joyfulhomeschooler Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 We switched to Saxon this year from Horizons. We finished up Horizons 4 last school year and went into Saxon 6/5 even though my son tested into 7/6 with the placement test. I felt he would need a little easier of a level because of the transition. Boy, was I right! It has not gone smoothly and that is putting it mildly. This is a child who previously never missed more than one problem on a worksheet with Horizons and that was even the rare occasion. He is doing just awful with Saxon! This is the second lesson he has gotten a D- on and I am just so unsettled by it. He knows what he is doing and how to do the problems because when I sit with him and have him do the problems he missed again, he does them perfectly on his own the first time. I don't know what is going on. I've thought of going back to Horizons, but then I wonder if that is the wisest decision we could make for him? I don't know if it is even Saxon that is the problem... maybe it's age... or ... ugh, I just don't know. Does anyone have any help for me? Tips? Advice? Anything? He is s bright kiddo and has always done well with all his school work. It is so disheartening to see him getting these kind of scores on his work. Help! Please!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted November 10, 2013 Share Posted November 10, 2013 Oddly enough, it's possible he's getting them wrong because they are too easy. He may be rushing. If he can correct them on his own, the problem isn't Saxon. He may be bored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna A. Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 One problem that one of my girls has always had is rushing through things *because* she knows the stuff and just wants to get it done. Doesn't matter what subject it is... she just gets over-confident. So then in the process of rushing, she skips steps and/or doesn't SHOW all of her work because she has it in her head, so I can't determine where she made her mistake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie4 Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 My son, also 10 is doing saxon 65 and I would agree. My son rushes for 2 reasons, too easy or I've assigned too many problems (just the thought of too many problems overwhelms him & he rushes to be done). We do just 1 or 2 problems if it's easy/review material that he knows. And something i learned here from all the saxon users- never have him do all problem set. If it's new we do the practice set & I pick just a few from problem set. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 If Horizon was working, I would stick with it for at least a couple of years. If you switched to Saxon looking for something to take you through high school (I did that with my dd this year), you could wait until he's a little older. I happily used CLE with my dd from 2nd until this year. My dd started Saxon at 8/7 and there was some adjustment to it, but she's doing great now. I am glad we used CLE for as long as we did, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 It's the Saxon Bermuda Triangle and I experienced it with both of my kids. Just go back to Horizons. My daughter loves Horizons and her math is great. She also has great application when word problems pop up in real life, or in her Science book. She loves the color, the fast pace, and she gets it done quickly. Once in a while we cross out problems when there are way too many of the same thing. She loves Horizons and she told me she will use it all the way to college. LOL My son used Saxon for 5 years and his math got worse and worse every year. He also hated math more and more every year. This made no sense to me, as he is a computer programmer and logical orderly thinking is his game. We finally switched him to AOPS and Prentice Hall and the AOPS was a little too challenging and not my teaching style, although he did enjoy looking at things from a new angle. But the Prentice Hall is perfect. It is mastery based, a little bit of color, with mixed review every day and not too many problems. I put him in the Course 1 but he could have done Course 2, now that I see how it's structured. So anyway I would say, just go back to Horizons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 One thing I would do with Saxon, is give yourself permission to slow down. Two consecutive days of math flailing usually signal a need to repeat certain problems and spend time teaching the thinking behind them. Recently I spent about a week on place value (two lessons) taking my time to do a lot on the board, a lot of manipulatives and thinking through things. That really helped. I happen to like Saxon and have seen my boys make huge strides this year in their ability to do math, but it really is dependent on the teacher spending the time needed to actually TEACH the math. I don't mind doing that, but it takes more time to do so, and that tends to make me very agitated about not getting through all the material on time. Giving myself permission to take the time we need was a concession I had to make to keep math from rapidly getting very frustrating for all involved. It isn't the only program out there, and if you liked another program then go back to it, but that's just my two cents on Saxon from my experience with it this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted November 12, 2013 Author Share Posted November 12, 2013 Thank you all for your advice. We sat together and did the lesson today. I didn't let him go more than two problems without us checking his work together to make sure he didn't miss anything. He had two problems out of all the odd ones that he had to do over. They were both simple mistakes such as putting 60 as an answer for 45+5. As soon as I said, this one isn't quite right, he looked at it, and immediately spotted the problem. It was the same sort of thing with the other missed problem. I'm thinking it is either the "rush factor" that many of you mentioned, or the lack of color and pictures to hold his attention. I've got some pondering to do. Thanks again for listening to my frustrations. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted November 12, 2013 Share Posted November 12, 2013 Why did you switch? Was Horizons not working any more? If he was doing fine with Horizons I'd go back to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted November 13, 2013 Author Share Posted November 13, 2013 Why did you switch? Was Horizons not working any more? If he was doing fine with Horizons I'd go back to that. Horizons was working, but I wanted something with more instruction for those spots we got stuck on. The DIVE CDs with Saxon enticed me into going with them. ;) Now, I am giving far more instruction than I did with Horizons. Oh well, you live and learn, right? :) I hate to buy something else for this year though, so I think we will just stick it out with Saxon and reevaluate at the end of our school year. He did another lesson with me close by today and didn't miss one problem. He was so proud of himself and kept saying "I double checked every problem Mom, just like you told me to." So, maybe he just needed to be told to slow down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted November 13, 2013 Share Posted November 13, 2013 A year is a long time and Horizons is cheap. You can Supplement with Khan Academy which is free..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.