Homeschooling: Saxon - Math 1

For math this year, I was a bit overwhelmed at the beginning choosing a curriculum because there are so many good ones out there and most everyone I talked to highly recommended the one they were using. I ended up looking at a few things at friend's houses and yardsales as well as online samples. My sister-in-law even sent me a ton of pics from the set they use to give me an idea. 

Though many of the others were more bright and colorful, which made them somewhat more inviting, in the end, I decided on Saxon math for a variety of reasons. Several people said it was more advanced for more math minded people, which is definitely Caleb's forte. Secondly, it seemed it was a very popular choice for both homeschoolers and private christian schools, so I knew it worked for a lot of kids. I also knew one of the Christian schools nearby used it, and I thought if I ever decide to transition him there, it would be nice for him to be able to continue with the same curriculum.

After taking their introduction assessment, I found that Caleb already had mastered all the kindergarten skills, so we skipped over the first book and went on to Math 1. There were many times where even that seemed too easy for my little mathematician; however, I am really glad we started there because as we went it solidified some of the skills he'd already begun to develop and there were some new concepts introduced he would have missed out on if we'd gone to second grade math off the bat. Since at the beginning of the year he was still working a lot on learning how to just write his numbers legibly, it was good we weren't introducing a lot of new more difficult concepts as well.

Pics of materials

At the beginning of each lesson, the curriculum takes the children to what they describe as "The Meeting Book" where the kids learn calendar skills. From days of the week and learning the months to studying patterns and graphing the weather, many concepts were reviewed this way daily. Sometimes it was a bit to redundant and by the end of the year I ended up cutting back to just reviewing the things I thought we needed both for time sake and because he was become frustrated with having to keep practicing things he already knew, but it was a good warm-up overall.

More pics

Next came the actual focused instruction. One of the things we really enjoyed about Saxon were the hands-on interactive lessons that often involved some form of manipulatives to help the kids grasp the concepts visually. For example, we learned about measurement and estimation by using measuring cups to fill up a variety of different shaped containers.

We practiced following step by step directions on a recipe and measuring to make our own homemade peanut butter.

Playing store, we practiced counting out money and adding sums on a variety of occasions.

Filling out receipts

"Our Little Grocery Market" he named it

Doing fractions and learning how to divide things equally in different ways, we used pieces of bread as visuals to manipulate before trying it out with paper squares. In another lesson, we took the skill farther, folding pieces of paper and learning about fourths. Later, the same skill of working with fractions was reviewed and extended farther using linking cubes divided into egg cartons.

Linking cubes were used for so many lessons actually. Caleb started adding sums in his head about a year before he entered kindergarten. However, he wasn't getting any quicker at recalling the facts and had to keep redoing each problem in his head. While he didn't really need to use the cubes to help him figure out his fact cards most of the time, I think they did help him to start to see patterns that made him able to solve the problems more quickly.

Caleb especially loved when we got a chance to use the pattern blocks to practice coming up with a variety of ways to fill in different spaces.

While some of the lessons were somewhat involved many were very simple and easy to introduce, often requiring very little materials. When learning about how to add up to ten, just using ten pennies and a sheet divided in two helped us look at how many different combinations we could come up with. Turn the paper side ways for facts written vertically vs. horizontally and the fun continues.

Sometimes even just a ruler was exciting for my little engineer to get try his hand at taking measurements.

A family favorite activity that the whole family did together was taste testing a variety of fruits and vegetables to help Caleb gather some data and practice graphing his results. We even called or messaged a few family members online to learn what they liked for even more feedback to use.

Granted some of these he may have been able to figure out without as much support, I think it is great that he has something concrete to go back and connect these skills with in case he needs help remembering. They are especially good as things great increasingly more difficult throughout the year.

Saxon has a spiral teaching design which is very different from what I am used to. Rather than introducing one concept, mastering it and then moving on the the next, they are interwoven and children revisit the same concepts over and over. For example, rather than teaching money all at one time as a unit, they introduce pennies when students are learning to add by ones, dimes when they begin counting by tens, nickels with fives, etc. This keeps things organized well, helps the kids not to get too bogged down with one concept, and helps to draw to mind the skills repeatedly so that they are remembered versus learned for a short period and atrophying because they aren't used.

Even the workbook pages are set up this way. Rather than the whole page being focused on the lesson that was just taught, each worksheet reviewed a variety of topics, including writing dates, practicing handwriting, number stories and how to write a number sentence, etc. Often there would be only one or two sections at the very bottom with the skill of the day.

One of the pitfalls to this program was how many worksheets were used on a daily basis. As a novice this year, I have to admit that I failed my son in some way by having him complete every page in his workbooks. It could be exasperating to him often and a source of tension between us. And, to be honest, it was ridiculous on my part to have fought that battle when a lot of the material he had already mastered and didn't need the extra practice on anyway. Next year, my plan it to use Saxon again but pick and choose what he really needs to complete versus being so compulsive about making sure we finish everything to the letter.

By the end of the year I could see so many improvements as a result of this program. His handwriting was so much better and he was recalling his facts with ease, which were our primary goals. His calendar skills also improved tremendously and he learned so many new concepts as well, such as how to add two-digit sums, counting odd numbers by twos, and how to identify, add, and trade in a variety of different types of money.

Though we plan to make some adjustments, we are definitely planning to use this curriculum next year and I would highly recommend it to anyone just getting started since it offers so much support and fun activities for both the student and teacher.