Math Eighty-Seven by Hake (1991, Hardcover)

Saxon Math is irreplacable. It speaks directly to the student in language they can understand. The repetition of the lessons concretely gives your child a solid foundation on which to build the next level of mathematics. Children are more confident about their skills and are less anxious about new challenges. Saxon will always be my choice from 5/4 through Algebra 2. It can be helpful to remember to try to choose the older editions of the textbook. The newer ones are more classroom driven and can have too much irrelevent information.

This is a good math book, but I disagree with the author. He states that this is just a math book, free of distractions and photos and real-life problems. He feels it's better to leave these out and "just have math".

It's true that in this book, there is only math....... but photos & real-life problems are helpful and encouraging to students and why they are in the public school books. Students tend to work better with colorful pages. My daughter hates this book because there are no pictures and colorful pages. She finds it so boring and can't stand to open it although she does very well with math. She is good at math. I checked out a book at the library that was colorful and she is now happier and doing even better. You have to find out what kind of student you have in order to help them. You want to make homeschooling fun and not a "drudge".

Also, Saxon Math books don't seem to be thorough and they don't seem to build with each lesson. The public school books are at a higher level, so you may need to see what your student should be learning in their grade level and then see if all the concepts they need to learn are actually in the book that states the grade level. You may need a higher level.

I have homeschooled my children for 7 years, and have probably used most brands of curriculum.
I stumbled upon the Saxon and decided to give it a try - it works perfect for us
each concept is repeated over and over again throughour the daily lessons.
This is great especially for my son who seems to forget what he learned just last week.
We start each day with the mental math, together we go over the new concept and
do the practice problems, afterwords, they are free to do the lesson problems.
If they forget a concept previously taught there is ref. to the unit alongside the problem.
Saxon is a wonderful investment for our family and worth a try for yours.

Normally this book costs about 40-60 dollars new. So, what a blessing to find this math book for my son who is homeschooling at such a reasonable price! My son loves the book. He says it is easy to understand and the work required each day is not overwhelming. Saxon Math makes learning fun.

I have been using Saxon Math to homeschool my daughters for the past four years. I love the simple way each lesson is explained with examples and then practice. There is also review of past concepts throughout. I couldn't homeschool without Saxon Math!