 2 this year and I plan to start her in grade 3 this fall. I have had to skip through much of the program because it is so easy for her, otherwise we have both loved it! Math is the highlight of our day. I feel she has learned so much and we should just stick with it. However, there is a little voice in my head that says I need to challenge her more and maybe a program like Singapore would be more appropriate. Would it be wise to switch programs?

 

If I decide NOT to switch programs, I know I don't want to accelerate her anymore because we will be starting the third grade text when she is just turning 6. I realize that Saxon is a slower pace than other programs but I feel we are getting closer to her ability level with the 3rd grade text. I would rather go deeper and supplement with another program. I'm not looking for more practice (we skip half the work as it is) I'm mainly looking for a new approach. I think doing a full program (like singapore) in addition to Saxon would be too much, though. I would prefer something fun like the Life of Fred elementary books but I'm not sure how deep those go. I've also considered the Math Mammoth blue series because I've heard it is similar to singapore and I can just print out and use the parts of it that I want. I've also considered something like Dreambox but it seems a little pricey and something reusable would be preferred. I'm willing to pay money for a program that we love and is useful but I'm not willing to pay money to jump around trying to find that program. This is just a supplement. Any suggestions?

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It's working, have patience! People will come to post. It is a Friday afternoon -- many people have activities or weekend trips that might have taken them away.

 

I can't help you on this one, so wait for others to post. (My kids are older, and have been in brick&mortar school up until this coming Memorial Day, after which we will start homeschooling.) I can say that my kids have been using Saxon Math in school (not the homeschool variety, though I'm not sure if there's much difference) and the school advances the grades one level for math (2nd grade does 3rd grade Saxon Math, 3rd grade does 4th, etc.).

 

I'll vulch on this thread, too, just to see what people say. Being new to homeschooling I figure it doesn't hurt to find out what others in the other stages have to say.

 

Welcome to posting!

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If you are looking for a supplement, MEP is excellent and free. And definitely has a different way of thinking about math than saxon.

 

 

 

Hmmm... MEP does look interesting. I think it would be a better approach than Math Mammoth. Do you think Saxon + MEP = overkill? I do want to go deeper with math, I just don't want to over do it with my 5 year old. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

I've looked at all of the sample lessons of Life of Fred and that looks really promising, too. I'm sure DD would love it. She is an advanced reader and could probably work through those on her own with me just over her shoulder. I wonder if these books would give me the depth I'm looking for....

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For a good add-on, how about Kitchen Table Math? I know our library has it, so you might be able to check it out that way before you buy. I really like this sort of thing for the little guys to get those math concepts set down with lots of hands-on fun and games.

 

LOF might work. My dd did not like it at all, but it is popular with many mathy kids and parents. It it certainly light enough in the early books to make a good add-on.

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At some point, eventually, the length of the daily Saxon lessons might make significant supplementation impractical. i can't say that with absolute certainty, but that would be one possible issue, along with the potential for difficulty with the logistics of acceleration due to its organization, concerns about depth of concept instruction, and amount of word problems.

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Hmmm... MEP does look interesting. I think it would be a better approach than Math Mammoth. Do you think Saxon + MEP = overkill? I do want to go deeper with math, I just don't want to over do it with my 5 year old. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

 

I've looked at all of the sample lessons of Life of Fred and that looks really promising, too. I'm sure DD would love it. She is an advanced reader and could probably work through those on her own with me just over her shoulder. I wonder if these books would give me the depth I'm looking for....

 

 

Seconding Ruth RE MEP: that's just what comes to mind on reading your OP!

 

Doing full lessons of both each day would be overkill. You can alternate days if you want to do both full programs (we school math all year which makes this more feasible). I'd suggest, instead, just doing the MEP problems in the problem books and not worrying about the full lesson plans -- this is a doable supplement. You can also just pull a few MEP problems each day for her, something from the MEP lesson that looks like it would engage her. And every fifth day of MEP is review so just skip those.

 

If she loves LoF that is a terrific thing to add, but IMHO you get more mathematical milage with MEP. If she reads LoF is more independent ...

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Doing full lessons of both each day would be overkill. You can alternate days if you want to do both full programs (we school math all year which makes this more feasible). I'd suggest, instead, just doing the MEP problems in the problem books and not worrying about the full lesson plans -- this is a doable supplement. You can also just pull a few MEP problems each day for her, something from the MEP lesson that looks like it would engage her. And every fifth day of MEP is review so just skip those.

 

If she loves LoF that is a terrific thing to add, but IMHO you get more mathematical milage with MEP. If she reads LoF is more independent ...

 

 

I think this is what we'll do. We plan to do math year round so I think it will work to do both MEP and Saxon. I think we'll get LOF Apples and see if DD likes it as a fun independent thing. If she likes it we'll get the others, too.

 

Thanks!

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I'll second (third?) the MEP suggestion as a supplement.

 

Another idea for supplementing would be to take a look at Education Unboxed. (I feel like a broken record. I'm not affiliated with the site in any way -- I just think it's a great resource for parents wanting to dip their toes into a different math approach!) The (free) videos there demonstrate how to set up activities and games with your child that present math concepts in a very different way from Saxon. Your only cost to implement those would be a group set of cuisenaire rods.

 

And of course, there are the Challenging Word Problems from Singapore, which are a fabulous supplement to any math program, imo.

 

And back to your original question: should you switch programs? If you are happy with Saxon and will continue to be happy without accelerating, then you're wise to stay with it. On the other hand, I'm picking up on a bit of uneasiness about that choice, and having used Saxon for part of Gr. 1, I think I get that. Saxon isn't easy to accelerate, and if you've got a child chomping at the bit, that may lead to frustration. The lessons are also quite long, which also makes supplementing challenging. It sounds like you're monitoring it and will continue to do so for this year, which is wise. If she starts to lose her math love or display boredom, switching to something like Singapore will allow you to more easily match her math pace. Or you just may be ready for Beast Academy after this year! :001_smile:

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