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Saxon Math 6/5 Review by Lisa Barthuly and family
Saxon Publishershttp://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonpublishers.htm
Saxon math is a staple for many homeschooling families, and it's easy to see why. We've been using Saxon for four years. The books make math easy to understand and master.
Saxon 6/5 follows the same pattern as other levels of Saxon that we've used. Introduce a concept, teach it, review it, master it, and then review it some more while integrating the concept into future lessons. I like that Saxon always reinforces what it's taught, again and again, to be sure the student has completely mastered the concept or skill. Saxon doesn't just introduce a new concept in one lesson, expect mastery of the concept, and never go back to it. Concepts are integrated and reviewed to ensure mastery in future lessons.
All Saxon math books start with a review. (I love that!) In 6/5 the review covers sequences, odd/even numbers, using money to illustrate place value, whole numbers, dollars and cents, using the addition and subtraction algorithm, addition and subtraction facts, fact families, story problems, and MORE!
The book then moves on to number lines, multiplication, adding and subtracting with money, missing numbers, making a multiplication table, division, fractions, factors of whole numbers, adding and subtracting fractions with common denominators, classifying quadrilaterals, simplifying mixed measures, finding an average, performing probability experiments . . . the list goes on! I also appreciate that Saxon doesn't have "tunnel vision" when it comes to math; it presents problems in story form as well as numeric format. Saxon 6/5 is packed with learning for our intermediate-aged learners!
Lessons are laid out in a simple, easy-to-follow format. I rely on that. Each lesson lets the child "warm up" with some practice problems. Then the new concept is introduced, with plenty of examples and solutions to make the concept easy to understand. Then comes "lesson practice" (problems covering what was just taught) and finally "mixed practice" (a mixture of problems covering the concept just taught as well as concepts previously taught).
The Saxon 6/5 Homeschool Kit that we reviewed comes with the softbound textbook (over 700 pages), which is divided into 120 lessons and 12 "investigations." (It also has an appendix of topics that can be presented as the instructor wishes, an illustrated glossary, and a great index!)
We also reviewed the Solutions Manual (over 300 pages, softbound), which gives you step-by-step solutions for all of the textbook and test exercises. The solutions to everything contained in Saxon 6/5. We also reviewed the Tests & Worksheets softbound book. This 200-page book is 3-hole punched and has all the worksheets, tests, and supplemental paperwork to accompany the textbook.
Would I recommend Saxon for math? Absolutely!
