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Elena
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| Posted: May 03 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged
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I have an 8th grade boy doing Saxon 7/6. He struggles with it every day and I spend an hour or more every day going over the problems he missed with him and how to do them. The next day he will make the same mistakes again on the next lesson. His little brother is catching up to him and he is feeling humiliated.
I think it would be better to have him in a different program from his little brother and I think I have to go to something besides Saxon. Any suggestions for a kid like this?
Any and all help would be very appreciated.
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Elena
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Erin
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Elena
 I soo relate. for years my oldest struggled, tears, feelings of failure etc.
When he was in Grade 7 we switched to Mathematics.com.au an Australian online program. From what I understand perhaps similar to American's Teaching Textbook? Anyhow the brilliance is the lesson is explained well, audibly, then he is guided through step by step. I now have a boy who has done a 180 turn in his confidence and ability.
What sort of learner is your son? Being an audio learner in many areas I believe is part of why this approach worked with my Dominic.
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AtHomeScience
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My oldest is in 5th grade so my suggestions are not from experience but from what I have seen and heard from others. 
Homeschool Buyers' Co-op has a number of various types of computer or Internet-based programs that he might find interesting. One of them is Destination Math, which is specifically designed to be a companion to Saxon Math. You could look at the free videos from Khan Academy to help you now and to see if he does well with video learning.
Jacobs Math is another program that I've seen recommended on the Living Math site. It is available through Rainbow Resource or Adoremus Books. People really like the more conversational tone and how well concepts are explained.
We use MEP (scroll down to see Years 7, 8, and 9.) This is available for free from this web site. Its approach is very different from the typical US approach so it takes a little to get used to. It teaches through doing the math, rather than explaining concepts and then doing a bunch of similar problems.
You may hear about Life of Fred. We tried it for fractions and for us it was just O.K. The story made it fun but the approach is not novel, and it was too narrow to be a comprehensive program. The upper levels reference drug use (by the bad guys) that you may not care to have in your math program.
I hope you get other suggestions as well; pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and attend any conferences and used curriculum sales you can to see what it there.
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Maddie
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My now 19yo had the same problem with Saxon 76. I did three things:
1. We were close to a great college, Patrick Henry, at the time and I hired a male tutor for him. Great young man, excellent role model, we met at the college library for an hour a week.
2. I bought the Teaching Tape Technology videos which is an instructor taught program that goes through each and every lesson with all kinds of extra help/tips. Amazing, way better then DIVE. I have almost all of their videos, my kids used them through Algebra and all got A's got high school. You can watch samples on their website.
3. I also use Seton, you can't bet their counselors who are so patient and will take the time to walk through problems over the phone with them, God bless them.
My dh put his foot down and said no more jumping from book to book, curriculum to curriculum, so we are stuck with Saxon and now I am glad we did, they have all done well.
That's what we did anyway, good luck!
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Kristie 4
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Math U See!
My math struggler is doing great in Algebra now after going through Math U See. The instruction in the TM is great (and on DVD) and it is very sequential. The new set up is even better- you do as many pages on the week's lesson as you need and then you do the review pages, again just doing as many as your son needs. If you lived closer I could lend you the Pre Algebra as I am not using it (I could send it to you as well- I am in Canada) as we went straight from Zeta into the Jacob's Algebra text.
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Kristie 4
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My dd did MUS on her own with the DVDs and liked that you could pause and rewind them if she missed something. I also like MUS as you only 'teach' one day of the week and are just there for problems the rest of the week. We will prob. be going with them for Geo. and ALg.2 with my not so math son....
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ALmom
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Elena:
Do you see patterns in the type of things he is missing? Often there is a pattern which will show a concept that just isn't connected - or one little detail that is repeatedly missed. If your child is a big picture learner, you will have to give him the big picture first, otherwise this type child will never be able to retain Saxon - they won't see the whole from all the steps - you have to give the whole first so the steps make some sense. Seton truncates everything into the tiniest steps. I had a son who really struggled with Saxon because of that - and he is my big picture learner. I found that introducing overall concepts with hands-on or short examples that make a connection to what you might use this truncated skill for in the future were a big saver. I didn't jump texts but I could generally find another text somewhere that explained the concept in few words, but with the whole picture rather than just the parts. Ie - give a summary of the whole point and let them know how this lesson in Saxon fits into that whole picture before you do step by step.
Hope this helps.
Janet
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Elena
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| Posted: May 06 2010 at 2:59pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for all of your help and suggestions. I'm going to look at everything with him and try to figure out what to do for this kid over the summer and next fall. Thanks so much! 
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Elena
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Help for an 8th grade boy struggling
