How to Use Saxon Math Without Going Nutty! (Part 2)by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger 30 May 2007 07:47 AM (This is the second part of a blog about using Saxon. If you haven't yet, check out the first part.) The Math Drills From very early on, Saxon is strong when it comes to giving kids good number sense. Part of 'number sense' is understanding and being able to readily recall their facts. However, my kids would find the drills tedious. So we stopped doing them. We use math dice instead. We have all types of dice, but our dice have up to 12 sides and the kids roll them and add, subtract or multiple as appropriate. Another thing I didn't do is time my kids on their drills. It was discouraging to them to see unanswered problems, even if the amount they left unanswered was negligible. It still bothered them and so we ditched the drills. Can You Skip Around in Saxon Math? No not really. You can't do lesson 5 and then go to lesson 10 and then on to lesson 45. You'll be missing skill building activities and key concepts that are fairly crucial to the success of the child. Consequently, Saxon does not make a good short term tutoring program. However, what we did do with my gifted son was skip lessons in the beginning was skip problems. We determined where to start by giving him the tests first. When he finally got to a point where he didn't understand the material--then we stopped and started doing lessons. For him, this method took him almost half way through the first grade book. My daughter usually skips the first 20 lessons as they are too much review for her. My son's math day looks like this: Math dice to practice basic facts. Mental Math Workout (which combines some elements of Saxon and some higher order critical thinking skills, chess scenarios, etc.) Math Lesson. . .where he answers only the questions that he doesn't understand or needs additional help with. Should he come to a page where he understands everything fairly easily, we skip most of the lesson and go onto the next one. My daughter also skips things in this manner but she needs the reinforcement that Saxon provides. I hope this answers some questions about Saxon and of course if anyone has more, please feel free to ask! My Other Saxon Blogs: Why Saxon Math Drives People Crazy How to Use Saxon Math Without Going Nutty And the Blog that Started it all: My Top 5 Math Curriculum Picks by Andrea Hermitt Learn more about Valorie Delp  Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments  Lyn Newton (3966) 30 May 2007 03:17 PMHey Valorie! I taught Saxon math until this year when we adopted a new series. It is so bad that many teachers are still pulling out left over Saxon! I liked Saxon in lower grades but hated it in Pre-Algebra! Like you said you can't really skip and I didn't like the order things were taught in. For example, it would teach how to solve for a variable by adding or subtracting then go to finding the area of a triangle then six lessons later finding a variable by multiplying and dividing. I also didn't think it gave enough practice in harder concepts such as mulitpying binomials, etc. The PreAlgebra series got o caught up in using difficult names and vocabulary that my students sometimes got lost in the wording and missed the point of the word problems. I liked the manipulatives in the primary series though. Great articles!  Andrea Hermitt (5512) 30 May 2007 06:23 PMPre-Algebra is where we got into trouble using Saxon also... so what Karri said makes sense. Meanwhile, I still think Saxon is a good program. Thank for the series Valorie!  Valorie Delp (49340) 30 May 2007 07:23 PMI've heard a lot of people say that actually. Interestingly, I did not like Saxon in the classroom. But when you're one on one, I really like it. Ironically I have taught someone some level of Saxon but pre-algebra is just about the only level I haven't touched!  Julie Gentry (5915) 30 May 2007 11:26 PMWith mine, we are using 7/6, Algebra 1/2, and Algebra 1. Love 'em! They are very logical. Like you, Valorie, I don't make mine do every problem if they can show me that they know the process. We've looked at others, but for us, Saxon's depth and reinforcement can't be beat. Valorie Delp (49340) 31 May 2007 02:49 AMYes that's exactly it. It presents things so logically. My dh LOVES Saxon so we will never use anything else. We will likely use it for Physics too. Discuss this article
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