Saxon Math 5/4 through 8/7

Hot
 
4.2 (13)
5775 0 0 0 0

User reviews

1 reviews with 5 stars
13 reviews
 
8%
4 stars
 
0%
 
8%
2 stars
 
0%
1 star
 
0%
Overall rating
 
4.2
Personal opinion
 
4.2
Coverage of subject
 
4.4
Ease of use
 
4.1
Back to Listing
Ratings
Personal opinion
Coverage of subject
Ease of use
Support
Reader Thoughts
Comments
1 results - showing 1 - 1
Ordering
Overall rating
 
5.0
Personal opinion
 
5.0
Coverage of subject
 
5.0
Ease of use
 
5.0
Starting in Saxon 5/4 there is no more meeting. Rejoice! It's replaced by a section called "mental math", in which there are a handful of problems meant to be calculated mentally and recorded on the special recording sheets (I personally redesigned the recording sheets, as I didn't like theirs as much https://greencarrot.wordpress.com/wp-admin/upload.php?item=393 ).
Every day there is a times fact sheet (master sheets in school texts, pre-printed in homeschool versions). You're supposed to time the student for 5 minutes while he does the sheet, but many people count up instead, or don't use a timer at all. It depends entirely on how that particular student responds to pressure and self-competition. Some love it, some hate it.
After mental math there is the short lesson introducing the new material. This is almost always very easy, as Saxon takes things in small steps rather than throwing a difficult skill at them all at once. Following that there is a small number of problems directly related to the lesson. Then there is a longer section of review problems, which practice everything learned previously. VERY useful, so don't skip these! Some people suggest doing only odds or evens in the review set, but I have found that doing so results in poorer retention, as a lot of things end up never being practiced.
Please, don't skip! The time invested in this review pays off, big time.
There is a test every 5 lessons (always a favorite here, as they only cover things at least 5 lessons old and thus feel easy and are very encouraging), and investigations every 10 lessons, which break with the traditional lesson format to look deeper at a subject (like measuring, angles, etc.)
Saxon will take your child from Kindergarten up through high school. If one year is spent on the extra pre-algebra work, you will get through Algebra 2. If not, there is an "advanced mathematics" book that is for very mathy students who are going to pursue college work in math or engineering. We are currently in the 7th grade book (8/7) which includes a lot of pre-algebra and algebraic concepts.
Grade levels used
  • K
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
Pros
Strong foundation, traditional, incremental
Cons
Time consuming (but it pays off, don't be lazy!)
Do you recommend?
YES
S
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
1 results - showing 1 - 1