Saxon Math to ??...process, placement, questions

[sangtarah]

Oldest dd is stalling out with Saxon. She can do the work, but she just sits there and whittles away the hours. :toetap05:

 

We are looking at switching her to another program. I honestly don't know which would be best, but she likes the examples of BJU. She said "I never thought about numbers that way before" after she read them. :svengo:

 

She is at lesson 104 of Saxon 5/4. She wants to go into a program with a "6" on it, since she is 6th grade by age.

 

How would the transition go to BJU? Has anyone done it? Are the programs comparable in scope by level? Sequence is off, I know. So if she is at 5/4, would she go into BJU 6? Is there a placement test for BJU? I've looked at the website, but didn't find one.

Edited August 27, 2017 by sangtarah

[meganrussell]

We tried BJU 7 and 9. It was hard. There were so many problems. The type was small. My cousin who is an algebra teacher at public schools looked at my daughter's 9th grade algebra 1 book and said it was college level. We dropped it.

[nixpix5]

BJU is pretty tough. Being that Saxon5/4 is typically taken in 4th (and if following the VP schedule then 3rd), 6th BJU would be incredibly tough for her.

 

I am wondering if something like Math U See would be a better option? It doesn't have grade levels but uses Greek lettering. It is more hands on and has a video to watch. It explains things in a similar way to BJU (we use both in our home, one DS uses MUS and DD is using BJU) and uses some of the same strategies. Just a thought.

 

BJU, last I knew, made you pay for the placement assessment. Not sure if they still do that. They are really nice in customer service though so you could call and tell them what you are using and ask what they recommend for placement.

Edited August 26, 2017 by nixpix5

[sangtarah]

BJU is pretty tough. Being that Saxon5/4 is typically taken in 4th (and if following the VP schedule then 3rd), 6th BJU would be incredibly tough for her.

 

I am wondering if something like Math U See would be a better option? It doesn't have grade levels but uses Greek lettering. It is more hands on and has a video to watch. It explains things in a similar way to BJU (we use both in our home, one DS uses MUS and DD is using BJU) and uses some of the same strategies. Just a thought.

 

BJU, last I knew, made you pay for the placement assessment. Not sure if they still do that. They are really nice in customer service though so you could call and tell them what you are using and ask what they recommend for placement.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.  We will look at Math U See. 

 

Other musings....

I bought Math Mammoth awhile back, thinking it would help with the conceptual math concepts. Neither of my students like the formatting. And I tend to agree with them - the pages are very busy. We also have Life of Fred Apples - Mineshaft. I had planned on working through those this year, but I'm not sure if that is 'enough' just by itself?

 

If anyone has ideas for using either of those programs and adapting them, I would appreciate it. I hate to change programs in something like math. I had another thread months ago about using different resources in math simultaneously. The idea appealed to me before we moved and dd was born. Now I think it would be better for our family to stick with one. We are also out of the house at co-op once a week, so we have 4 days of home instruction time. 

 

Anyone have luck with online tutoring services? We are going to ask around locally, but are still meeting people/making connections.