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So, if we've been using BA for 3-4th grades...


Gentlemommy
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And they don't finish the rest of the fourth grade ones in time...then what? 😬 I'm slowing our math lessons down and spreading them out by only doing BA four times per week, and using the fifth day for other stuff. However, I'm worried about continuing. So what should I be tentatively looking at? Just in case. I have NO desire to leave BA, it's been wonderful and we love it.

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Ds is in fifth, but he's using the BA 4th grade books. Basically we're doing a hodgepodge of random stuff to keep him moving: Middle School Math with Pizzazz worksheets, some Key to books, some chapters from the 6th grade NCERT Mathematics book, reading some Murderous Maths, doing some math projects, doing some really basic review math on the side... I actually just had a post about the mishmash of resources we're using on my blog. I'm glad BA4C is about to be out next week (or the following?) but I've already been making Beast go really slowly, so I had to stop relying on it.

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We have always used various curriculum/books from difference providers. Several books are on various levels. If we don't finish a book in one year we simply continue with it the next.

 

If we finish a book earlier we go on to the next.

 

If you love something stick with it, don't change for the sake of changing.

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And they don't finish the rest of the fourth grade ones in time...then what? 😬 I'm slowing our math lessons down and spreading them out by only doing BA four times per week, and using the fifth day for other stuff. However, I'm worried about continuing. So what should I be tentatively looking at? Just in case. I have NO desire to leave BA, it's been wonderful and we love it.

 

I wouldn't worry or change anything. IMO, the current cultural rush to do algebra and high school math earlier and earlier is detrimental to true learning. Much better to take one's time and really understand the upper-elementary and middle school topics that are so foundational to everything that follows. I have never cared whether my kids make it to calculus in high school or not, but I definitely care that they thoroughly master fractions, ratios, and proportional thinking.

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I wouldn't worry or change anything. IMO, the current cultural rush to do algebra and high school math earlier and earlier is detrimental to true learning. Much better to take one's time and really understand the upper-elementary and middle school topics that are so foundational to everything that follows. I have never cared whether my kids make it to calculus in high school or not, but I definitely care that they thoroughly master fractions, ratios, and proportional thinking.

 

But I think her point wasn't that she was trying to get ahead but was more that she will need something else for elementary math to finish those topics if the Beast books don't finish coming out quickly enough. So far, there have been fewer than a full year's books issued per year, meaning that most of us, despite slowing Beast down, are running out of Beast books and having to use something else.

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But I think her point wasn't that she was trying to get ahead but was more that she will need something else for elementary math to finish those topics if the Beast books don't finish coming out quickly enough. So far, there have been fewer than a full year's books issued per year, meaning that most of us, despite slowing Beast down, are running out of Beast books and having to use something else.

 

Yep, I'm not sure how many of the BA books will be published before DS finishes up SM 5 and is ready for AOPS Pre-Algebra. He did the BA 3 books in conjunction with the later part of SM 3 and 4A. I'll be ordering BA 4A-C as soon as he finishes up the last parts of SM 4A. I'm guessing he'll get to BA 4D and maybe a few of the BA 5 books but it really depends on their publication schedule.

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But I think her point wasn't that she was trying to get ahead but was more that she will need something else for elementary math to finish those topics if the Beast books don't finish coming out quickly enough. So far, there have been fewer than a full year's books issued per year, meaning that most of us, despite slowing Beast down, are running out of Beast books and having to use something else.

 

Oh, right! I forgot Beast Academy isn't all out yet. Since my kids are all past that stage, I haven't been following it that closely.

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FWIW, according to the BA facebook page, 4C will be available early Nov 2014, then they say "4D will likely be available early next spring. Books have been released on roughly a six-months-per-level schedule, but we are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to speed production of the books for grade 5 to around 4 months per level (in which case, grade 5 will be completed in the summer of 2016)."

Hmm, I didn't see this post with the revised timeline. Awesome, its looking like that will work well for us here.

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I saw the revised timeline, but they've said a couple of times that they'll be speeding up... and they haven't much. But they do seem to be hitting their targets a little better. I'm not really complaining though. They're making a really high quality product and it's actually pretty amazing that they can get it out in that time frame at all.

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I 💖 BA, I wish we could use it exclusively. With my youngest in first grade, it will be easier. I wonder what the second grade books will be like, though we'll be too late to use them. I wish, I wish, I wish. So for now, Math in Focus, zaccaro's challenge math and just an odd mish mash, pretty much Farrar style.

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Yes, when they first started it was supposed to be 4mo., which would get us a level per grade, which works pretty well if you started it when it came out. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do here, ds is still fairly young I'm not in a rush to do Algebra, even if it is year after next he is on a fairly early track and will have time to get deep enough into math for any field he wants and with his EF and memory issues time is likely our friend. We'll just see where we end up and when.

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