Math 54: An Incremental Development (ISBN 1565770331)

"Some, some more"??:
My son is currently using this text in the fourth grade, and I was appalled when I flipped through his book the other day. Instead of seeing simple, common terminology such as "add" or "subtract", I saw "some, some more" and "larger, smaller, difference". What this book has done is take basic concepts that are familiar to nine-year-olds and convoluted them, apparently trying to make simple tasks even easier. With books like these, which fail to use standard terminology, it's no wonder that America's youth is struggling with math skills. Addition and subtraction are basic skills that all students must know, and this book is doing our bright kids a disservice.

Saxon IS best! :o):
We started homeschooling with Saxon. Strayed over the years, as there are so many different math programs out there for homeschoolers to try! But guess where we ended-up?! Yep, back with Saxon Math! It is absolutely wonderful! :o) I don't have experience with the newer 3rd editions, but the 2nd edition has suited us just fine! :o) We plan to stick with it now...no need to stray again! LOL! :o)

Saxon Books are Great!:
I have noticed a general theme here. The people who enjoy Saxon Math products seem to be highly educated themselves and tend to value a traditional mathematics education as the foundation for success in life, especially if they rely heavily upon mathematics in their professional lives. The people who don't like it seem to have arguments like, "it's boring" or "it's not fair." You can't put on a clown suit every day and make everything fun all the time. Like or not, there is much repetition and memorization of facts in order to do well in math. The only way to succeed in high school or college math is to get the facts down really well at the elementary level. It's that simple. Saxon Math is great at taking each concept, introducing it in depth, and then compounding on it throughout the book so it isn't forgotten. I assure you, there's no distortion of facts. This is not "fuzzy math!" I work with my daughter every day on the assignments. I don't give her the book to work alone; therefore, I am able to work quickly through it with her and skip problem sets that she has mastered well. For the person who thought five minutes is not enough time to do 100 problems, well, you are right. In the beginning, it is quite challenging for a child to do even 40 in five minutes. The beauty of it is that by doing it day after day, the repetition and memorization will make it easier. My daughter could only do 42 division problems in five minutes two months ago, but today she got 98 correct. It was a victory! These worksheets are meant to challenge the child, not to defeat them. Children who get frustrated by them just need to keep working through it. The frustration comes because they don't have their facts memorized yet! So teach them, and keep teaching them. If you make excuses for your child and say "it's too hard" or "it's not fair" then you are making them believe they cannot accomplish the task, and that's not fair! To keep things interesting or fun, play math games, do math crossword puzzles, play Suduko, paint your geometric shapes, bake something fun when learning measurements, do fun math programs on the computer, or count jelly beans and eat them! You can always supplement a good solid course like Saxon Math with these things and have a well-rounded program that teaches all of the fundamentals.

New to Saxon:
I am new to saxon as well as to homeschooling . I recently bought this book. I only give it four stars because I have not yet proven it with my children. The book appears to be very well done. The reviewer who complained about the use of words like "some and some more",and "larger,smaller ,and difference", did not look very closely at the book. Those terms are used in conjunction with word problems, which is completetely acceptable. Who ever did words problems where they expliciltly tell you add this or subtract that. So the book is actually teaching the concept that when you see word problems with phrases like,"some more" it's going to be an addition problem. The reason Americas youth are doing so poorly is not because of books like this, it's because not enough of them are using books like this.

An Easy Choice:
Our children used Saxon from 54 to 87, then moved on to advanced math, calculus and physics and they have excelled with this method. Although my background doesn't include an emphasis in math, my husband's education and professional life is steeped in mathematics. He's enthusiastic about Saxon because it creates a strong foundation in the subject. Admittedly, solving 30+ problems a lesson can be a challenge, however, this process increases one's speed and accuracy over time and as my daughter said, it helped her "to make peace with math." Math is like learning how to play a musical instrument; it takes practice and self-discipline, but it's well worth the effort. Understanding math, like being proficient at reading and writing, is one of those practical skills that make life so much easier. Using this incremental method of learning made homeschooling through high school a breeze and our college-age children sailed through their college math courses as well. In hindsight, it would be easy to choose it again