Debbie,
I've done most of the Saxon homeschool K program with my preschool DD and will be starting the 1st grade program in a couple months. The program has been too easy in many places, but despite that I've really liked it for the ideas it gives me.
Is the teacher willing to expand the lessons? For example, the K book has a lesson about the worth of a penny and using pennies to pay for items up to 10 cents. A bit later it introduces dimes. I simply combined the lessons, added nickels, and played the grocery shopping games with my DD. The lessons give the child enough pennies (or dimes) to pay for a single item, put the money back in a purse and pay for the next item. I gave her a big handful of coins, had her figure out how to buy as many items as possible with the money she had, and then asked her to count how much money she spent when she was done.
Is the teacher willing to accelerate or combine the lessons for your son? I combine content that has too much repetition. The coin lessons I mentioned are a good example. There were a number of simple coin lessons that I combined into one short explanation about counting coins.
While the Saxon math has been a lot of fun with my preschool DD, I'm not sure if my approach is all that useful in a classroom. I have the luxury of doing as much material as my DD wants and skipping anything that she already knows.
If the school accelerates your son to Saxon 2, are they willing to let him work at his own pace? Can he skip a section if he already knows the material and is able to prove it with some sort of asssessment?
Jill
