Anybody use CLE math? We're jumping ship with Saxon.

[marypoppins]

DH gave me the green light to ditch Saxon next year. Ds really does not like Saxon 3 right now, but we are going to finish out the year. Math used to be his favorite subject, but for whatever reason Saxon has turned him off big time. He used to get perfect papers, but now he's missing tons of problems. It's not that he doesn't understand it, but rather, it's all careless mistakes as he rushes to get done because he dislikes it so much. He took one look at the Saxon 54 textbook for next year and I almost thought he was going to cry He has been asking and asking to do something different next year, so after long talks with dh, he said okay....

This leads to my question. Do any of you have experience with CLE Math? I am wanting to stick with something that is spiral or incremental in nature, and this is pretty much the only thing I've come accross that has pretty decent reviews from what I've seen. I really do not want to jump into Abeka, and we did BJU in K (his favorite math year), but it was too much prep. for me. So if you use/d CLE what do you think? Is it fairly solid? How do your kids test (very important to dh)? What can you tell me?
TIA!

[6timeboymom]

We have always (And will continue) withe CLE math! we LOVE it! I like how it's very cost-conscious (i.e. cheap for the content!) it's easy to understand, it's written to the student after about the 100 level, and it's got plenty of practice and review built into the lessons. It's written for a small school setting, but I find there's not much of the classroom talk in the teacher's manuals. In fact, my kid who learns best with workbooks does CLE for all his subjects. (except he's asked today to do "Ben's new stuff" next year...that's 'Beyond' that I'm buying...so hopefully he will do ok with a different appraoch...but I digress! )
It's very Godly, but it's God centered versus "let's throw a verse on the page and call it Christian" like some other curriculums I've seen, kwim?

My 3rd grader (the workbook kid ) Is still working through the 200 level stuff, and he's grade-appropriate compared to his public school friends, and he's doing geometry, algebra, he's started multiplication, telling time, story problems, what else? you know, they offer a sample for free that you can order, or you can get just one of the workbooks and see if you like it before you buy the year's worth.

[marypoppins]

(Okay, I can't get my "quote" button to work, argh!)
But I know what you mean about other so called Christian curriculums. I'm so in love with how R&S is so godly in it's approach to teaching English, and I was hoping to find something similar for math without having to actually buy R&S math, Lol! Thanks for the good report on CLE. I am awaiting a placement test, but yeah, I guess I should have gone ahead and ordered an actual light unit to look over....they are cheap enough.

So there is an actual TM, and it's not all self-taught by the student? I am actually happy to hear that. Saxon 54 is all directed at the student which was one of *my* issues with it. I felt like I was going to be a bit out of the loop maybe a bit too soon... Do you feel like the TM gives *you* enough instruction?

Thanks much!

[kayrenee]

We're former Saxon users, too, and have been very happy with Singapore.

[6timeboymom]

there are teacher's manuals, and answer keys. The higher grades have both; the lower grades have just one TM with a copy of the student page with the answers in it. I think the manuals are great-they give me different ways to teach the concept that I may not have thought of, and that might help the child understand it better. It's pretty much right out of the box, too-as in, I can say, "let's start math!" and the books and TM are out and we are good to go. Nothing to prepare.
I don't have any experience with Singapore math or how it compares to CLE, but I do know we like CLE enough to stick with it no matter what.

The are in the process of rewriting all their curriculum; they haven't got all the higher grades done yet. So my 8th grader who's doing the 700 level math is actually doing a copy of alpha omega math. When CLE started creating curriculum they bought the "old" stuff from AOP and made it their own; now they have been rewriting it for several years. I think they are done up to high school though. The newer ones are called "sunrise" math.

[marypoppins]

Thanks, everyone! Your comments have been very helpful. I can't believe how excited and relieved *I* am to make the switch. It wasn't until dh gave the OK, that I realized how it really feels like a burden has been lifted off of *me* !

Kayrenee ~ Glad to hear you like Singapore. (For some reason I thought you used CLE...) I'm not sure exactly why, but the thought of jumping into Singapore at this stage is so intimidating to me.... I will be starting my K-er dd in Earlybird 2A/2B next year. So I guess I will get my feet wet using it with her. If it goes well, I may continue using that with her and keep ds in CLE for the sake of establishing some continuity for him...

[kayrenee]

Marypoppins, I gave my girls the diagnostic for CLE last summer but decided against it at that time. I'm still interested, though, and may end up switching them after the springtime. We've been working on filling in a lot of gaps this year, and my oldest especially is VERY happy with Singapore... but it doesn't go all the way through high school (or if it does, I won't be using that far), so I'm thinking about going with something that we can use long term. Definitely not Saxon, though!

My 9yo likes Singapore, too, but then, she also likes Saxon *and* CLE *and* everything else I've sampled with her. She just likes math, period. LOL.

[Tansy]

DHe used to get perfect papers, but now he's missing tons of problems. It's not that he doesn't understand it, but rather, it's all careless mistakes as he rushes to get done because he dislikes it so much.

I'm piping up for the boy here, why not give him fewer problems? tell him you understand he hates it and only give him a few problems of each. Let him know if he doesn't rush but answers correctly he can continue to half the work. I know My dd hates estimating and if I only give her 5 of the ten problems she is so happy she does them all correctly.

[blessedmomof4]

I'm piping up for the boy here, why not give him fewer problems? tell him you understand he hates it and only give him a few problems of each. Let him know if he doesn't rush but answers correctly he can continue to half the work. I know My dd hates estimating and if I only give her 5 of the ten problems she is so happy she does them all correctly.

Which is why my girls are happy I switched to Singapore-fewer problems

[kayrenee]

I'm piping up for the boy here, why not give him fewer problems? tell him you understand he hates it and only give him a few problems of each. Let him know if he doesn't rush but answers correctly he can continue to half the work. I know My dd hates estimating and if I only give her 5 of the ten problems she is so happy she does them all correctly.

Which is why my girls are happy I switched to Singapore-fewer problems

Ditto! My oldest used to cry every single day when it was time for math with Saxon... I even tried giving her fewer problems, but it was the WHOLE thing that she hated. It was just the style, I guess. Singapore is very visual and she's been able to catch on easily because of that, even though neither she nor I are strong in math. Whew! Why torture them with a time intensive program when they can show understanding from just a few visuals?

I'm not sure how visual CLE is.... I really can't remember from the diagnostic tests we did.