Saxon Math Grade 3 Review

When I started homeschooling, I stayed away from Saxon Math like the plague. The Saxon textbooks I had seen looked boring and difficult and reminded me of the math classes I had not enjoyed taking in high school. After several years of teaching and trying various other math curricula, I found myself and my students frustrated. Some of the math courses were too fast paced and didn't have enough review and repetition for certain students. Others didn't cover all that should be in a math class and even left some of my students not doing well with what was being taught. So against my prior aversion, I decided to give Saxon Math 3 a try for my third grade students.

Why I Think Saxon Math 3 is Great. Everything lacking in the other math curricula I had tried, was covered in Saxon Math Grade 3. The pace that Saxon set throughout the book was perfect,with plenty of review and repetition. All the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were well taught and continued throughout the book, allowing students to be able to master these skills. They also start to work with adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing a combination of multi-digit and single-digit numbers. Added to this, the students learn about fractions, angles, lines of symmetry, graphs, time, money, temperature, measurements, patterns and more. I finally felt like my students were getting a complete education in their math class and that no student was getting left behind.

The Meeting Book. Each math class starts out by using what is known as the Meeting Book. This is a wonderful tool that students use to practice counting, skip counting, time, temperature, patterns and more. I really felt that this booklet alone covered a lot that is not covered in non-traditional math classes and allowed students to master these skills in only a few minutes a day.

The Flash Cards. Saxon Math Grade 3 comes with a complete set of basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division flash cards. There are different colors for the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division cards and then those are separated into different colors by number. For example, the division cards for 5 are pink and the division cards for 8 are turquoise (colors may vary in the set you purchase). The colors make it easy to know which set you need when reviewing flash cards. Two sets of flash cards are usually reviewed each day.

The Manipulatives. The Saxon Math Grade 3 kit is available with manipulatives or you can purchase the manipulatives separately. The manipulatives are needed for the class and are very beneficial. They include items such as money (bills and coins), a clock, a wall thermometer, a scale, pattern blocks, a number board, ruler and more. My students really enjoyed using the manipulatives, especially doing the patterns in their Meeting Books with the pattern blocks. I thought the hands-on learning the manipulatives provided greatly added to what the students were learning.

The Student Textbooks. The student textbooks are consumable in Saxon Math Grade 3. This is great because I find that third grade students are not yet ready to write out math problems and answers on notebook paper. Math concepts are also taught using real-life situations whenever possible, helping students understand why they need to learn math and that math has practical, everyday uses.

My Recommendation. I highly recommend Saxon Math Grade 3. Even if you have not previously used Saxon Math, grade 3 is the perfect time to switch over. Everything my students were struggling with or missing out on with other math curricula, was completely covered in Saxon Math Grade 3. If your student(s) are not yet ready for third grade math, I would definitely recommend using the lower grades of Saxon Math. If I would have known how wonderful Saxon Math is, I would have started my students with it from the beginning.

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Saxon Math