Do we love it or hate it?

There was a thread that got into this recently, here:
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/148011/Searchpage/1/Main/11670/Words/%22Saxon+math%22/Search/true/Re_Counter_argument.html#Post148011

I had never heard of it before.

Well, we weren't fans around here.

Let me elaborate.

DD: not a fan of the repetition and focus on automaticity.

Us: not fans of the bottom-up methodology which ignores applications and concepts in order to emphasize perfection in mechanics.


But we didn't use it long, either. So maybe that is unfair. Less than a month and we'd all had enough, switched to Singapore (though not without muttering about the wasted cash on Saxon) and never looked back. Oh, until we got introduced to the Pearson Way of Doing Math.

Saxon wasn't our favorite: we did four months or so of 8/7 Pre-Algebra in 6th grade. The spiral method was annoying for us: just when you've had one lesson and learned to, say, multiply numbers with exponents, you have to turn to computing the volume of a sphere, and the next lesson after that will be dividing decimals. So despite the amount of repetition, it wasn't a good model for kids who like to dig in. That particular course validates HowlerKarma's point about lacking applications. The kids had way too few word problems/applications. We liked Singapore better. We're doing Prentice Hall Algebra I now, and it's a good, tough course with lots of applications and an increasing-depth presentation that's logical, as well as some challenge problems for each assignment.