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To: BlackElk

What exactly is "Saxon Math";)


50 posted on 10/20/2006 2:59:43 PM PDT by TotusTuus
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To: TotusTuus
Sorry to be late answering. Saxon Math is the most wonderful math program I have ever seen. It runs all the way through advanced math and calculus. The basic method is to do about 130 lessons per year starting in 3rd grade. A new concept is introduced in each lesson. Anywhere from four to ten practice problems and answers are provided on each new concept in the lesson introducing it. Then there are about thirty problems a day, four of which are problems on the new concept and the rest on previous concepts. The repetitive format builds absolute confidence in math skills. This method is infinitely better than the approach taken in my parochial and Jesuit education even in the era before "new math" confused everything.

Nothing I can say can compare to the actual experience. Go to Amazon or ABE and obtain a cheap used copy of any Saxon Math book. Try it out and see if I am not right. You can also contact Saxon Math in, I believe, Norman, Oklahoma. These books are a mainstay of many homeschoolers. When first, I encountered the books, I was immediately jealous of today's students (including my kids) who can learn math from the Saxon texts. Forty plus years ago, I had a 757 in the Math SAT and a much higher score on the Advanced Math Achievement test without really understanding Algebra. Today, I work my way through Saxon texts as a hobby. I also have my old prep school texts and they are not competitive.

Finally, when I did radio talk and simply praised Saxon Math texts, gummint skewel teachers would call, hissing and spitting their hatred of Saxon Math which concentrates on teaching the Math that many so-called math teachers cannot master and avoids pretty picture laden "interesting" texts. The gummint skewel teachers whine that Saxon is boring. Well educated students don't.

Try Saxon Math books. You will love them.

If you want Catholic kids to learn Latin, I do recommend the texts we used forty plus years ago: Fr. Robert Henle's (SJ) Latin (4 volumes plus a grammar volume) published in 1942 and ever since by Loyola Press in Chicago, available in hardback and paper to this day. Fr. Henle was president of Georgetown University so long ago that its was still Catholic. He died at the age of 102 just a couple of years ago in Chicago.

54 posted on 10/20/2006 11:13:57 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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