Switching from Math Mammoth to Beast Academy?

[Wabi Sabi]

Has anyone finished with MM 2B and gone straight into Beast Academy 3A? If so, how was the transition? If your child did well in MM were they prepared for Beast Academy? Do the scope and sequence of the programs align fairly well without too much overlap?

 

I'm on the fence whether to stick with MM for my oldest child next year or to switch to Beast Academy. I'm very happy with MM and it certainly gets the job done. Ds isn't a mathy kid, but he's still getting a very good, solid foundation with MM. However, dare I say it's maybe a tad bit boring? I think that Beast Academy just looks more interesting and would really appeal to him. I would love for him to actually enjoy math rather than view it as necessary drudgery. On the other hand, I hate to spend the money on a new math program when I already have a curriculum that goes all the way through elementary school and it's working just fine.

 

Thoughts?

[Elfknitter.#]

Well, it's what we're currently doing, somewhat. We started with both in January (start of our new school year) and I'm about to focus solely on BA. We're finishing up chapter 1 review of 3a and after looking at both, I'm only adding in MM chapters on place value, time and money. The rest will be BA. Dd responds well to BA and I feel like she's getting more of a challenge. I figure if she's not understanding a concept or needs more drill, then we can utilize MM.

[mom2bee]

I would discourage changing. A tad bit of boredom is nothing to sweat about, not everything is going to bring grins and giggles to a childs face---and thats okay, really!!!

 

While BA may look more interesting, the material may be presented in a way that doesn't work for you or your son. Since MM is working and working well, I wouldn't switch myself. If you are still on the fence about it, I would probably try BA over the summer see if he takes to it and its something you can work with. If so, then maybe see about doing it full time, but it is meant to teach kids who are passionate about math and thrill in a certain level of challenge, simply because its math.

 

I don't own the program, so hopefully some moms using BA can chime in with a different view.

[Elfknitter.#]

Generally, I'd also suggest not switching, but BA is a very well done program that is more than just a comic book with some math problems.

[crazyforlatin]

I think Beast is for both types of kids - those who love math and those who need to be inspired to see math in a different way. There are other books that help with the latter, and Beast is one of them.

 

As for scope and sequence for 3rd grade, no, I don't remember, but I do recall some concepts from MM 4 and 5 in BA 3.

 

 

[Heather R]

We basically did this. It has gone well, but what I didn't think through was what I would do for 4th grade, since BA4 won't be released (completely) in time for us to use it in 4th grade. So, we are facing going back to MM. *sigh* Preparation-wise, DD did fine, though she is quite "mathy" and was a little bored by MM2 A&B...We did the multiplication chapter of MM3A along with the Beast multiplication chapter as she needed a little more repetition to get the facts memorized.

[Elfknitter.#]

I've wondered this as well (re:4th grade). I'm hoping 4a will be released in time for us (mostly because dd is slow in math progression) but in case it's not, I'm considering possibly going with MEP for gr. 4. We tried some MEP last year and if I had not found MM first, we'd probably be an MEP family.

[Forgiven]

We're finishing up MM2B right now with my DS8, and have already purchased BA3A. He loves to look through it, but we aren't doing it yet. I plan on starting BA3A this summer and then moving him right along, but he will still be doing MM for the 3rd grade math. I love MM, I just thought I'd try BA during the summer and maybe use it to supplement if he needs a little fun next year. If BA had all its grade levels ready for purchase, I would just switch him to BA and go from there and not do MM anymore, but since they don't, I'm not going to drop MM. I'm hoping that my DS6 will be able to do all the BA levels. Well, he won't be able to do BA2, as that will the be the last one published, but I think he'll be able to do BA3, 4, and 5. Is there going to be a BA6? I can't remember...

 

Anyway, we're in the same boat. I actually showed our BA3A book to a friend of mine with a DC in 3rd grade and her daughter, who cries every day when she does math, picked it up and started reading. She wouldn't put it down! I felt bad for having to take it back, so instead let them keep it until the summer. Her daughter--who HATES math--was glued to BA3A.

[fourisenough]

Well, we do both and I wouldn't have it any other way. My daughter is mathy, and BA was still a challenge for her (especially the shapes chapter). I believe we did all of MM 3A & 3B before doing BA 3A & 3B. We have nearly finished MM 4A and will probably switch over to BA to complete 3C & 3D (when they arrive in the mail this week!) before going on with MM 4B. She is over-learning some concepts and is just solidly learning some others. I don't mind. She doesn't push back because it is just so much fun. Although some people use BA as their only curriculum, I think it works beautifully as a supplement to a more traditional series. I like the previous poster's suggestion to use BA over the summer to see how your child reacts. It doesn't necessarily have to be a curriculum switch, but rather an addition of another fun resource to round-out the learning.