Saxon math twice a week?

[Xahm]

Another mom of several is looking to simplify their school day and asked my opinion, but I don't know much about Saxon. Would doing Saxon Math 2 days a week (alternating with English two other days) be enough to allow kids to progress? The kids are elementary and middle school age, with one mathy child and one struggling learner in the mix.

[HomeAgain]

No.
Saxon is very scheduled and that would probably be overwhelming to both children with the sheer number of problems.  I don't think it would be conducive to progress at all.
Could she simplify by choosing a different program that would let her do it 4 or 5 days, but less time than Saxon per lesson?  Our main program is teacher intensive but it's easily scheduled in short, half hour blocks.  I'm sure others are shorter and more streamlined, too.

[Xahm]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

No.
Saxon is very scheduled and that would probably be overwhelming to both children with the sheer number of problems.  I don't think it would be conducive to progress at all.
Could she simplify by choosing a different program that would let her do it 4 or 5 days, but less time than Saxon per lesson?  Our main program is teacher intensive but it's easily scheduled in short, half hour blocks.  I'm sure others are shorter and more streamlined, too.

Thanks. That was my gut reaction from what I had heard but I didn't want to give advice from a position of ignorance. 

[EKS]

No.  Saxon is designed to be done every day.  The whole point of Saxon is distributed practice, so doing double problems in a day defeats the purpose.

One critical element of distributed practice is *sleeping* between practices, given that sleep is what allows us to consolidate memories.

[katilac]

Definitely not. HomeAgain probably has the right idea about finding a shorter or easier to implement program. I can't imagine doing math or English twice a week no matter what program is used, no matter the age of the student. Math and English are pretty much the bare minimum of providing an education. I've seen a fair number of people do four days per week, or so many weeks on and then a week off (both usually with a longer school year) but two days a week of core subjects for elementary and middle is not a valid plan imo. You can combine some kids in some subjects, you can have certain things be git-r-done, but they have to have a steady and regular schedule.  

[Xahm]

32 minutes ago, EKS said:

No.  Saxon is designed to be done every day.  The whole point of Saxon is distributed practice, so doing double problems in a day defeats the purpose.

One critical element of distributed practice is *sleeping* between practices, given that sleep is what allows us to consolidate memories.

Thanks, having this to say is probably more helpful than my "that seems like a bad idea."

26 minutes ago, katilac said:

Definitely not. HomeAgain probably has the right idea about finding a shorter or easier to implement program. I can't imagine doing math or English twice a week no matter what program is used, no matter the age of the student. Math and English are pretty much the bare minimum of providing an education. I've seen a fair number of people do four days per week, or so many weeks on and then a week off (both usually with a longer school year) but two days a week of core subjects for elementary and middle is not a valid plan imo. You can combine some kids in some subjects, you can have certain things be git-r-done, but they have to have a steady and regular schedule.  

I agree totally, but I have to stay in the bounds of encouraging and giving the advice asked for. We're close enough for me to say some things, but I'm not the parent.