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Are you trying to create a schedule? Predict your day? Would this be the primary math program? Main book and workbook? Is your child gifted in math in particular? Average? Struggles in some areas of math but breezes through others?

 

I think this is going to significantly depend on the child. Some can stay focused and think through math for long periods and some can't. Some can handle the frustration of not immediately having an answer and some need that kind of math in small doses, especially in the younger years. And even then they may be able to move quickly through some sections and need to slow down in others.

Edited by OneStepAtATime
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Are you using SM Intensive Practice or the Challenging Word Problems? The main spine of SM is generally too easy. Many people opt for the TB + IP + CWP. I actually use BA a level behind SM to go deeper. Unfortunately, I don't schedule BA, so I'm not sure. If we were to do it everyday, I don't think one book would last more than a month for us. This is why I use a lot of different math resources.

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We use BA as our primary curric, but that doesn't mean much in our pile of math. Typically, we have used Level 3 for 2 days/week, 30 minutes/day. Each book has taken us about 4 months at that amount of time, which averages out to 17 hours per book or 6 hours per chapter. That includes the distractibility of a kid who is anxious and likely ADHD.

 

It is a difficult book to schedule. There are typically a few pages of "easy" problems, followed by a handful of challenging problems that take more time. Then there are pages scattered throughout that have challenging, puzzley questions. The last few pages of a chapter are often a challenging mix of puzzles and word problems. Sometimes my kid can tear through 6-8 pages in 30 minutes and sometimes she can manage 2.

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My dd does both Singapore and Beast.  On the weeks she is working on Beast Academy, she usually spends around 20-40 minutes on math each day, four days a week.  (The shorter days are actually the ones with more pages/problems, while the longer days are the days with fewer questions, but she is working on days with more challenge questions.

 

She is working 1 year ahead, and completing both Singapore 3 and Beast 3 in just over a year, working 4 days per school week.

 

 

To schedule BA, I just noted at the bottoms of the pages where it said which practice pages went with which guide pages, wrote those out on an excel grid in order, and broke them up by roughly the amount I thought she'd manage well in one sitting by looking at the difficulty of the questions.  So we have a plan, but I constantly adjust as we go along.  I'll stop her sooner or keep her going further than planned based on how she is doing with the material, and then adjust my excel file accordingly.

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I found that I can't schedule beast. We do 30 minutes a day and I don't always make her do the puzzle questions because they drive her nuts and she's willing to work through the others and show mastery of the skills. Sometimes we blow through 5 or 6 pages in 30 minutes and sometimes 1 page, it depends on how difficult the concept is on that particular day. I note in my plans what page to start on the next day after the end of each math lesson.  

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I've found it utterly impossible to schedule BA.  

 

It's my DS#1's only math, and he works about 30 minutes at a time 0-5x per week (avg a little under 3x/wk), though sometimes he gets really into a hard problem and will go a bit longer.  The beginning pages are generally easier while the last few pages are more challenging, but I have not been particularly successful in predicting which concepts he'll grasp easily and which he'll have to mull over for a time.  For 3C-5C he's completed up to 6-7 pages in a half hour, finishing entire chapters in 2-3 hours.  OTOH, he's also spent 5+ hours -- two weeks! -- on a single page of like 3 or 4 problems.  As he's moved up through the levels, the time required to complete each chapter has, on average, increased.

 

My DS#2 does Beast as he's interested after school to supplement Saxon.  He has likewise moved at an inconsistent, unpredictable pace.

 

I find it easiest to just go with it.  I leave a space on our schedule for Beast, but I don't fill it out the week before like I try to do for all our other subjects.  I just write down what they complete as we go.

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Zaccaro Challenge Math books, Borac Competitive Math books, Hands On Equations by Borenson, Balance Benders from Critical Thinking Company, Fan Math Express Math Strategies (for mental math techniques)

Life of Fred as well...but strictly for fun.

These are in the queue for at some point in the next year or two:

Michael Serra's books (Pirate Math, Smart Moves, Patty Paper Geometry), Jacobs' Mathematics: A Human Endeavor and Descartes Cove

We also do a lot of logic over here.

Edited by calbear
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We use BA and Singapore as well. We tend to alternate days of them, though sometimes my oldest hits a wall in one of them and then we focus on the other a bit. For example, he was ok with decimals in Singapore but about the time the started converting from fractions to decimals, he just started making a lot of mistakes. So now we're going to take a month or so and work in BA solo to solidify his fractions, since he's in 4B in Singapore but only 3D in BA. Once he takes a break from Singapore, I'll have him try again and see if it goes better.

 

For us, scheduling BA ahead of time is impossible. Each day we do it, I decide how many pages he'll do. I have a pretty good grasp on what each problem will ask of him, in terms of both time and difficulty / frustration level, but what he does still varies greatly from day to day, and even so, I can't even "schedule" a full week at a time. lol. Some days, he just goes back and re-reads the guide for half an hour. Others, he gets two hard problems done with my help. Most days, he works through 2-4 pages in the practice book.

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They are different.

I'm not sure I can do a good job describing it. Beast is the traditional scope and sequence for each grade, but it goes deeper and in interesting directions. Borac is more like the harder problems you see in Math Kangaroo for example. Both aim to develop problem solving skills.

Borac is not a full curricula though and NOT cute or colorful. Black and white, plain vanilla. What is nice is that there are full solutions in the back like Beast has. Especially helpful when the adult needs a hint as to where to start!

 

 

Edited by calbear
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Borac is not a full curricula though and NOT cute or colorful. Black and white, plain vanilla. What is nice is that there are full solutions in the back like Beast has. Especially helpful when the adult needs a hint as to where to start!

Ok, I fully admit I am this adult.. I did not get the math education my kids are getting. But I am getting better  :laugh:

 

I agree that scheduling BA is difficult. I only use it afterschooling, but I absolutely cannot predict how long a section will take. Last week we skipped an entire chapter after 20 minutes. But for the most part, the emphasis on unusual problem solving means that it has more lasting power than a typical math book. 

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