Have you looked into your child’s textbook (and/or their computer screen) while they are attempting to do math? If you can get your eyes to focus, your brain might be able to follow but the distractions are endless and the flow of information is anything but logical. In fact, it leaves me begging the question, “Why must we take the simplicity out of something so beautiful as a written mathematical equation and turn it into a cornucopia of chaos?”
Yes, a cornucopia of chaos. Where did the simple, concrete logic go? After all, isn’t that what math is? Simple ideas detailed out in black and white. No distractions, no hidden agendas. Just good old fashion time-tested logic; concrete logic that is black and white.
But now it seems that math is just a picture story filled with colors and distractions. At what point will we realize that all of this chaos is only confusing our children. I firmly believe that without all these distractions, the teacher is able to utilize different methods to achieve the final answer without distracting the children from their primary source of instruction, the teacher.
Since our family’s focus is on the children and the knowledge that they absorb during our instruction, we thought it imperative to look not only at the content of the book they will be using but the book’s format as well. It is for this reason that our family has chosen Saxon Math. As we researched math programs, we found that Saxon Math has a strong reputation for being easily understood and applied; both from the child’s perspective and the teacher’s perspective. It works in a logical and repetitious manner to ensure that a child learns the importance of the right answer, the final concrete answer that is.
We chose to purchase all of the books from the 1990’s prior to the sale of Saxon’s company to Harcourt Publishers in 2004 in order to ensure that John Saxon’s philosophies would be followed. One by one as the books began to arrive, I was not only pleased with their content; I was amazed by their colors – black and white. Now that is the beauty of math!