Saxon Math is a proven resource for homeschoolers. How come? Written by a homeschooling father, this series allows parents to work with students step-by-step to mastery of ever-greater concepts. Short lessons at the beginning of each lesson provide instruction in the day’s concept. Saxon’s primary strength is the way in which the concepts are presented; each day’s concept is a small expansion upon what has already been mastered by the student. The lessons, therefore, are usually easily comprehended by the student because they have been prepared for the next “baby” step upwards. This lightens the parental workload, too, as students catch on quickly to each new concept.
Another of Saxon’s strengths is its constant review of concepts previously mastered. Each lesson has practice problems on the day’s concept, then follows up with questions from previous lessons to keep mastery fresh and students prepared to move forward. Therefore, students do not complete a chapter on addition, then move to another section on clocks, then to measurement, etc. These kinds of math are interwoven together in both the lesson order and the review, an approach that allows students to retain the concepts extremely well.
One of the weaknesses of this program that parents report is that there is too much review, too many review questions to complete per lesson. Most parents remedy this by assigning only two-thirds of the problems to the student, using leftover problems for reinforcement of any concepts the student is troubled by in their independent work. It is also felt that Saxon allows students to do computational problems well, but some students may have difficulty transitioning to real-life problems.