Saxon Math 5/4 through 8/7

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Saxon Math Homeschool teaches math with a spiral approach, which emphasizes incremental development of new material and continuous review of previously taught concepts.

Lessons contain a warm-up (with facts practice, mental math, & problem-solving exercises); introduction to the new concept, lesson practice exercises where the new skill is practiced, and mixed practice exercises, which includes 25-30 old and new problems. In-depth "Investigations" are provided every 10 lessons, and have their own set of questions.

User reviews

13 reviews
 
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Overall rating
 
4.2
Personal opinion
 
4.2
Coverage of subject
 
4.4
Ease of use
 
4.1
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Comments
This math is good for children who like math, and are good at it. Even then, don't make them do ALL the problems in each lesson, or they may quit liking math. Like I said, older, trusted, solid program. It is good, but not flashy, like some of the newer programs.
Grade levels used
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Pros
oldie, but goodie
Cons
drill and kill
Do you recommend?
yes
D
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easy to use good for kids who think very literal
Grade levels used
5
Do you recommend?
Yes
LH
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If you like the textbook approach and have an independent learner that understands math concepts really well this is great. My oldest son didn't understand one lesson I had to go back re-read and do it over again a couple of times for him to understand the concepts. We are switching curricula this year to see if we can find one that works better.
Grade levels used
6
Pros
covers concepts well
Cons
not enough to be able to help the student
Do you recommend?
yes
MR
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I've used Saxon Math since kindergarten. I think it covers the concepts well and the student gets a thorough knowledge of the subject.
Grade levels used
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Pros
Very thorough, yet interesting for my children
Do you recommend?
Yes
LV
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I used Singapore for my daughter in 1-6 grade but she seemed to struggle with remember old concepts when they reappeared. Singapore didn't offer enough repetitive work to commit the concepts to memory and I worried about what would happen when we started Saxon 8/7. The first lesson provided enough review to reteach the concepts and the facts practice helped get her quickly up to par. The lessons in her student book are so thorough she rarely needs help understanding a new concept. The girl I feared would never be able to do algebra has far exceeded the average thanks to Saxon.
Grade levels used
7
Do you recommend?
Yes
C
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We loved Saxon until we hit the pre-algebra level. Now we are thinking about switching.
Grade levels used
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
Do you recommend?
Sort of
LC
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We have always used Saxon. The K-3 curriculum was easy to use and made it simple for the students to grasp the concepts. In the 5/4 - 8/7 curriculum, all the review work began to get monotonous. Some students do need this, but if others have a full grasp of the concept, they may just want to do half of the work (odds or evens).
Do you recommend?
Yes
LS
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Have only used 7/6, 8/7, and algebra. But it is by far the best way to teach middle school and high school math. I teach the lessons, usually taking 5-10 minutes, depending on the content. And then my children are on their own. My special needs child takes several hours to finish a lesson, but my son can complete one lesson in under an hour. The book is well written, explaining all the examples completely, and the problems are based on the examples. They don't try to trip up the student. They do stretch their thinking, but they don't make the problems hard to work and they don't give them problems that contain concepts they haven't taught. There are quite a few problems, but like any subject, practice makes perfect. You don't learn a new song in piano by only playing it once and then moving one. You practice it multiple times a day for many days or even weeks. Same with English. We speak many times a day, every day. Math is just another language like English or music. It's needs lots of practice to be successful. I tutored math students when I was a high school student and also as a college student. I have used other programs and researched many more. There is no better program that Saxon, if you really want your child to learn math. I speak to adults often that say, "I'm not good at math." It's not the student, but the book and the teacher. Math is not colorful like art. It's not a story like history or reading. So some may think it's dry. That's not because of Saxon. It's a number after all. How interesting is the number 5 really? It's just a number. But it has great meaning and value and we need to understand it. $5 is different than 5 apples, for example. And it means something to me when it takes on the characteristics God intended for numbers. He created them. We should strive to use and understand them. Application is where they come in handy every day. Math can be fun when games are played using numbers at the elementary level. But higher math can't be "cute" nor should it be. Higher level math takes higher level thinking, but the foundation of understanding starts in elementary school. Saxon does a great job of teaching those higher level math skills that will be used as an adult. But a strong foundation at the elementary level, like RightStart, is paramount.
Grade levels used
  • 4
  • 5
  • 7
  • 8
Pros
Teaches middle school and high school math how it should be taught.
Cons
None
Do you recommend?
Yes, but only the original versions.
C
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Using this curriculum to teach helped me relearn what I had forgotten the first time around ;) However, my kids don't love it. I'm not sure they are going to love any math curriculum. But from a teaching standpoint, I love it!!
Grade levels used
  • 4
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Pros
consistently drills math terminology
Do you recommend?
yes
CP
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This was a great curriculum for my independent learner. Each lesson has a built in review and presented new material in bite size chunks. It follows a clear path with each concept building on the previos ones.
Grade levels used
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
Do you recommend?
yes
J
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Out of four kids only one cared a lick for Saxon, and it was the kid who finds it entertaining to see how different publishers teach different concepts. She enjoys math in general, and could easily work through two lessons a day in spite of using the placement test. She also said the varied problem sets was the most interesting part. I put her in something else for prealgebra and we never looked back. After they sat on my shelf collecting dust for a few years, "just in case" one of the younger kids would like them, I gave them away to a public school family who needed more practice for their kids.

I will say that it was thorough, and there was definitely a logic to the mixed problem sets. The sets seemed a good volume to me, not too large or too small. For kids that enjoy math in general I would absolutely look elsewhere.
Grade levels used
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
Pros
easy to use, very inexpensive on the used market
Cons
dry as chalkdust
Do you recommend?
Not very often
K
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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
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Overall rating
 
2.8
Personal opinion
 
3.0
Coverage of subject
 
3.0
Ease of use
 
2.5
This was very boring curriculum. The practice problems were so redundant but only a few questions on the actual topic. My niece hated it and so did I. Tried it because I was always told that Saxon was the best at higher math. Never again.
Grade levels used
7
Pros
lots of practice
Cons
too much practice but not enough on the new topic being learned
Do you recommend?
no
KA
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