My young five year-old is almost done with Right Start C and I’m trying to figure out what program to use next (Black Friday sales)! I know there’s been a lot of threads here praising Saxon 5/4 and to go straight into it after the child has mastered the basic operations. The only operation we haven’t had much practice with at all is division. Right Start D appears to have a lot of review and dives into division at the end of it. Right now, I’m wondering if I should get Right Start D, Singapore 3a, or maybe explore Saxon 5/4?? Right Start is working and we love it - however, it’s doesn’t get done as often as I would like it to. It’s the hardest subject to get done when my youngest is with us and it’s the first subject to be pushed over to another day. Are Singapore and Saxon easier to get done? Does anyone have any insight? What age did you start Saxon and what program did you use before it? Thank you for any insight!!
Right Start math is incredible…I’d just stick with that program all the way through then go to the program they suggest from there which is a software based program from another company that also has great reviews. There are a lot of kids who find Saxon incredibly redundant and can start to hate math because of it. I’m using C right now and planning on going through all the programs.
Yes, I have a 6 year old and we are using Saxon. He has done 5/4, 6/5 and at the end of this week we will be 1/2 way through 7/6 (we plan to finish 7/6 by his 7 th birthday). We didn’t really use any programs before Saxon. From memory I think we worked through a grade 1 math book and 3/4 of a grade 3 math book before we jumped to Saxon. So far we are happy with Saxon but I have nothing else to compare it to. Definitely not the most exciting but I’m really not looking for that. We are working toward independence which is easy with Saxon and important for me.
TheyCan,
I have a LO (turning 4 in a week!) who is starting 3A, and we have been pulling supplementals from 5/4 for awhile on things like measurement and for extra practice.
I can tell you a little bit about both Singapore 3A and 5/4, and we did both RS A and RS B, but did not do RS C.
I think a lot depends upon what you are hoping to get out of it, what your plans are as far as school (are you homeschooling, planning on attending a school where standardized testing is abundant, etc.)
We worked through RS A and B when Alex was much younger (along with Singapore Early Bird), and I think it is an absolutely awesome program. I absolutely do not think that Alex would be where she is in math now if not for the tremendous base that RS provided, especially with number sense and place value.
That being said, I have a bit of a concern that RS does not align with so many programs and grade levels. A big problem if one thinks even the possibility for say, a private school or specialized class, may exist. We are also planning on doing different math competitions, as Alex really enjoys the challenge. She has been introduced to a taste of that competition through Soroban lessons/school, and has ‘the bug.’ I know that the new edition of RS has attempted to fix this juxtaposition, but 1) it came too late for us 2) I still have my doubts after comparing it to Singapore–and level C is not out yet!
So. We transitioned to Singapore. I honestly LOVE the way Singapore gloved into Alex’s knowledge base from RS. Because of her age, even though I gave her the placement test and she tested out, I had her work through 1A and 1B because I wanted her to have the practice, work on her writing skills, and I wanted to have physical proof if we ever opted to send her to school! She would fly through 10-15 pages per day lol
We then did 2A and have finished 2B, but we have continued to work on ‘extra’. Beast Academy, Penrose puzzles, living math books, fun things. So she continues to fly through the books because she is learning way ahead of them. We pull pages from Saxon for things as well.
I would think the issue you are going to have is lining up what you have done in RS C with Singapore 3A. You will have a HUGE head start on both programs, Singapore and Saxon, because of his background with place value specifically, but there will be gaps. Especially if you go with Singapore. I think you will probably need to give him the placement tests from their website, as there are specific things that may be a problem. For example, Singapore works on multiplication and basic division even in level 2A, and again in 2B. You are expected to be working on nailing all the facts down outside of the workbook as well. Also, keep in mind that the Singapore way of math is very, very different from the way it is taught in Saxon! Oh, and one important thing: Singapore 2B/3A is considered normal for 3rd grade because of the material! I would probably suggest that you start with 2B, maybe even 2A if he hasn’t done a ton of things like multiplication word problems and basic division. But because of his background he will fly through!
Saxon- I know that a lot of people really like Saxon. I DO think it is an extremely solid math program, and there are obviously some wonderful success stories (even within BK and friends :biggrin: !)
But I think that there are more than a few excellent math programs, and the benefits typically arise more from the amount of time spent diligently working on them than the specific programs themselves. And my child would literally lose her love of all things math if I had her do Saxon more than as an occasional supplement! The sections on measurement are particularly well done compared to Singapore as it is written in terms of metric and you will want to make sure to teach our silly US measurement system:) although, definitely teach the metric too as he will need it for all things science.
I would also suggest that you search the threads at WTM as I have found a plethora of old threads regarding the two math programs, comparing them all the way to high school. Lots of useful info, although you must squint through a lot of negativity regarding other posters individual views sometimes!
Have I mentioned how great the support and general positivity in BrillKids are recently?! I absolutely cannot imagine BK posters behaving so rudely toward each other 
Have you seen the scope of Saxon 5/4 and Singapore 3A? If you can give me a better idea of how well he has the basic operations and math facts down I can probably tell a bit more…
Not sure this helps but this is what we have done for math.
We started dabbling in RS A when James was 2. It was a great program for him then. And we took a lot from the program. But I didn’t feel the need to go forth. We tried out Singapore Math. 1A and 1B but it didn’t mesh with us. Not sure why? I wonder if I have the wrong books, I just get so confused with what I am meant to be using.
Instead we switched to Spectrum K. It is a pretty affordable and bare bones workbook but it covers all the necessary math in a traditional way. James really loves Spectrum. At almost 4 he has almost finished spectrum Math 1 and I do intend to get the next book. They are perfect for him to do independently.
For our math spine we settled on Go Math! Grade 1. James does well in it. And he enjoys it. But it is a very thorough, hence slow program. I highly recommend it for struggling students, but I also think it is great for EL students to work ahead. There is a lot of writing mind you, but James is at the stage where he wants to write and needs practice. Yup! We get writing practice through math. Go Math! Is a program that is a hybrid of Singapore and Saxon methods. I believe Go Math! Might extend into middle school but I don’t think we will use it for that long.
We have Saxon 5/4 sitting at home and I am thinking about introducing it full when James finishes Go Math! Grade 2. So probably when James is about 4.5-5 years old.
That is very interesting, Koralle. I’ve got to check the Go Math! Thank you for mentioning it.
We started 5/4 when my son was 6, but honestly we should have started sooner. We kept waiting for him to have all of his facts “memorized”, but he kept working them out. Eventually we just moved on to 5/4. He has done great with it and is finishing 6/5. When I look at his math now I am very happy. He is able to read word problems and figure out how to solve them and what operation to use. He continues his daily fact practice as is recommended in the Saxon, but he also does Sterling Math facts 250 problems a day. Hopefully he will finish 7/6 before his 8th birthday. I like that Saxon has a mix of mental math, rote memorization and problem solving. My older son also benefits from the spiral method where you review concepts that were previously covered so they are not forgotten. It is not exciting, but it is effective and my “non-mathy” son is very strong in math using this program.
My younger son is currently using Singapore. We plan on going through the third grade level and then moving over to Saxon for him as well.
We own Right Start, but honestly it was too teacher intensive for us, my children struggled with the visualization and I didn’t feel we were able to move as quickly.