Who likes Saxon Math?

[Judy in Tennessee]

I'm still debating which math to use as we pull my grandson from public school to homeschooling beginning in fall. He will be a 7th grader. I have been debating back and forth about which math to use. I'm not a math person...give me Language Arts and Social Studies any day of the week! However, I like what I see with Saxon. He has taken the placement test and falls in the 7/6 category (why am I not surprised...).

What have others used? What did you like best? I don't want to start with Math-U-Can-See at this late stage but am interested in any other suggestions.

Thanks!

Judy

[Tenaj]

I have a long history with Saxon Math, left it for a number of years but then came back again.  I used the elementary program with my two oldest then we got bogged down in 5/4 and left for MUS (and others) then circled back to Saxon for most of high school.  Now I have 4 out of 5 still at home using it.  

I have adjusted it to fit our family and each kid.  My ninth grade and seventh grader are using the MFW schedules for algebra 2 and 8/7 because they are doing well.  These schedules don't require every problem to be done.

I won't use those schedules for my fifth grader because he needs to do every problem, every lesson.  Usually he ends up splitting lessons over two days (book 6/5,).  My third grader is in book 5/4 and sometimes gets a whole lesson done in one day and sometimes doesn't.  We just keep plugging along.

  I am militant about one part of Saxon math.  If a child doesn't score at least an 80 percent on a test they must back up (10 lessons in books up through 8/7, 8 lessons in the high school books) and redo those lessons.  I'm convinced that this is one of the reasons kids fail at Saxon.  They must master each section before going on.  For that reason, my kids rarely ever finish a book neatly in one school year but like I said, we just keep going.

 

[stlily]

We love Saxon in our homeschool. We have successfully used books K through Algebra 2. My oldest is finishing Algebra 2 this year and we plan on continuing on with it. My kids do all of the problems in all of the books. Beginning with Algebra 2, I had my daughter complete only 20 of the problems and she is still working on math a minimum of an hour and a half a day. Saxon is no joke. It is a thorough and rigorous program. EVERYTHING my kids get wrong, they go back and redo.  From 1st grade on up. We do EVERY component of the each level. At the lower levels they do the Meeting book daily, Meeting Strip, Facts Pages, then the lesson. They don't skip any of it. Beginning with book  5/4, they do all parts of the Warm-Up, the Problem Solving problem,  the facts pages, all of the Investigations, and of course the actual lessons.  For the higher levels, I purchased the Saxon Teacher CD's and my daughter uses those as needed. 

Saxon takes time and we've decided to prioritize math in our homeschool and give it the time it requires.  If you decide to have your student do only some of the books, I highly recommend levels 5/4 (although I think your student is past this level) through book 8/7 or Pre-Algebra. These levels will give your student an excellent foundation and then you can choose something else for upper level math if you don't like the idea of them spending an hour and a half on math daily. Hope this helps.

 

[Judy in Tennessee]

Thanks...I plan to prioritize math as well as Language Arts. Saxon seems to have what I need....just needed to see what others felt about it. I think it is important to have a strong math background (wish I did!) and this kid is smart but doesn't like to apply himself. So...that is what I'm trying to help him do.

 

[cbollin]

Judy, my oldest and middle used saxon.  They started with it in grade 7 using the 8/7 book with the mfw lesson plans.  Oldest skipped the Alg 1/2 book, but middle gal did not. Then onto to alg 1, alg 2 (and we added in a year of proof based geometry with jacobs, also with mfw - my father's world - sequence). back to saxon advanced.  Oldest did something else for calculus and was very ready to start calc for credit as a college freshman.  She ended up with 3 stem degrees and one of those was math.  Middle gal was not as mathy and stopped after Saxon Advanced.  did some test prep and passed clep pre calc which was enough for her college degree plan.  I didn't use saxon below that 87 level.  Likes: the warm ups before the main daily lessons (this was in 87 book) were nice to wake up their math brains in grade 7.  I liked the idea of incremental approach.  Worked for us.  Dislikes:  I'm sure there was something, but years down the road, I don't remember it so much that I'm still talking about it.   But the thing with any math program, you'll find those homeschoolers who like and those who don't like it.  Those who find solutions to make it work in spite of any dislikes or hiccups. Those who move onto something else.  teens who eye roll at the mention of their math book and those who don't.  hope you find the right fit for your needs. There are solutions manuals and video helps with saxon.  but not everyone will like it or click with using it.

[kiwik]

I don't know but there are heaps of alternatives other than MUS or Saxon.  Maybe try some placement tests and see what works best.

[BusyMom5]

I like Saxon math, and now I've taught every level of it!  Slow and steady- it may not be flashy and colorful, it may take some time, but at the end of the day my kids do know math.  Things my kids like about it:  They like just having a few of each type of problem rather than an entire page of the same type of problem- I realize some people think this is a bad thing, but it works for my kids.  They like that it gives you a while to master a small part of the problem before moving onto the next step.  This can sometimes be a problem if the child has a hard time putting the concepts together or if they need to see the bigger picture to understand where a step or concept is heading (I have always been able to do this on my own).  Some programs teach a step every day or two, which can be frustrating if you neeed longer to master it.  My kids also feel like they actually KNOW the math, they think Saxon is easy. 

 

 

[freesia]

I like Saxon.  I have a long history of avoiding/not liking Saxon.  Then I tried it and was won over.  I love the fact practice/mental math/problem solving bit at the beginning of each lesson.  With my first I was pulling from a million places for those elements.

Disclaimer: We do use Teaching Textbooks Geometry in high school and will probably use TT Pre-Calc for my dd next year as she is not a Saxon fan and needs a lighter year.  She may return for Calculus.