jessie5 Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Hi, This year I'd like to give my 8yo son math that's right for him, not just standard for his grade / age. But I don't know how to find that. Suggestions? Here's our history: This is our 2nd year homeschooling. Our DS is very bright and has a good aptitude for math concepts, but hates drills and memorizing tables and has been completely bored by formal math training. It seems like all the math he saw at public school in 1st grade and that I found for him last year at home was about facts, and none of it was about thinking hard. But it's the thinking hard that is interesting to my son. Last year I went through a lot of different 2nd grade math curriculum pulling out ideas he hadn't seen yet. But most days I would just end up saying "Lets just get through this concept as fast as possible and you can get back to java programming". There were very few times (like maybe 2) when I actually gave him a concept that he had to think about. After trying a bunch of curriculum he didn't like, we ended up just going through the public school's 2nd grade math books in 3 months... It seems like such a shame, I think he could love math if it were just meaty concepts and then reasons for the memorization.Suggestions please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Have you tried beast academy? In general, I think you need to just accelerate. We love Singapore math's primary mathematics at our house. My DS 8 will be starting 4B this fall. If he was still doing second grade math he'd be miserable, and he's not even that accelerated compared to other kids on this board. If you have a "mathy" kid, I'd strongly encourage you to move ahead, at least a bit. Zaccaro challenge math and MEP are other resources that come to mind. I'm sure lots of other posters will chime in with other ideas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Beast Academy. Yes, it's a 3rd grade book, but it is exactly what you want-meaty, challenging topics with cool applications. Don't let the comic book format fool you. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I have one who's naturally good at math, thinks she's terrible, and alternates between saying math is fun and math is boring. Beast Academy went over like a box of rocks. We didn't make it halfway through 3A before she adamantly refused to ever do BA again. Horizons has worked fabulously from *my* viewpoint. Small sets of varied concepts. She's ahead a full grade and her skills are rock solid. She thinks it's awesome when she comes from something like BA, and rips through two lessons a day. Then we get in a comfortable routine and she says it's boring and math stinks. (Her siblings bounced from Horizons to AoPS; it served them well.) So I'm adding Math in Focus this year. It's Singapore/Asian math, less problems, and more thinking. If you fill out the form on the publishers website they'll let you view the the whole text and student workbook. DD/7 looked with me and approved. The 3A is in the mail. :p 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Beast Academy is the obvious answer. Separate from that, depending on where he's at in the ordinary sequence of topics, I might consider accelerating (by compaction) to harder concepts if he hasn't already advanced a little, using some other good program. I would definitely take this route if you don't use BA and I'd include more "thinking" resources such as Singapore's Intensive Practice supplemental workbook. A few years down the road, AoPS Prealgebra. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kateingr Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Yes, Beast Academy is definitely worth looking at. My son is the same way--he picks up math quickly and hates rote practice, and Beast has fit him like a glove. Here's a peek at one day of a Beast Academy lesson and my review, if you'd like more info. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deerforest Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Have another one who picked up math concepts quickly and hated rote practice. It was so bad here that we didn't bother with any real math curriculum until Beast came out. It revolutionized math for us. We outpaced it, I have to try to much harder again to get DD to love math again. Nothing else has been quite the same. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GThomas Posted September 4, 2015 Share Posted September 4, 2015 My s10 wasn't a big fan of Beast Academy although he will sit down and read the comics. Currently he is doing the self-guided Redbird Mathematics program with Stanford. He is "tolerating" this. He is good at math but he hates it! I've tried so many different things. On the side though, when it's not a curriculum but just for fun...here's what he LOVES: DragonBox game (teaches algebraic concepts using symbols and progresses eventually to numbers and variables) http://www.dragonboxapp.com Khan Academy Doodling with Math https://www.khanacademy.org/math/recreational-math/vi-hart he's watched every. single. one. of. these videos....at least once When he was 8, he read a ton of math storybooks. Here's the first in the series: http://www.amazon.com/Sir-Cumference-Dragon-Math-Adventure/dp/1570911649/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441375783&sr=1-7&keywords=math+adventures There are many more if you search on Amazon for "math adventures" Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessie5 Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 Thank you so much for all of the great ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessie5 Posted September 5, 2015 Author Share Posted September 5, 2015 In general, I think you need to just accelerate. We're going to try Beast and a few of the 'fun time' suggestions - thank you so much, great parents! I feel dumb asking this question, but how do you accelerate? Do you speed through the level he would have been at and then start the next, or just skip ahead? Thank you! ~ Grateful mom. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 We're going to try Beast and a few of the 'fun time' suggestions - thank you so much, great parents! I feel dumb asking this question, but how do you accelerate? Do you speed through the level he would have been at and then start the next, or just skip ahead? Thank you! ~ Grateful mom. There's lots of different ways, but I give him the chapter reviews and if he shows proficiency, we move on. You can just go faster and do less problems as well. (This is a very simplified explanation but if you search accelerating math on this board you'll find posts for days.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessie5 Posted September 7, 2015 Author Share Posted September 7, 2015 Thank you so much to everyone who has spent their precious time responding to this question! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsutsie Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Singapore math AND the Challenging Word Problem book. Rigorous, no nonsense and to the point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThoughtfulMama Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Have you ever looked that the Bedtime Math app or site? It's just one fun thought problem to work on a day. We like to do it at dinner with the family sometimes. Certainly it's not anything comprehensive, but it is fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black-eyed Suzan Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 No one has mentioned Life of Fred yet. My older loves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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