8th grader battling Saxon 87- considering stopping for the rest of the year

[MommyinNY]

DD14 has been struggling with Saxon 87 and because she is 75% through the book, I am thinking about dropping it and being done with math for the rest of this school year (we are finishing next month).  She was going along fine with just little struggles here and there, but now, she has a meltdown everyday.  It's not everything that she is struggling with either- mostly geometry problems, adding and subtracting negative & positive integers, and some of the proportions (like trying to figure out which numbers she needs to set up her equations).       

 

I am beyond ready for this school year to be finished.  I am burned out and I would prefer NOT to extend math into the summer with her.  I'm just being real honest.  DD14 will be attending a private high school next year and on Friday we met with the academic counselor to set up her schedule of classes.   I shared very honestly with the counselor and she thought that DD14 struggles were not out of the ordinary for incoming 9th graders.  The school has a program set up to break Algebra 1 into two years.  She suggested DD14 go through that program.  Even though it is broken up into years, she will still receive one full credit for each year.  We are in NY State so she would not be required to take Regents until the end of Algebra 1, the second year.   This brought my husband and I so much relief. 

 

So now, my question for you all is, do we drop the Saxon 87 for the rest of the year and look for something online where she can go over the concepts she's struggling with?  If so, do you have any suggestions?   Or do we continue to painstakingly hammer at the Saxon 87 til we finish?    Thanks. 

[Omma]

Have you been giving her the weekly tests?  Does she score above 80-85%?  I have heard Art Reed say to go back 5 lessons if test scores fall below 80% for 2 weeks in a row and redo those lessons, one day at a time.  At whatever point she started getting below 80% correct, I would go back to that point and just keep plugging along until you are done with school for the year.

 

And hang in there.  Saxon 8/7 was pretty tough for us as that is when we first used Saxon.  I almost gave up 1/2 way through the year, but we are so glad we continued.  Scores hovered around 80% toward the end of the year, so we went ahead and did Saxon Algebra 1/2 afterwards, even though many people skip it.  Now we are happily cruising along in Algebra 2 with no issues, so I am very glad we stuck with it. 

 

Even though you are switching gears next year, I think the added review and math practice would be beneficial instead of stopping early.

 

Blessings,

 

Brenda

[OneStepAtATime]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug: 

 

Sounds like you are both burned out and she may have moved too quickly through the material.  Maybe take a 2 or 3 week break.  Agree on a length of time for that break and commit to it or you may both just keep putting it off.  After the break, try doing maybe just 20 minutes of math review 4 days a week during the summer with something besides Saxon.  Maybe Khan Academy or CTC math or something that does not look or feel like Saxon and she can do without you having to teach the lesson to give you both a break and a change in the dynamic.  Step it back to a previous level to have her review and solidify concepts/algorithms.  If you stop all math altogether for the summer when she is already struggling she may forget most of what she learned this year and have an even harder time in school.  She may also go into 9th grade with a terrible insecurity/negativity towards math.  Spending time reviewing basics might not be as stressful andt could very well help her move forward in the Fall.

 

I agree, just pushing forward at this juncture is probably pointless and will just cause more stress and upset.  It may very well do a lot more harm than good.

 

 

[mama25angels]

I agree with one step, maybe look at Khan academy to keep her fresh.

[Carol in Cal.]

We used Saxon through Algebra 1, and 87 was the hardest year, not because it was difficult, but because the breadth of material was so great, with similar but not identical things to learn for lots of different situations.

 

I would be extremely nervous about someone going into Algebra 1 without a thorough grasp of that material, though.

 

What we did was, I realized that DD was not getting it, that she had overloaded her brain to the point that stuff was falling out the back of it, LOL, and I backed her up quite a ways.  Maybe 20 lessons?  And instead of starting right in, I started by summarizing the material before that.

 

So, for instance, 4 function arithmetic with negative numbers--how does that work?  What are the rules?  How can you cross check that you're doing it right?--all on one sheet of paper.

 

Then another one with adding and subtracting fractions.  Another with multiplying and dividing them.  Etc.

 

Then she just dug in and started doing a lesson every day again, using the DIVE CD's, and once a week I would sit with her and make sure she could really tell me what she knew.  I let her use those sheets I made for her, because I figured that sooner or later she would remember them that way, because it organized all that broad material into just a few pages.  This worked out beautifully, and the next year she sailed through Algebra 1 very well.

 

Remember, Saxon puts a ton of its new material toward the back of the book.  If you skip that, your DD is going to be disproportionately deficient in pre-algebra concepts.  Not a good way to enter a high school for sure.

[OneStepAtATime]

Oh, and OP, for the record my 8th grade math year was an absolute waste of time.  I had a horrible math teacher and learned literally nothing that year.  I wasn't the only one.  In fact, no one learned much that year.  Our teacher was a terrible instructor but also his wife was struggling with a difficult pregnancy and he just didn't have any desire to deal with teaching by his last class of the day.  When a fellow student complained he was sent to detention.  I went into Algebra I in 9th grade with very little in the way of pre-algebra under my belt and was put into the same sort of thing your DD will be going into.  I took Algebra I in two parts over two years and had a fantastic math teacher for those two years.  I made good grades and enjoyed the class.  I share this to say your daughter probably has had WAAAAAY better math exposure this year than I did and if she has a good class for Algebra I pt. 1 in the Fall she will probably be fine.  Hugs to you both.

 

FTR, though, I do regret that my mom never reviewed basics with me over the summers because I would forget so much.  Starting up again was really hard.  Take a break then maybe give a placement test to see where gaps are.  Work on those gaps and just brief review each day for short periods of time so she doesn't start with too much of a deficit.

 

Is it possible to get a look at the math materials they will be using in the fall?  That might give you a better idea of how much review is incorporated into their program and where they will be starting with new material.

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

Well she needs to be proficient with proportions and negatives before moving on to algebra one next year. We even use proportions in daily life. And negatives too, for that matter.

 

Saxon does a LOT in those last 25 lessons. Though it seems daunting, it's important to finish the book. In that time she will review those new, hard concepts and hopefully they will click.

 

But I think it's ok to take a few days off and have her look at just proportions and negatives on Khan Academy. Let her do proportions for 3 days and negatives for 2 days and see if they click a little and then go back to the Saxon.

[LanaTron]

Find out how much the pre-algebra concepts are reviewed in the math course she will be in at the school. If the concepts she struggles with are re-taught in the algebra course, then I would drop saxon and just use Kahn Academy until the end of the school year.

 

If they don't reveiw pre-algebra much in the course, and if you and she are really not interested in doing any math over the summer, I would continue in Saxon until the end of the school year.

 

If you and she won't mind working an online program over the summer, I would drop Saxon now and use either Kahn Academy or Aleks math.

 

Best wishes!

 

 

Edited May 11, 2016 by LanaTron

[wapiti]

To prepare for algebra 1 in the fall, I would make a list of the topics that are a struggle and also the topics that have not yet been covered.  Then cover those topics using something other than Saxon.

 

OneStep has a great point - see if you can get a syllabus and find out what text the school uses.

[Critterfixer]

Keys to Algebra, Book 1 has the best explanation of how negative and positive integer operations work, IMO. Love the whole series.