kmeunier
- Reviewed on Monday, July 19, 2010
- Grades Used: 4th
- Dates used: 2010
After 2 years of searching for the right math program for my son, I believe that Saxon is the one! We tried mastery but he would forget things from earlier chapters. We tried spiral, but it moved too fast. Saxon's incremental approach is great! It introduces concepts bit by bit, all the time reviewing concepts from previous lessons. And the best part is that starting in Saxon 54, the books are self-teaching. My son does the lesson on his own and I just check his work to make sure he understands the lesson. He almost never gets wrong answers, and he keeps saying that now he likes math and it's not as boring as it used to be. We will use Saxon all the way through high school!
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mn_kids
- Reviewed on Monday, July 12, 2010
- Grades Used: 4th and 6th
- Dates used: this year
I am so happy I found Saxon and wish I had found it for my older son sooner. I have used many math curriculums and stayed away from Saxon as my close friend had negative things so say about the younger grades. So I spent lots of money and years trying mastery programs only to realize my kids needed spiral math and they love and I love Saxon. I will probably use CLE math up until grade 4 and Saxon from there with my younger kids.
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thecrowleygirl
- Reviewed on Thursday, May 27, 2010
- Grades Used: K through 7th
- Dates used: 2001 through 2010
We have used Saxon math since day one and my oldest just finished 7th grade (saxon 8/7) and will be starting algebra 1 next year. I have read many of the pro's and cons of Saxon, but we have loved it. It is considered an advanced curriculum, but if you start with it, the kids learn as they progress.
I highly recommend the dive cd's to teach the lessons, the kids are able to self teach this way. If they do the cd, they don't need to do the lesson problems as they did some with the cd lesson. So they do the mental math and go directly into the mixed problems. Some people let their kids do just odds or evens, but math is based on building blocks, so my kids just know to do all 30 problems as I feel that's why they both learn the concepts well.
I do make them do the timed tests with each lesson, but I don't make them do the math tests every 10 lessons, they get enough testing experience through other subjects. I figure if they're doing 80% or better on the lessons, they're getting the concepts. Being as they will continue to revisit concepts the child might have struggled with in a particular lesson, before long they'll have a firm grasp of each concept. The first 40 lessons are review from the previous year, so I only make them do a lesson if it's something they might need some review over because of a summer break. They self teach (using the dive cd's) and I just check their answers, they usually only have a couple of answers blank waiting for me to help them with that particular problem, but only after they have looked at the lesson # the problem is from and gone back to relook over that lesson and yet still have a question.
Math has never been my strong suit, so the answer books having step by step for the answers was appreciated.
I love the way Saxon teaches a concept, has a couple of problems reviewing that new concept, and then continues to have a couple of problems in the next lessons having to do with this concept. Continuing to revisit concepts is vital to math in my opinion. Cementing concepts makes for good foundations for the next building blocks in math.
I'm now venturing next year into Saxon Algebra 1 and I hope to have the same successes.
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Ruth Nicholas
- Reviewed on Monday, May 24, 2010
- Grades Used: 1st - 5th
- Dates used: 2005 - current
When oldest was struggling with math I began hunting for a new curriculum. My parents were using Saxon in the Christian school they taught in & highly recommended it so I looked into it!!
I was thrilled with the program!! My daughter excelled. She now does her math faster than I can. Her 'mental' math abilities far exceed mine.
The morning meeting & lesson can 'feel' time consuming. But the results are WORTH the effort. Once the kids have a 'firm' foundation they can fly through their lessons. I've had her this year say, "I already understand this concept."; many, many times. I'll quiz her she understands. We move on to the next lesson. Knowing each concept is practiced over & over again through out the books give me the 'freedom' to skip without feeling my child may be 'missing' something. (For our children I NEVER skip the time tests!!)
We have split days in half. Some days have a test and lesson in the same day. This can seem overwhelming, so we turn those into two day lessons.
Our kindergartner started with the 1st grade program and has done very well. Our second grader started using the 2nd grade curriculum in the 1st grade & enjoys it. They 'beg' to do math lessons!!
My three year old joins in counting & skip counting with us!!
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