Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
Posts: 1,065
|
Post by Sister Michelle on Jan 2, 2006 22:23:30 GMT -5
I was wondering if anyone else uses Saxon. I liked it for my first but am wondering if they rush a little to fast. If anyone else uses it some imput would be appreciated.
|
|
debbie
Gracious Lady
Posts: 12
|
Post by debbie on Jan 3, 2006 9:25:47 GMT -5
Dear Michelle,
We used Saxon for 2 years. It's a good program but our oldest son struggled with it. We tried Math-U-See and have been very pleased with it. The maker of the curriculum is a Christian homeschool father who taught math in schools. He also has a seminary degree. If math concepts had been explained to me the way this teacher does, I would not have struggled with math myself in school.
When we used Saxon, we did find that some lessons were too fast, especially near the end of the books. Then at the beginning of the next level, much time was spent in review. It helped us to know that, then we did not worry about getting the concepts thoroughly (especially toward the end), knowing that they would be well-reviewed in the next book. We also decided to not time the tests. There was too much stress from that and our son could not perform under the stress.
Debbie
|
|
Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
Posts: 1,065
|
Post by Sister Michelle on Jan 3, 2006 20:08:59 GMT -5
I am so glad to hear that about the last lessons. My son seemed to not want to go any farther in the book so my DH said that if David got a 90 or higher he could skip the last few lessons. I moved him into the next book and he is so excited to be in a new book. I am glad to hear that they will cover what he skipped.
|
|
Sister Michelle
Administrator
I must keep my eyes on Jesus my Saviour
Posts: 1,065
|
Post by Sister Michelle on Jan 25, 2006 5:44:26 GMT -5
Saxon has alot of manipulatives also. My daughter does not like using them. but the boys really like them. I think it helps them get the concepts easier.
|
|
|
Post by beeyeglad on Jan 25, 2006 6:45:56 GMT -5
We started out this year using Saxon for both children (2nd and 5th). We ended up dropping it for Nathanael (2nd). It was just too busy with all the manipulatives and I really didn't have the money to buy all of them. We also used Abeka last year and he was very advanced past over half the year of Saxon because of it. I don't advice anyone to use Abeka unless they have a very academic student. It is designed for Christian schools and to show the parents that they are getting their moneys worth. He did really well with their math (he has a mind for it), but I always felt like I was pushing him or cramming. We switched to Rod and Staff this year about 2mo. in. It put him back just a little ways from where he had been with Abeka (which was good for review) and he really likes it. I got the blacklines (I think that's what they are called) off of ebay for the first grade R/S math and there was some pages that were great for him this year. He is moving along and not cramming and you can see that his mind is growing. I know that he is advanced more than the average too. I also had to learn that that really doesn't matter. I need to worry about where my son is for him and not according to everyone else. That is a hard concept to let go of all things considered.
I really like R/S as a whole. They are the only program that even compares with Abeka's phonics (that we have found). I plan to start Liberty out in basically 100% R/S next year. I will just sub. with various fun and helpful things that we have found.
Brianna is doing Saxon math and we haven't decided if she will stay with that or switch to R/S. We have found them to be very similar minus the manipulatives. She likes it and seems to be doing well with it. By that I mean she get few problems wrong. She really struggled with Abeka after being in a public school for a year. They really set her back. Our drawback to switching her is that R/S only goes to 8th grade. We would then need to switch her back to Saxon. We will just have to pray about this and see where the Lord leads us.
Blessings, Heather
|
|