Right. Her sons did the pubic school route, but both are at students at Stanford (one is entering in the fall).

I had a biochemical engineer tell me that BA makes no sense as far as Scope and Sequence. She said a lot of it is useless information. For example, the Perfect Square chapter is lame for making a short problem of simple multiplication into a complicated problem of multiplication plus addition. It's an unnecessary extra step. She then said that the next chapter of Distributive Properties is an odd choice for sequence. She doesn't think it's a good math program. I am not a math wiz by any means and am just along for the ride as my son does this stuff. What do you think about what she said?

Is it necessary for the kids to actually practice?

http://s3.amazonaws.com/mathnasium.com/upload/1/docs/TriMathlon_2014_Practice_Questions_Gr4.pdf

Yeah, I have noticed that it's very hard for him to switch gears. That goes for his sport (learning to change a body movement), and in his studies. Maybe I should be looking at ways to flex his mind in new and different ways as needed.

He is 8. We were using some worksheets his dad printed out from online. Mathnasium Practice 4th grade.

...and other times it's like he doesn't get a darn concept. I don't get it. He seems to be a math whiz. Then today we sat down to do some math, which he normally could do all day playing around with, and he wasn't understand even the most basic concepts. Like mental math rounding up or down to get quick answers. What gives? He was almost in tears when he was getting the wrong answers, and he is such a perfectionist I swear it causes his mind to get rigid with how to proceed.

I just found a program from Starline Press. I am having samples sent my way, but they are totally secular and grades 3-12.

Thanks, I will look into those. We homeschool with a very relaxed approach, so this will be challenging, but the boy loves his math. :)

Unfortunately, my son seems to dislike LoF. I have tried, but he finds it too silly. Still looking at Hands-On Equations. I am thinking more about contest math, and picked up a workbook from Amazon. This one, to start. http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Operations-Competitive-Mathematics-Students/dp/0615834647/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396490052&sr=1-5&keywords=competitive+mathematics

Thank you for the replies. I don't know that I am organized enough to put something together myself, and we absolutely cannot use the county library system here. We live in the country and can't get there often enough to avoid fines, plus their selection is pitiful. The school will purchase materials, however, and they have a decent school library.

Thank you. We have Primary Challenge Math, and I'd forgotten about it. I was also looking at Hands-On Equations. Yes, my kid breezed through TT3, and could have handled his brother's TT5, I'm pretty sure. I can't make excuses except to say we are very busy with 3 kids who need attention, and he enjoyed it, until he was bored. He did finish the entire book though and then told me he thinks he doesn't want to do THAT again for awhile. BA though? He can't get enough.

Does Math U See challenge children with good number sense?

He spends 20 weekday hours in the gym and he has awesome work ethic, but I have to find a way to streamline his schoolwork to fit it in between gym and his other activities.

Those are great suggestions. He loves math on the computer. Kahn Academy is OK for him, but he gets upset because he has to fill every mastery or practice box *immediately* or he melts down. So not so great for him.

Yeah, he tests into TT5 atm. I don't agree that it's behind, but it continually reviews easier concepts and he gets bored by that after awhile.

The Calculus Trap is am interesting article. So basically he is saying that, rather than accelerate through math programs, children should use their strong foundational math skills to challenge themselves through difficult problem solving. That makes sense and that is why we chose to go on to BA rather than TT4. How does one go about getting a learning style profile?

So I guess my question is, what do I do for math? He finished Teaching Textbooks 3, and was actually a bit bored with it. I think TT4 will be too easy for the most part. TT5 might be up his alley. His older brother did TT5 and it seemed to get much more complicated and might challenge my 8 year old. I have 3 kids I teach, and all of them have unique needs which require my attention. My 8 year old much prefers to do most of his work at his own pace and autonomously. So TT has worked for him, with supplementation for real challenge and with me working with him on challenge math. He is very visual and tends to skip details if not right in front of him, and he likes to jump fast toward an answer. This doesn't always lead to the right answer, but it often does and he's rewarded with feeling accomplished. An example of his number sense is when BA3a had skip counting and it showed groups of gumballs in 4s and 6s in a box, he quickly regrouped them in his head, moving one from each group of 6 to each group of 4, and counted by 5s to get the answer in a split second. I was behind him in getting the answer and while it seemed obvious that's what any normal thinking person would do after the fact, I didn't see it as quickly as he did.

Ah yes, the US history one is a bit different. It looks interesting, as well as the ones Lori D. listed above. That one and the ones she listed could work well together. I didn't expect you all to come up with such great resources, tbh. ;) Are Hakim's books at all interesting? I requested one to look at, but wondering which (program? Set of books?) would be better for real depth of learning, yet ease of product to show the charter school. We will not use the county library system here because it stinks, so all books to supplement a curriculum would either come from the school library or purchased by us. That is also a limiting factor.

Interesting. The reviews say they don't actually have any workbook pages or places to answer questions at all. Looking more into this though.

My just turned 8 year old, 2nd grade child seems to be gifted. He finished TT3 in 4 months, and he's breezing through Beast Academy 3, doing several pages per day without any prodding from me. He loves it! He has always been ahead, but we homeschool, so I have only his brothers with which to compare him. His older brother has fairly severe Dyslexia, and his younger brother is resistant to anything "schooly", but he is starting to read without much instruction. My 8 year old is also athletically gifted, and a level 6 team gymnast. He's blowing me away in BA. He is teaching me new ways of thinking and basically we are learning some concepts together. I have never thought the way he thinks, nor was I ever taught the way he is being taught. I am a little worried we will soon hit a wall, where the pupil surpasses the teacher, and I will be left unable to assist him. What do I do then? I am thankful that he seems to be at, or just above grade level for reading and writing. He has also had very little formal instruction with those areas, because we chose to concentrate on math and science. He is quickly catching on though, and passing up his older brother. Our goal for the rest of this year and next year is to concentrate on writing, while continuing on with math. We plan to use TT4, and possibly TT5, while using BA and maybe something else? I want him to have a very strong foundation.

I believe you about SOTW, as I have heard the same from other people who have used it. I don't know. Maybe we will get the audiobooks and listen while traveling, but not use it as a spine.

I found this: http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Americans-Elementary-Student/dp/0199767300/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z

The charter school uses a variety of sources to purchase materials, including Rainbow Resource. They do have Joy Hakim's books in their library, along with a teacher guide, to check out, so I requested it to look at... However, it says it's for grades 5-12. Would it be too complicated for my 3rd and 4th graders? The school could probably buy the test booklet. I think it looks easy enough, looking at it.

Strangely, that link did not work. :(