How to Homeschool With Saxon Math
Saxon Math is one of the most popular homeschool math programs on the market. Homeschool math can be teacher led, parent led or self directed and the Saxon program allows for both methods. With three different programs for K-3, Middle School and High School, you can teach a program to any school age child.
- Difficulty:
- Moderate
Instructions
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How to Homeschool with Saxon Math K-3
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1
Purchase your Saxon Math curriculum and the manipulatives the publisher recommends. Some families choose to buy the manipulative kit that comes from the manufacturer and other families choose to use alternative manipulatives or collect each of the kit components individually. Keep in mind that not having a necessary manipulative can make a curriculum frustrating and lead to burnout.
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Begin each lesson with the meeting book activities as recommended in the teacher's guide. Many parents find the scripted conversations in the teacher's guide to be redundant. You can create your own conversations after scanning the text in the teacher's book to be sure you know what homeschool math content will be covered.
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3
Work with your student using the recommended manipulatives so that they can see and understand the concepts being taught. Sometimes, these concepts will be grasped very quickly and other times, you might need to explain the ideas several different ways to help the child understand. Be sure that you don't move on to the next topic until the previous one is understood. Saxon Math has supplementary tools, like flashcards available for purchase, but seasoned homeschooling families often claim that time spent freely interacting with manipulatives often helps the child "unlock" their learning potential and master a concept that they were having difficulties with.
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Allow your child to complete the worksheets in the student book independently. There's no need to assign a letter grade to these lessons. Use them as a tool to help you understand what the child needs more help with. The worksheets give your child the opportunity to say "I've learned it; let's move on" or even "I don't get it; help me learn."
How to Homeschool with Saxon Middle Grades
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1
Administer the Saxon Middle Grades placement test if you're not sure where to start. The general recommendation from the publisher is that Saxon 5/4 is for 4th grade students, Saxon 6/5 is for 5th grade students, Saxon 7/6 is for 6th grade students and Saxon 8/7 is for 7th grade students.
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Purchase the Saxon Middle Grades curriculum that you feel will best meet your homeschool math needs. Each day, the student is to do a different lesson in the textbook. The tests and worksheet book provides warm-up activities that begin every lesson and tests to be taken after every five lessons. The entire program can be self-directed. Each lesson presents new information and the lesson practice section gives kids the opportunity to try working problems with the new skills they've learned. The Practice questions make up a large body of each day's assignments and have problems from the previous lessons.
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Check the lesson practice answers against the answer book after each lesson to be sure that the lesson was understood. Every five lessons, administer the tests to be sure that information has been retained and if you see the student having trouble, you can return to the lesson in question and go over the concepts.
How to Homeschool with Saxon High School (Upper Grades)
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Administer the homeschool math placement test from Saxon Math, published by Harcourt Achieve. This will tell you where to start. Saxon Upper Grades Math has Algebra1, Algebra 2, Calculus, Physics, and Advanced Mathematicsworks through Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Advanced Mathematics to prepare the students for Saxon Calculus or College level Calculus.
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Allow the student to work independently. Saxon math encourages and is designed to allow students to set their own work pace and teach themselves. If your personal knowledge base can't offer tutoring help, be sure to ask your homeschool support group, family or friends to be "on call" in case the student needs help. Encourage your homeschooled high school student to ask for help when they need it and provide the resources and contacts to get help.
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Track the student's progress periodically by setting goals and deadlines with your student. In high school, some students have a tendency to resist regulating their own schedule. Allowing them to work independently of day-to-day monitoring gives them the freedom to choose when and how to manage their studies. Periodically checking in on their progress gives them the opportunity to practice meeting goals and managing their own time.
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Tips & Warnings
There are several free resources online for homeschool math activities.
Be aware that their format and teaching style is completely different in K-3. If you don't like K-3 don't automatically think you won't like the middle/ upper grades.
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- Photo Credit flutterby at morguefile.com
