By Catherine Darsey
(Houston, TX)
Visitor Review:
I’m Catherine from Houston, Texas. We are currently using 5/6 and Pre-Algebra. I love Saxon. It is exactly the pace my kids need in order to really understand the math concepts. The teaching DVD is wonderful and with the pre-algebra has been a God send.
I do however have two areas that I think could be better, teaching DVD and guides. I love how the DVD teacher takes her time explaining the concepts and works through each of the practice problems. I would like to see however, the mixed practice problems worked out on a separate answer dvd instead of at the end of each lesson. This way the student must work the problems on their own and then can go back and check their answers against the teacher. Working with more than one child, by the time I get around to checking on one kid’s progress they are already half way through the mixed practice problems and by then it’s to late to have them work on their own to see if they really understand the concept.
The second issue is there doesn’t seem to be a separate teachers manual. The solutions manual is ineffective in explaining the correct answer and how it was achieved. The student text doesn’t always have the explanation in the lesson either. Before buying the DVD, I had to search the internet, more than once, for the step by step how to for getting the answer to a given problem. Not every family can afford to buy the DVD and a teachers guide would be a more affordable solution for them.
My kids have really enjoyed using Saxon this year and we are planning on moving on to the next books in the Fall.