Posted on 10/30/2006 12:36:40 PM PST by SoftballMominVA
Has anyone here worked with Saxon Math at the Calculus level? I am familiar with Saxon at the lower level, but not anything above Algebra. My SIL in NJ has her highschool son at a small, private Lutheran school and he is doing Calc as an independent study, but the program he is using now is not fitting his needs. (He is the only one in Calc, therefore, the independent study) Going to a community college is not an option as they are in the sticks of NJ and Ben doesn't drive (he is 15).
I know many homeschoolers here use Saxon, but has anyone gone that far? Thanks for any help
Have him go to Saxon's website and take the placement test. He might need to use the Algebra II book to work into the Calculus book, depending on how well prepared he is.
I look forward to the responses here.
If we homeschool again, I need to research on this as I have discovered that many schools (public and private) are not crazy about Saxon. My son said that what he is using at his school (private, Christian) is much better than Saxon. I will have to check the publisher on this when they get home.
After a little bit of looking it's price is 75$. You can buy a good calculus book for a lot less at most used book stores , or even a new book for about half of that.
I'm going to gather up the suggestions and send them to her in an email. I suggested that she come on here herself and ask but she was a bit intimidated by us Freepers.
I told her it was okay, only a few bite, and most have had their shots :)
One of our friends' daughters worked through all the Saxon books Algebra 1 & 2, Advanced Math, Calc and Physics. The daughter was the youngest Math Professor at Simpson College in CA. Mom just gave her the books and solutions manuals and let her go.
Have him buy the AP Calculus study guide (available at amazon.com, Borders and so on). It will help him identify all the things he needs to know for the exam.
Wow--what an accomplishment!
Many schools are not crazy about Saxon because it takes a very methodical approach, utilizes repetition in problem solving to drive home concepts, and is very practical in its orientation.
Many teachers dislike this, for the same reason they dislike phonics. On the other hand, those who need to teach themselves are wildly successful with this approach.
There are no fancy pictures, stories about rainforests, or other politically correct nonsense in the books.
The $75 is for the entire package - book, solutions manual, tests etc. Any textbook package from any publisher that includes a solutions manual is easily $75 or better.
We have all of the books thru Advanced Math.
I am very math-illiterate.
Phonics--I love phonics.
I'll bet you some homeschool moms could make a nice income tutoring kids who struggle with reading. I taught my kids using phonics and then allowed them to read out of the readers they were most interested in. All of my kids enjoyed the Pathway Readers and they actually read them over and over.
Same. I'm very math literate but mine have never had to ask me any questions when using the Saxon books.
I had a teacher tell me one time that phonics was a very weak way to teach reading. I asked her for the studies proving her assertion, and she couldn't come up with any. I handed her a copy of Rudolph Flesh's book "Why Johnny Can't Read", asked her to read it and check out all the research cited, then get back to me on any that proved any other method was better.
LOL she wouldn't talk to me after that.
Once mine read her first book by herself, I'd take a big bag to the library every week to keep her in reading material. It was too expensive to buy her all the books she wanted.
You might want to ping the homeschool list for more opinions.
Funny how my kids learned how to read before the age of 5 using a phonics-based method. No way will the govt. schools do this as they will not get all of the $$$$ they request because Johnny can't read.
Bingo. We can't teach the little savages how to be independent thinkers now can we ? It might just cause them to become conservative rather than liberal.
Start a math tutor thread and post problem questions. You will get lots of responses from the various mathematicians on the board.
My son did it. I recommend you get the cd-rom program to go with it. We had no problems at all, but we had used Saxon Math for years.
We never made it to the Physics book.
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