Saxon 8/7

First the positives ~ While using Saxon 8/7, Marissa’s math score on a norm-referenced standardized test improved dramatically. Marissa displays an absolute weakness in psychometric tests designed to evaluate numerical reasoning. This is a common finding in children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). So, my thoughts on this program are more appropriate for parents educating a child with a weakness in mathematics.

In order to make the program as multi-sensory as possible, I purchased D.I.V.E Into Math CD. This was extremely helpful for Marissa. She liked the videos. She could stop the video to work sample problems, rewind and re-listen. I don’t think we would have been able to finish the year without this supplementary CD.

I have never viewed performing well on a test as the goal of learning so despite showing improvement; I have decided not to use Saxon Math in the future with this child.

One of the things that I truly found a nuisance was having geometry integrated into this program. Saxon math is a fully integrated course that combines geometry concepts into their algebra programs. Marissa has extreme impairment in the area of spatial analysis and visual problem solving. She will probably never understand geometry.

But my bigger concern was that while Marissa’s ability to do math computations improved, she had very little understanding of the math concepts that were presented. Since she memorized steps in an equation rather than understanding what she was doing, she had a lot of difficulty recalling how to perform a calculation if similar problems were presented even a week later.

Additionally, the amount of time that we had to dedicate to work the course was overwhelming. I tried to follow the course as instructed. I had Marissa do every problem. When we were keeping up with this pace, math alone was consuming on average 90 minutes a day and sometimes we had to carry the math into the next day. About halfway through the school year (and only 30% of the way through the text), I became exceedingly frustrated and felt as if I were quickly sinking. If it weren’t for my husband (AKA the principal of our school) reviewing the program and helping me to refocus on why we were home schooling in the first place, I am not sure what I would have done.

At his suggestion, I started assigning Marissa just the odd problems. I set the timer at 45 minutes and when the timer rang, math got put away. Very often, a lesson took more than one day to complete. If I found that she didn’t understand a concept, we repeated it the same lesson doing the even problems.

Where are we going from here? We are going to try doing Algebra. When she finishes “learning” the topics that are normally taught in Algebra I (solving for one unknown), we may switch to a consumer math program.

What are Marissa’s plans? She plans to become a famous opera star and hire a accountant to pay her bills, so she insists she doesn’t need to know that much about math anyway! But she is still cooperating and I am assuring her that we learn for the fun of learning and not because we will really need too!