How many homeschooling families are there on AFF?

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

I did like that the concepts, previously learned, were reviewed throughout the textbook. It did seem a bit laborious, but they did complete the lessons in, at least, one hour. Sometimes they went on to another subject and came back to it.

As long as that big X was marked, at the end of the day, for each subject completed, I didn't care how long it took them to complete anything. Just get it done and do it right! "You won't be in school forever!" was my mantra!

Overall, I wouldn't ever use anything else. Saxon is the bomb!

Good points--and I do agree with you--Saxon is a great curriculum. I used BJU Press Math last year, and although the content is similar, it was very confusing from a teaching perspective. The girls are both making straight A's in Math, so I guess I shouldn't be so bothered by the time it takes.

I suppose one option would be to save the cumulative review for them to do on their own after everything else is finished. That way I'm not having to wait an hour before we can move on to the next subject.

[Pressing-On]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Good points--and I do agree with you--Saxon is a great curriculum. I used BJU Press Math last year, and although the content is similar, it was very confusing from a teaching perspective. The girls are both making straight A's in Math, so I guess I shouldn't be so bothered by the time it takes.

I suppose one option would be to save the cumulative review for them to do on their own after everything else is finished. That way I'm not having to wait an hour before we can move on to the next subject.

This point in bold is what I looked for when I felt I was loosing ground. If they were doing well, I continued with what we were doing. Sometimes it was just the pressure I was putting on myself as a teacher and had nothing to do with the students.

Yes, I agree. Find a way to make it work. Math is important.

I told my children that if they could read, write and do Arithmetic, they could accomplish anything in this life that they felt they wanted to accomplish. "You can pick up any book and learn to do anything! You can be the President!"

[Sinatra]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

The first one, yes--the Facts Practice. Most of the time my girls take 8-10 (sometimes even 12) minutes to complete those. I've tried to make sure there are no distractions, but they still take a long time to complete them. Then there's the Mixed Practice at the end, which is a cumulative review, and isn't timed. Normal completion time for both girls: 1 hour. If you tally that up with the Mental Math, introducing the new concept and the problems related to the new concept, it can easily turn into 2 hours. I don't like to spend more than an hour, max on one subject, but I do want them to complete their work!

Should I be mixing it up and only doing a couple of the components each day instead of going right down the line and using every possible problem?

I can't decide whether they're just yanking my chain and not focusing, or if they really are having a hard time completing the work in a timely fashion.

I remember when we first started with Saxon, it did take the children longer to complete a lesson. Now, it normally takes my them an hour and fifteen minutes to complete a math lesson. They have however been doing Saxon for a few years.

For the practice test, I set a timer with the given amt. of time. Once the timer goes off, we stop. While they are doing their mixed practice, I check their practice test. I make a note of how many were correct in the given time and they can compare it to the day before for improvements. Any problems they didn't get to is "homework", to be done on their time.

As for the mixed practice, I require them to work all the problems. I know some curriculums allow for working only the odd # problems, but Saxon recommends working them all. If my children don't finish the lesson in a reasonable amount of time, I have no problem assigning it for homework.

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Sinatra

I remember when we first started with Saxon, it did take the children longer to complete a lesson. Now, it normally takes my them an hour and fifteen minutes to complete a math lesson. They have however been doing Saxon for a few years.

For the practice test, I set a timer with the given amt. of time. Once the timer goes off, we stop. While they are doing their mixed practice, I check their practice test. I make a note of how many were correct in the given time and they can compare it to the day before for improvements. Any problems they didn't get to is "homework", to be done on their time.

As for the mixed practice, I require them to work all the problems. I know some curriculums allow for working only the odd # problems, but Saxon recommends working them all. If my children don't finish the lesson in a reasonable amount of time, I have no problem assigning it for homework.

Okay, great suggestions with the practice test and homework. I'll try that.

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by Pressing-On

This point in bold is what I looked for when I felt I was loosing ground. If they were doing well, I continued with what we were doing. Sometimes it was just the pressure I was putting on myself as a teacher and had nothing to do with the students.

Yes, I agree. Find a way to make it work. Math is important.

I told my children that if they could read, write and do Arithmetic, they could accomplish anything in this life that they felt they wanted to accomplish. "You can pick up any book and learn to do anything! You can be the President!"

That's so TRUE! If kids can read well, express themselves in writing, and understand math, all other subjects will follow along.

[*AQuietPlace*]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

[
Has anyone else had this problem? If so, what would you recommend? Should I only assign part of the mixed practice, and quit having them do the whole thing? Maybe work for 30 minutes, and everything else becomes "homework"[lol], to be done after the normal school day is over?

I used Saxon math with my oldest son and loved it. But we had the same problem. Takes an eternity. I had him do the practice problems, and then every-other problem in the problem set. That worked very well for us.

[jfrog]

I don't know alot about the saxon thing but I think that the timed part is probably the place to focus on for math. Other than that it is only important to do enough problems to grasp the concept and become proficient enough to work problems quickly.

The basic things like addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, remainders, fractions, squareroots, factors and other such things are more about speed than anything else, because if you can't do those things fast then it's going to take forever to learn more complicated topics like algebra where such things will need to be done all the time.

So the speed at which they learn to do these things is going to have a direct impact on how much time and effort they have to put into math classes down the road. Same goes subjects like algebra. If they are going to ever possibly take calculus then speed in algebra is a very important goal.

So if they are getting the problems done and right in the amount of time the timed quizes give, then that is how I would measure success. If they are then you might think about taking out maybe 10% or 20% of the problems and seeing how they do for a while. If they are not then the extra practice is probably good.

In fact the more I think about it the better your hw idea for it is. That way they have even more of an incentive to learn to do the problems quickly. The faster they get them done the less hw they have and the more free time. So I would probably try that. Give them some time to work on it but not the whole hour and then go on and let them finsih the rest as hw.

[MissBrattified]

Originally Posted by jfrog

I don't know alot about the saxon thing but I think that the timed part is probably the place to focus on for math. Other than that it is only important to do enough problems to grasp the concept and become proficient enough to work problems quickly.

The basic things like addition, multiplication, subtraction, division, remainders, fractions, squareroots, factors and other such things are more about speed than anything else, because if you can't do those things fast then it's going to take forever to learn more complicated topics like algebra where such things will need to be done all the time.

So the speed at which they learn to do these things is going to have a direct impact on how much time and effort they have to put into math classes down the road. Same goes subjects like algebra. If they are going to ever possibly take calculus then speed in algebra is a very important goal.

So if they are getting the problems done and right in the amount of time the timed quizes give, then that is how I would measure success. If they are then you might think about taking out maybe 10% or 20% of the problems and seeing how they do for a while. If they are not then the extra practice is probably good.

In fact the more I think about it the better your hw idea for it is. That way they have even more of an incentive to learn to do the problems quickly. The faster they get them done the less hw they have and the more free time. So I would probably try that. Give them some time to work on it but not the whole hour and then go on and let them finsih the rest as hw.

Great points. Math is extremely important, and I push it pretty hard, since I know lots of girls tend fall behind in this subject.

I tried the homework idea this afternoon, and it worked really well. I taught the new concept, had them do the lesson-related problems, and assigned the rest as homework. I also told them they had 5 minutes to do their Facts Practice tests, instead of just timing them indefinitely, and amazingly enough they completed almost all of the problems in 5 minutes with zero mistakes. LOL!!!

Our favorite part of Saxon Math is the mental math questions. Every day, they have 5-10 problems that they aren't allowed to work out on paper, and one logic problem. The girls enjoy them, and they're fun for me, too. When we're doing the lesson, Hannah (my oldest) often solves equations in her head before I've had a chance to fully explain them. It can be a little annoying, actually!!!!

[Sinatra]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Great points. Math is extremely important, and I push it pretty hard, since I know lots of girls tend fall behind in this subject.

I tried the homework idea this afternoon, and it worked really well. I taught the new concept, had them do the lesson-related problems, and assigned the rest as homework. I also told them they had 5 minutes to do their Facts Practice tests, instead of just timing them indefinitely, and amazingly enough they completed almost all of the problems in 5 minutes with zero mistakes. LOL!!!

Our favorite part of Saxon Math is the mental math questions. Every day, they have 5-10 problems that they aren't allowed to work out on paper, and one logic problem. The girls enjoy them, and they're fun for me, too. When we're doing the lesson, Hannah (my oldest) often solves equations in her head before I've had a chance to fully explain them. It can be a little annoying, actually!!!!!

Glad that worked for you. We love the mental math too! My kids have the most fun doing those.

[jfrog]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

Great points. Math is extremely important, and I push it pretty hard, since I know lots of girls tend fall behind in this subject.

I tried the homework idea this afternoon, and it worked really well. I taught the new concept, had them do the lesson-related problems, and assigned the rest as homework. I also told them they had 5 minutes to do their Facts Practice tests, instead of just timing them indefinitely, and amazingly enough they completed almost all of the problems in 5 minutes with zero mistakes. LOL!!!

Our favorite part of Saxon Math is the mental math questions. Every day, they have 5-10 problems that they aren't allowed to work out on paper, and one logic problem. The girls enjoy them, and they're fun for me, too. When we're doing the lesson, Hannah (my oldest) often solves equations in her head before I've had a chance to fully explain them. It can be a little annoying, actually!!!!

For some reason I imagine shes going to try to do that alot more... especially if she knows it annoys you. I mean it isn't often that a kid gets to annoy both their teacher and mom at the same time :P

It sounds like you've found your solution.