Saxon math
 

I was thinking of using it for next year (yes already planning since we use tax return to get stuff)

What are your opinions of it?
Is it hands on or mainly book work? Do you think its advance or at grade level?

Anything else you can tell me about it would be great.

Re: Saxon math
 

Depends what level you get. K-3 is hands on with worksheets. 54 and up is textbook. I grew up with Saxon and used it when I taught school. I do not plan on using it at least not early on. Just didn't care for it. But many people do like it.
Classical schools tend to use one level ahead, so they use Saxon 1 in kindergarten, and 54 in third grade.

Re: Saxon math
 

We use it, Yes K-3 is hands on and parent led. But my 5th grader is using 65 and we bought the Saxon Teacher cds for the computer and he is doing it primarily independently.

Re: Saxon math
 

I am going to repeat what the others have already said, it really depends on what year you will be using. Saxon K-3 has more hands on with manipulatives, Saxon 5/4 and up (or the intermediates if you have a child that struggles) are all book work with very few manipulatives. My oldest is in 5th this year and we are using 6/5. He is strong in math and we probably could have gone as far as using 7/6 this year without any real problem. I love Saxon for him. It is not the most exciting program out there but it is thorough and at higher levels most kids can use it independently. This is helpful for teaching multiple children. I know at the end of the year Kearnan will have learned everything he needs in math if no other subject and I like that.

Re: Saxon math
 

Thanks for all the input. Its looking like I will be getting 3 my son is 2nd grade but is advanced for his age even the end of the Abeka book is easy for him and he is breezing through it.

Re: Saxon math
 

We used Saxon last year and we didn't like it. It was monotonous for my son and for I. I actually thought it moved slowly but introduced certain things before ey got the basics down. For example, we were doing square roots before division, or graphing coordinates before division. I thought the order of introducing subjects was all over the place. We did 3/4 of the book for Saxon 3, but had to do Singapore 3 this year because many of the basics just weren't covered. He is doing so much better with Singapore, but it just depends on your child. I would say it is not very hands on.

I like Saxon math. They used it at our school for a long time, which is where I first became acquainted with it. It is designed to be somewhat repetitive so that skills are really mastered and not forgotten. I do think depending on the child you can skip. We are doing 8/7 right now and doing about 3 lessons per day. I think we will move on to Algebra 1/2 or Algebra 1 before long, which would be considered about 2 knotches above grade level. We are not doing this to prove anything or to be 'ahead.' We can just see our child is ready for it.

I've heard a lot of good things about Singapore, and Math U See as well. I wanted something my DS could do basically independently, Saxon works well for that. He can do the lessons totally on his own. Sometimes he'll watch the D.I.V.E CD for additional instruction.

Does he go all the problems of 3 lessons a day?

Re: Saxon math
 

I do not homeschool - but i was homeschooled growing up for many years and my parents used saxon math. So i cannot speak for the younger skills aged book..... so take this for what its worth:

I started in 7th grade math (so book 8/9 probably) and moved on up through the most advanced they offered by the time i was a junior in high school - at which point we moved and i returned to PS to make friends. I will say that Saxon math was easy and intuative to learn from - my parents did not "teach" me per say.... they answered questions if i had any, but i rarely did. Saxon just fit my learning style. When i re-entered PS at 16yr midway through my junior year of HS i knew a LOT more than the math being taught in PS (i took pre-cal, then AP cal senior year)..... That being said, my little sister was also homeschooled along side me (from 4th grade thru 9th grade - chose to reenter PS her soph year) and Saxon was very difficult to her. She really struggled with it, and in some ways my parents really did her a dis-service by not trying to find something better suited to her learning style. I am very much a read it, then i understand it type of student.... she is much more tactile and auditory in her learning needs.

Overall i think Saxon was very thorough and I knew math very well compared to my peers. :goodvibes:

Re: Saxon math
 

Not who you directed the question at - but we did odd/even days..... so all the lessons, but only half the problems. If we missed more than 2, we had to redo that lesson the next day and do the other 1/2 of the problems. It was many years ago so its a bit foggy but if we still didn't get it after day 2 then we would work with my mom 1 on 1.... but i don't remember the material for these sessions (eg if we just repeated the material, if she had supplemental stuff, etc) :)