Runningmom80 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Ds is so over Singapore 1. I couldn't help myself and ordered beast 3a. He's doing the first chapter. (I didn't show it to him, the little rascal took it out of my bag.) I asked him what he was doing and he said "counting obtuse angles on an octagon." lol. So I think I'll just let him go until he gets to a point where there is a gap, and then we can go back and learn what he needs if he can't fill it in himself. He's really trying to multiply right now anyways. We just started 1b in Singapore. Any advice? Besides hide new curriculum. ;) Eta: I guess we would be skipping a grade and a half, but technically he's an early k'er, so it's more than one grade ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtney.byrum Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We didn't necessarily skip completely there but when DS was 5 in K he was doing Singapore 2b (first singapore he had done) and EPGY he got to 3rd grade level in about 2 weeks so it 'got' that he knew the K, 1, and 2 stuff pretty fast. He did skip to 3rd grade math when we started CAVA(k12) as a 1st grader and then moved through that fairly quickly since he was more than halfway through it before he was learning something new. End result is that as a 2nd grader he is about 2.5 years ahead on math (started 5th grade math in January) and I'd say he really slowed down during the 4th grade math. Not necessarily hard but more work so it took longer. Some kids just get math and they aren't really going to miss a whole lot that doesn't get repeated later with bigger numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 That's what I was thinking. He picks things up fast, and I think I was going too slow. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara H Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Don't worry about the grade levels on stuff, just do what works. It'll be obvious if you need to backtrack, but you may well not need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2smartones Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We skipped a lot at first, because I had no idea what I was doing or what a K'er was expected to know. After the first couple of years, we didn't need to skip whole grades for subjects anymore. We still skip sections of books from time to time, though. Just do what works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We jumped ahead quite a bit in most subjects until about 5th grade level or so, because I needed to find where DD needed to be, if that makes any sense. In the most extreme example, we jumped from kids' Greek materials, which were frustrating DD because they moved so slowly, to Athenaze, which is at minimum a high school level text and is often used for college courses-and she's loving it! I've occasionally had to supplement and fill in a gap here and there, but for the most part, it's worked for us, and when she's at the right level, she's less frustrated even though she's working harder and her pace is slower. If he's doing BA3 and enjoying it, I'd say your biggest problem might be him finishing BA3B before 3C is ready (I'm convinced that my DD is going to finish BA 3A and B this week-we got home from vacation yesterday, she took BA to bed with her, and has spent most of the day on it-however, for her, the content is mostly review, with the applications being the new stuff). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 (edited) . Edited January 12, 2016 by wapiti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We have moved more than one level ahead but we didn't exactly skip. Instead, we did 3 years worth of MUS in a little over a year. We'll probably finish the next level in a few months which will make it under a year and a half total. We watch the DVD, test if she's ready and move on. That way we're not missing any math facts but we can move to more challenging stuff. We are also doing Beast Academy. I just got the books in today and I'm sure dd will love them. Most of the math is stuff we've already covered but it is a more challenging approach to problem solving and I think it will stretch her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shann Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 Having SM 1b and 2a the only thing I would make sure to emphasize now would be mental math strategies, i.e make 10 when adding and subtracting, and make sure he understands place value including composing and decomposing 10. The other topics in the books such a money and time can always come later or be taught irl circumstances. Grouping for multiplication and division is also in those books though and taught at a higher level in BA 3b which assumes memorization of the multiplication table quickly. Actually now that I've listed it out lol, I would teach SM and BA concurrently rather than bag SM all together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 If he's doing BA3 and enjoying it, I'd say your biggest problem might be him finishing BA3B before 3C is ready (I'm convinced that my DD is going to finish BA 3A and B this week-we got home from vacation yesterday, she took BA to bed with her, and has spent most of the day on it-however, for her, the content is mostly review, with the applications being the new stuff). I think we'll be in the same boat here, too. My dd isn't as fond of math as yours but I'm pretty sure she'll like this and will want to move quickly. We're also doing MUS, LOF, & Singapore CWP so I'm hoping if we do a little of each every week we can stretch the Beast Academy out. I know she'll read the whole guide the first day but we'll stretch out the practice book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 20, 2012 Author Share Posted March 20, 2012 Thank you for all of the thoughtful replies! I think for the time being I'll just follow his lead. He's actually excited about this so we will feel it out for a couple of days. I think I'll be able to sneak in some Singapore here and there to get the mental math down. (although I'm starting to feel like I'm working against his own mental math strategies, but that's a topic for another post.) It completely slipped my mind that C & D aren't printed yet. I do have Miquon to fall back on, maybe we will just take some detours with that. Have I missed a thread about when they will be ready? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We accelerated and compressed rather than skipping. I was afraid of missing out a method that was important for the future. So when things were going very easily, I would reduce the exercises or (in extreme cases) do the text book only. Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 I didn't necessarily skip, but I did compact and pull out more interesting books to keep them engaged. I felt like they just need to practice getting numbers down on paper and I wanted at least some proof of understanding. My oldest especially intuitively got fractions and algebraic thinking. He can definite tend towards sloppy work habits though. My youngest is intuitive too, but she's not as interested in racing through or spending time on "extra" fun math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nov05mama Posted March 20, 2012 Share Posted March 20, 2012 We accelerated and compressed rather than skipping. I was afraid of missing out a method that was important for the future. So when things were going very easily, I would reduce the exercises or (in extreme cases) do the text book only. This :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 We accelerated and compressed rather than skipping. I was afraid of missing out a method that was important for the future. So when things were going very easily, I would reduce the exercises or (in extreme cases) do the text book only. Laura Maybe I'll do this with Singapore, and we'll take our time with beast. (well as slow as he will et me go. He read half the book this afternoon. Who knows how much stuck though.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Is he working through the Practice book as well as the Guide? There's a big difference in the difficulty level. The meat of Beast Academy is definitely in the Practice book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 But we did start very early and move extremely fast. If you're just starting now (or recently) and finding that he's already ahead of the curriculum you thought you'd use, I'd feel free to skip what he knows. There's nothing in arithmetic that isn't going to come back around a million different ways between now and algebra. The only thing I'd be careful of is that you don't entirely skip methods he's not familiar with - mental math in particular... and for Singapore math, the bar diagrams - but you don't have to do whole books to pick up those parts. Other than that, use the most challenging curricula you have available (and it sounds like you have that covered) and spend time on problem solving (Singapore's word problems are fabulous). If you still find that he's speeding through, at least you know he's speeding through a very thorough coverage of arithmetic! And when he can do all four operations on whole numbers, decimals, and fractions.... if he's not ready for Algebra yet, there's a ton of competition math you can use to fill the time and exercise those problem solving skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy2BeautifulGirls Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 We skipped a lot at first, because I had no idea what I was doing or what a K'er was expected to know. After the first couple of years, we didn't need to skip whole grades for subjects anymore. We still skip sections of books from time to time, though. Just do what works. :iagree: This is us... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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