Choosing curriculum is hard. Every year, homeschool parents and other educators spend lots of precious time choosing which books and lessons will be most worthwhile for their students in the coming year. Sometimes, though, you just need straightforward answers about differences and similarities, right?
Especially as so many more people make the switch from traditional school to something different this year, I wanted to answer a great, very common question I get:
Nicole, What’s the Difference between the Saxon Homeschool line and the Saxon Intermediate line?
Thankfully, the answer is: very little, at least as far as video lessons are concerned. They both use the spiral method that Saxon is known for. They are both based on John Saxon’s theories on what makes for excellent math students. And for the vast majority of books and lessons, they are matched on concepts they teach and when. That means that Lesson 24 in, say, Saxon 8/7 will cover the same material as Lesson 24 in Saxon Intermediate Course 2.
What’s the Same:
The Intermediate line is the school-friendly version of the line that is commonly used by homeschoolers. Both lines start their lessons with Warm-Up/Power-Up problems: facts practice, problem solving, mental math and the like. They then move into the New Concept teaching and practice for the day. And both lines end with Mixed Practice/Written Practice to provide review for the day’s lessons and previous concepts. Both lines have Investigation lessons for every 10th lesson.
What’s Different:
The Intermediate books have been slightly modified to be more Common Core-friendly. You’ll find a few different questions that focus a bit more on word problems, problem-solving skills, and logic. It also has some different formatting to highlight concepts that traditional schools want to make sure are there.
The Bottom Line for Nicole the Math Lady users:
I’ve always wanted to serve all Saxon users, regardless of which text they choose. So whichever you choose to go with, I’ve got you covered. For many of the textbooks, the lessons you’d find from book to book would be the same. But since there are some differences, you choose your exact textbook and when needed, I’ve shot different lessons for those.
Choosing curriculum can be fun, but also overwhelming, and I don’t like my people to feel overwhelmed. As in everything I do, I hope this helps free up some of your time and energy for something besides math!