I know I have been a huge Teaching Textbooks fan, but come to find out, I am be the only one in my homeschool who is! lol! I like it because I am not strong in math, and although I can do long division and basic "retail math" from my days in retail management, teaching it is another story. My 5th grade dd is bored with it. We are in lesson 70 something and she keeps complaining she is not learning anything new. I agree that is is lacking in some areas, but it works with our lifestyle of chaotic homeschooling with a tot and at home businesses. I have been considering Saxon and using the DIVE DVD's. I am looking for feedback, please. If you have used both, comparisons would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
We are doing well using Saxon with the Saxon Teacher CD's for my 5th grader. I think it's more expensive but it has the exact same problems as the book and has all the problems including test problems whereas the DIVE shows different problems. I think that's the only difference. It's been great because I do the warm up with him, then he just pops in the CD (no installation) and it teaches step by step how to do it. I can leave him alone to get the new concept down and do the practice and mixed review. If he gets stuck on a review problem he can just go to that number on the CD and it'll show him how to do it. He rarely has to ask me for help. I wouldn't say this is anymore interesting then TT. The video is just a the teacher you never see reading the textbook and showing the examples from the book on the whiteboard. Also, a great website is khanacademy.org. It has some great math videos that explains really well how to do math step by step.
A Comparison of Saxon Math Supplementals Here is a comparison of the four products that support Saxon math books that I found on the web by a former Saxon math teacher named Art Reed: Basically, here are the differences as he described them: DIVE CD's: The product covers John Saxon’s math books from Math 54 through Calculus. Each level textbook has a single CD containing instruction corresponding to each individual lesson in that textbook. The presentation is a whiteboard presentation which means there is no teacher to watch at the board. The student hears the teacher’s voice in the background and watches writing appear on the screen. The CD will not work in a television DVD player because it is not a true video disc, but rather a graphic presentation with audio. This restricts the CD to being played only on a computer. Each individual CD costs $50.00 plus shipping. SAXON TEACHER CD’s: The product covers John Saxon’s math books from Math 54 through Advanced Mathematics. Similar to the DIVE CD, the Saxon Teacher is a graphic whiteboard presentation which means there is no teacher to watch presenting the material. The student hears the teacher’s voice in the background as the writing appears on the board. The teacher in each of the individual series of CD’s goes over every problem in the textbook and the individual problems on the tests as well, which is why there are four or more CD’s to this product as opposed to the single CD sold by DIVE. These CD graphic “audio” solutions cost about $95.00 (including shipping and handling), while the printed solutions manual sells for about $25.00. These CD’s are not “videos” and they can only be used on a computer. They cannot be viewed on a television set using a standard DVD player. TEACHING TAPES: The product is a DVD “video” set of lessons which means they can be used on either a television or computer DVD player. The entire series covers Math 54 through Calculus. As advertised by the company, the individual lessons are taught by a state certified math teacher. The individual series for a particular math book in the upper level math series sell for anywhere from $175 for the Math 54 series to $245 for the Calculus series. Each DVD series for a specific textbook contains from twelve to fifteen individual discs. Like the Saxon Teacher CD series, the teacher on these videos goes over every assigned and practice problem in the book, which explains why there are so many DVD’s in each individual series. Unlike the Saxon Teacher CD’s, these are DVD “video” presentations which show the teacher lecturing and presenting the solutions to the problems. MASTERING ALGEBRA “John Saxon’s Way: This product is also a DVD video presentation which means the DVD’s will work on both a computer as well as a television DVD player. This capability would enable a group of homeschool students (or a Co-Op) to watch together, on a single television set, as they would in a regular math classroom. The concepts of every lesson are taught by an experienced Saxon math teacher with over twelve years teaching experience using Saxon Math books in a rural public classroom. The students see an experienced Saxon math teacher at the board teaching the concepts contained in that lesson. There are ten to twelve DVD’s in each of the series which run from Algebra ½ through Calculus. The Algebra ½, Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 series have already been completed. The Geometry series is due for release in mid-September, the Trigonometry and Pre-calculus series is scheduled for release in early 2010 and the Calculus by the start of the 2010 school year next fall. Each individual series from Algebra ½ through Calculus sells for $49.95 (including postage within the USA). Hope this helps clarify the issue. jcRogers
