Today I was at Barnes and Noble and to my surprise they carried "Singapore Math Workbooks". However, as I was looking at the Singapore Workbooks I noticed that not all had the answer sheet. I'm terrible at Math and am concerned that without an answer sheet I will not be able to correct my childrens math. So now I'm wondering if Horizon or Saxon will be a better pick for me and my children. If anyone is using Singapore, Horizon, or Saxon I would love to hear the pros/cons. If you switched from either to another why? What do/did you like? What don't/didn't you like? Also math is a weak area for my children.
Horizons is pretty advanced and fast-paced. I'd use it (and Singapore) with someone who's strong in math. Saxon walks you through every single thing. It's probably your best bet.
^^^^^Thank You for your reply. I was/am leaning toward Saxon but some of the reviews on Saxon have me wondering. Wish their was a place close by that carries Saxon so I can have a look at the material. *Sigh*
Is there a Mardels near you. It is a Christian bookstore with a homeschool section and they have Saxon products. You can go to their website and find out if there is a store near you.
My best advice is to see if you can locate all of them and review them yourself side-by-side. I originally thought we would be going with Singapore for dd. But when I opened the book, I thought... ah, I can't teach this. There were several other books there from several companies- one had too many pictures and not enough work, another had expectations far too low. It was a bit frustrating at first.. I hadn't anticipated it being so difficult. There are lots of youtube vids as well, so it is possible to see Singapore in action, or math mammoth etc. Not that it helps you, but I finally settled on Spectrum. I have VERY specific opinions on how math should be taught, and ah... a fairly negative opinion of current trends. Spectrum teachees math the way I was taught- and it has always been one of my best subjects. No one ever mentions it as an option but it really has been one of my favorite curriculum choices for my kids.
I used Horizons for grades 1-3. It is more of a spiral approach which constanly touches back on previously learned material and then building upon it. It is not a strict mastery approach where you do all addition until you have mastered that but instead you do some addition and then the next lesson might be clocks. The worksheets include problems on a variety of topics that you have studied. Saxon is similar especially grades 4 and up. Saxon I find gives better examples and as a textbook gives more detailed instruction that dd can read and reference.
I so want to get my hands on all three. However, I'm finding it hard finding a book store (where I'm located) tailored to Home Schooling. That's why I was so surprised when I seen that Barnes and Noble carried Singapore but once I looked through the Singapore workbooks I knew immediately Singapore wasn't for me and my children. I really had high hopes for Singapore (because of all the great reviews I have read). When you speak of Spectrum. Are you talking about the Spectrum workbooks? The ones you can pay at Barnes and Noble? If so do they have textbook too? I have used a lot of Spectrum workbooks and was actually looking at Spectrum Math workbook when I was at the book store. Thank you for your reply and help.
Thanks for your reviews. I really need to get my hands on Saxon. Does Saxon come with a textbook and workbook?
Yes, I use those workbooks. As far as I know, no textbook to go with them. Which was a huge plus for me- I get to do the teaching, and the workbook is for practice. Because there are so many problems per page, I just do a few with the kids for demonstration purposes. With my kids, the examples as written aren't really enough to teach the concept. Then they have a certain amount to do per page. I do suppliment, btw- dd's money unit was completely separate from the workbook, and we did skip counting using a 100's chart. But for the basics (addition, subtraction, multipl, and division to the 3rd grade level) I love those books. As I said, I really struggled with math (if you look back over this forum, you'll see my rants about the current math teaching ). Adding- don't want to get ahead of myself here- we have only done through 2nd, so not done the multi/divi yet. But I like the looks of how they work that process.
If you're liking the idea of spiral, you may want to look at Christian Light Education's math. For the teacher/parent, the TM has a reduced-size student page with answers, and solutions and teaching tips including extra practice problems around the edges. For the student, it's pretty self-explanatory if they actually read the workbook pages. You can see samples at www.clp.org.
Saxon does not have a workbook for grades 4+. The problems are in the textbook and the kids need to do the work on a seperate sheet. They do have some worksheets but those are in addition to the text. You can check on line at CBD and I think they have a sample you can look at.
Ladies, thank you so much for all the advice. The information that has been provided is very helpful.
I would try to find samples of each, and compare them as best you can. We've used Horizons, Teaching Textbooks, and CLE. I would hands-down recommend Horizons as long as your child isn't easily distracted by the colors... it is great! TT - hated it. CLE - love it, love it, love it! But am trying a more mastery approach with my son this year. If the curriculum we chose for this year doesn't go well, we'll be going back to CLE.
Those workbooks are not the Singapore texts most homeschoolers use and aren't anywhere as good. If you're looking at Singapore then check out Primary Mathematics. That's a series that's actually been used in Singapore and what most of us use and love. If you're not confident teaching math you can buy the Home Instructors Guides (not the Teacher's Guides). Those will help you considerably and contain all the solutions. One thing I found with Singapore is that I started thinking I was bad at math (I never did get a grade 12 credit in it) but have ended up really enjoying math and learning a lot that I missed when I was in school. One more option you might consider that's cheaper then all the other ones and is really fantastic is Math Mammoth. It's teaches the deep understanding of math that Singapore does but is very affordable. And if you have any questions the author, homeschooling mom Maria Miller, is always willing to help.
I feel sofor thinking those Singapore workbooks are the same ones a lot of homeschoolers were speaking of. Thank you for giving me a heads up and for the recommendations. I will definitely looked into these. I'm learning about so many different math programs from those who have respond to my thread; I thank you all.
