Saxon Math

The only part of our curriculum that we do not get from Alpha Omega
is our math program, which we get from Saxon Math. I would have to say that the Saxon Math program is very intensive, and we don't follow along with it exactly. We tend to do more than one lesson in a day instead of one lesson per day 4-5 days per week.


Saxon Math, for our purposes tends to be a bit of an overkill. For a lot of families, it is excellent however. It ensures that children that may struggle with math a bit will get a more comprehensive hands-on grasp of the concepts. Math is not a struggle for our family so the girls tend to be more bored with some of the activities. We will probably switch over to the Alpha Omega
math curriculum next year because we enjoy the format more. It is more student/self-directed than teacher/parent driven.

As a last note on Saxon Math, you are going to need to buy a variety of manipulatives for the curriculum. I found some at Walmart and some at the local homeschool supply store. Things like practice clocks and blocks that snap together. I already had an abacus for the girls to demonstrate place value and addition/subtraction. Crayons and pencils will be needed and I bought a pad of the lined practice paper for the girls as well. Once you have all of the manipulatives though, you will be able to reuse most of them for the different grade levels.

Intermission - or Winging It

It took a bit of trying to wing-it with the curriculum before I admitted to my confusion. I decided then that I needed to find an all-in-one boxed type of curriculum to guide me. I spent a good two months reading review sites and catalogs, calling companies and drilling poor operators, haunting the local homeschool stores and questioning family members before I narrowed it down to 2 companies: Alpha Omega
Publications and A Beka. I really liked how much A Beka offered, but thought about my kids and our lifestyle and chose the LIFEPAC
curriculum from Alpha Omega. I did this because the girls wouldn't have to lug around a bunch of books, their workbooks and textbooks would be combined into one and then broken up into easy to handle and carry booklets.

I wish, for my kids' circumstances that I had chosen a higher grade level for some subjects, but also that I had gone with the Switched-On Schoolhouse R²
computer based program for my older daughter. Next year if we continue to homeschool I will be going with the Switched-On Schoolhouse R²
program for her (she will be in the 4th grade). I think it will keep her more drawn to her studies.

So far, I have not regretted my choice of going with Alpha Omega Publications and I plan on continuing to use their products. I love that it is all inclusive, simple enough for the girls to understand but also challenging enough to keep them occupied. I heartily recommend this company as a wonderful beginning curriculum for any homeschooling family.