I’m trying to visualise a six year old with a textbook almost as big as them, working through complex maths equations… it just ends up comical :biggrin:
Thanks for the heads-up about reinforcing lessons learnt. There is a lot of repetition - one lesson on one-to-one correspondence required putting counting bears in the AB pattern before counting them, and I seem to remember the same in a lesson using linking cubes for 1-to-1. I think that is what Saxon is so good at (and what would make a 5 year old cry with boredom!) which is one of the reasons I thought I’d like to try their early curriculum. Taking the time to reinforce concepts is why I don’t want to rush through the K lessons. I hope that by also following the MEP curriculum, which seems to cover less in more depth and make the child think more about what they are learning, that I can make sure he covers all that he needs to know for each year.
My just turned 6 year old is sailing though Saxon 4/5. I would really recommend it. He thinks it is easy, but it has a lot of review of previous lessons. If your child has done EL I would not wait until they are older or maybe. The good think is it is very comprehensive so there are no gaps in learning.
In short, I am less enamoured than I was in the beginning. I like the thoroughness and repetition, but the slow pace is starting to get to me. I have decided we need to double up lessons, before he gets bored! At this pace, we should get through the rest of the book by Easter! I think we could have easily started 6 or even 12 months ago - the lessons as scripted take only 5-10 minutes, and new ideas are added very, very slowly.
It looks like it gets a bit more challenging towards the end - though the lesson 92 assessment involves a story of three bears are joined by two bears (how many now?) then four go away (how many left?) without ever once mentioning the words ‘plus/add’ or ‘take away/minus’ - so not very challenging!
Depending on how Nikki is enjoying it, we may stick with it and speed through Saxon 1-3 (at the very least I will know that he knows everything necessary for starting 5/4) but I am not sure at this point. There is an awful lot of busy work!
Yes that’s why it isn’t as highly regarded as the books from 5/4 onwards. It’s a filling curriculum. Something to give the kids to do while the grow up, or something to distract them while they should be learning math facts perhaps?
It does cover some interesting topics which really kids should know ( calendar, patterning the idea of cumulative addition etc) but the question is whether its the best way to teach those things. like ou said they will know what they need to know and at least it is scripted to make your life easier. 2 a day seems completely feasible, definitely do that!
Yes, the reason I would probably keep on with Saxon 1-3 (apart from Nikki enjoying them) is because of all the other things they cover apart from basic maths facts which I want to make sure I don’t overlook. I do like the way the material is introduced, I just think that much more could be covered in a lesson and the difficulty of material shown could move a lot faster!
Funny, I was just thinking about Saxon K this morning - we have not used it in ages as it is so slooowwwwwww. I have been thinking of just taking the concepts from a few lessons and combining them into one longer lesson/play session.