I am having another math crisis with N. I bought Jacob's Algebra for him for 9th grade. I went with Jacob's for two reasons. The first reason is that I wanted him to take the two classes he would be taking in 9th grade at the same place. As opposed to this year, where he takes speech at one place and math at another. It ruins two days for us. OK, not ruins, but slows momentum down significantly. The second reason was that I read all these reviews that basically said, "If your child has trouble understanding Saxon, he'll do great with Jacob's." I was sold.
Turns out the debate class that he wanted to take is not going to be offered. And eventually, he'll have to move to Saxon anyway, since Jacob's only has Elementary Algebra and Geometry, no Algebra 2.
The last two math tests that he's done using Saxon in a once a week class, have been 90 and 85 percent. First time. No corrections. I think that shows that the class situation is working out for him.
The place he takes math at is opening a new campus that will be a bit closer to home. I'm seriously considering changing his math for next year back to Saxon and sticking with the once a week program we are currently in.
I borrowed a Saxon Algbera text and thought I'd sit down today and compare the two books. Only thing is, I don't have a clue what I'm looking for or at. What to do? Google it, of course.
I found this site with a list of what to look for in a math text.
Also this site which appears to be very in depth.
As a total non-math person, I got lost on page two of the second link
And according to the 10 criteria on Dr. Callahan's site, the texts are pretty much the same. There are two differences between these two texts.
- Saxon uses a spiral approach and Jacob's uses more of a mastery approach.
- Jacob's also has some (real, not "math") cartoons that are relevant to the chapter. It's cute. Will they distract him in class? Does the teacher use them?
Some review sites that I frequent are:
The Old Schoolhouse Reviews
Homeschool Reviews
Discussions on The Well Trained Mind forums
1 comments:
HOW TO HELP STUDENT’S MASTER ALGEBRA
John Saxon's math books remain the best math curriculum for mastery of the basics of mathematics on the market today.
That holds true only if you are using the correct editions, and using the textbooks as John intended them to be used.
I have taught using John Saxon's math books from algebra 1/2 through calculus for more than a decade in a rural public high school, and I can assure you that continually switching math curriculum creates holes in the student's math basics.
Student's fail algebra because they never mastered fractions, percents and decimals. They fail calculus because they never mastered the concepts of algebra.
If you or your readers now use John Saxon's math books, or if planning on using them in the future, please take a moment and visit my website at www.usingsaxon.com before you purchase any Saxon math books.
Thanks.
Art Reed
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