Math before BA?

[eternalsummer]

So my son is almost 6; he did the first half of Saxon 1 but it was boring and too much repetitiveness for his needs.  We tried LoF, which was great for my 3rd grade daughter, but it just takes forever to get to the point so is not good for him (he doesn't have a lot of tolerance for beating-around-the-bush).    He loves the format of DD's BA books but he's got a big gap between 1st grade math and advanced 3rd grade math that I need to fill.

 

Recently I've just been teaching the concepts myself- he's the kind of kid that doesn't really need them explained much, or demonstrated with manipulatives or anything, and it's not like clocks or fractions are hard to explain anyway.

 

But is there some math program I'm missing, that is mostly directed to the student (he's reading mostly on-level, so he couldn't read Fred by himself), that will bridge him over for the next year or two?  Something with relatively little repetition (not needed, mostly), no fru-fru, not much text?  Online is okay; cost is mostly irrelevant.  

[La Texican]

I followed the recommendation to use the Singapore textbook and every other problem from the Singaporre IP, and all the word problems and challenge problems from the Singapore IP. It's going well.

[zaichiki]

Ds8 used (and continues to use) Singapore Math.  He completed up through Primary Math 2B before beginning Beast Academy 3A.  He loves BA and is absolutely ready for the material, including the starred problems.  He takes it on like a champ.  I don't know if this is all due to Singapore Math's preparation, but I'm thinking most of it is. (He has always liked numbers and he's always been more happy to do math than his siblings were, so part of it could be personal preference.)  HIs older sister, currently using Singapore Math 6A and Zaccaro's Real World Algebra, enjoys looking over his shoulder when we take out the Beast.  She has asked me several times to photocopy some of his pages from the practice book so she could do the problems, too.  :)  We absolutely LOVE Beast Academy!

 

[sunnyday]

My 5yo is using Fred and Singapore. Since she's still months away from her kindergarten year, I'm playing it very gentle and chill with no real problem-solving supplements yet. We do a little bit of the textbook and workbook when she demands it. Since I'm starting to get the hang of Singapore, I'm occasionally guiding her to think about things that way, and as a result we're doing a bit of skipping around in the workbook. The stinker did all of LoF Apples and some of Butterflies, including Your Turn to Play, in the past two days though. We might have more Singapore skipping to do the next time we hit it.

 

My 7yo used Singapore up to 1B before starting Beast. He's still technically in 2A but I may or may not switch him to Beast as his spine plus occasional supplements (Singapore IP, competition math) by the time he's done with 2A.

[SeaConquest]

Another vote for Singapore. I've never seen Saxon, but we switched from Math Mammoth and are very happy with it. We plan to transition to Beast in a year.

[SoCal_Bear]

Singapore Math over here as well. I do TB & WB. Then I do CWP a section or two behind where we are at in the TB & WB. Then I use IP one book behind for review of past concepts. I am pretty happy with where we are at. I do have BA 3A & 3B sitting on the shelf waiting.

Life of Fred is around just for fun though I can't imagine just using that as a spine for math. 

 

I do have Zaccaro's Primary Challenge and Borac workbooks which I will start at some point to introduce more challenge. Perhaps in the fall...not sure yet. My son has surprised me by getting the More Challenging Problems from the SM IP books which I thought were pretty challenging for the grade level. 

 

I think have a serious problem with acquiring math curricula because I also went and bought Hands On Equations as well.

 

 

[pollyanna]

We did through SM level 3 before I came across BA. We've continued on in SM through 5B with spurts of BA starting with 3A. My 7yo doesn't mind doing both.

[slackermom]

At that age, my dd enjoyed Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math, Khan Academy, and logic puzzles involving math.  She also started going to a math circle that year, and really liked that as well.  She is another kid who doesn't need much in the way of explanations for math concepts, and hates repetition, but she loves exploring a wide variety of math topics. We did Beast the following year, when the 3rd grade books came out, and she loved them, but unfortunately outpaced the publishing schedule. We started working our way through Jacobs' Mathematics: a Human Endeavor, at that point. So, I guess there wasn't really a specific program we could stick with for elementary math; we just had to keep feeding the math appetite.

 

 

[deerforest]

I'll go against the grain. DD hated Singapore so we never used it until 5A recently. We dabbled in Right Start but we mostly did living math for about 8 months until BA came out. DD was strong at conceptual math but hated operational math practice and was starting to hate math. When BA came out, we switched to it and it was like they finally created math curriculum for her. I intentionally have taken it slowly mixing with tons of living math trying not to outpace it, but we do and she tolerates Singapore now.

 

If I were to do it again, I actually think I would still do the same thing for my girl, but perhaps add Miquon before BA.

[eternalsummer]

Hmm.

 

So from what I can tell, Singapore and Minquon both use manipulatives - can you do the programs without them?  DS is generally just frustrated by concrete examples/manipulatives, or by having to draw out 4 apples and then draw 3 pears before he can just add them together.  He's fine with word problems, but transitions quickly between the word problem and the abstract concept, and is not interested in what comes between.

 

Plus I'm afraid my 1 year old would eat the manipulatives.

 

Khan academy looks really cool :)

 

Maybe I will just find the standards for 1st-3rd and teach them myself bit by bit, supplementing with online games or the zaccaro's stuff.

[Tanikit]

My DD6 (she is in first grade here but would have missed the cut offs in America and would be in Kindergarten now) is doing Singapore 2B now with LOF (Farming now) - we only pull out the manipulatives if she needs them. Manipulatives though do not have to be blocks or cuisenaire rods - whatever will mean something to your child and teach the concept is fine though using something else can take effort and some of the ready made ones are just so suitable.

 

You could also try some MEP - I had to print out and then cut out all the problems to do with this my DD which is a lot of work as she really just needed the challenge problems - it was quite a waste of paper so we stopped. I think though that they have a section where you can print out ONLY the challenging problems and try those.

[eternalsummer]

Cool, that sounds good.

[Grover]

Miquon is our choice here.  You can use the manipulatives when you need them ad nt when you don't.  You can also miss sections if he has them sussed - they're clearly labelled. 

[Julie of KY]

I use a combo of Singapore and Miquon for the early grades. My youngest is starting 2A so isn't far from starting Beast as well. My daughter and I have loved Beast.

[CardinalAlt]

A little CSMP, then Miquon (first 4 books) and Zaccaro, just starting to add in a little BA.

[Crimson Wife]

Singapore you don't really need to use manipulatives for if the child does okay starting with the pictorial representations in the book. There aren't too many drawing exercises except in the graphing chapters. Bar graphing is an important skill in itself, especially when it comes to science.

[Chrysalis Academy]

My 2nd grader finished MM2 and then started BA.  She's halfway through 3A and it's going fine, it was perfectly adequate preparation.  She's not crazy accelerated like some kids here, but once she had mastered MM2 she was well prepared for BA.  The nice thing about using MM is that it is cheap and easy to accelerate - you can give the chapter reviews first to identify what he has already mastered and only do the lessons he needs.  My dd did every single problem in MM2 and found it easy, and doing 2-4 pages a day was done by the beginning of April, but I thought she needed the practice on becoming fluent with addition and subtraction, and I wanted her to build the confidence that she was good at math before tackling Beast.  So far so good.

[basketcase]

Another vote for Miquon - you don't have to use the manipulatives (but my kid likes them sometimes). I love the variety in Miquon. I can let her choose which pages of math she wants to do, since the pages don't have to be done in order, and she adores being asked to create her own problems. Also, Miquon introduces concepts like multiplication and square numbers way earlier than most programs, which I like.

 

Edit: also, it's cheap, so hardly any barrier to trying it out.

[acurtis75]

We used MUS without using the manipulatives much. My dd enjoyed playing with them outside of formal lesson time and discovered a lot of math facts (like making 10's, etc) before covering them in the curriculum but she did not use them with each lesson. 

 

We tried Singapore and it wasn't a good fit for us but MUS worked well. There is little or no reading. You watch a DVD do worksheets and move to the next chapter. The pages were very clean which worked well for my young student doing longer calculations. There are 6 worksheets per lesson. The first 3 are on the new concept for the week and the last 3 cover the new concept plus problems previously learned. They call it systematic review but the concepts are really re-taught it is just a chance to make sure your student hasn't forgotten what they already learned. We often only did 2 worksheets (1 with just new concepts and one with review) and the test before moving on to the next chapter. On some chapters dd would watch dvd and go straight to the test and "test out" of that lesson's worksheets.

 

MUS worked well for us as an easy straightforward system to get through elementary math quickly but without worrying about those evil "gaps" we hear about. We moved through Alpha - Pre-Algebra pretty quickly and now plan to take our time going through beast academy, AOPs pre-algebra and the Fred pre-algebra books.

 

The one downside to this plan was cost. The MUS books are generally used as 1 year curriculums and are priced accordingly. Going through several a year was pricey. If I was starting over I might consider using Khan academy instead because it is a lot more organized and structured than when we started.

[raptor_dad]

Another vote for Miquon - you don't have to use the manipulatives (but my kid likes them sometimes). I love the variety in Miquon. I can let her choose which pages of math she wants to do, since the pages don't have to be done in order, and she adores being asked to create her own problems. Also, Miquon introduces concepts like multiplication and square numbers way earlier than most programs, which I like.

 

Edit: also, it's cheap, so hardly any barrier to trying it out.

 

The flexibility of Miquon is great for kids who don't need very much instruction or repetition. You can use the books in order -or- follow the strands through multiple books -or- let your child pick topics on a daily basis.

 

We use Miquon and MEP here. Miquon is very easy to accelerate. DS does not like manipulatives and we haven't used them often. Also, most of the manipulative work is in the Orange and Red books. If you have already done a 1st grade program you would either skip those or fly through them. DS7 has finished through Blue and Green and could move on to BA at this point.  I plan to do the Yellow and Purple books before considering BA.

 

[MotherOfBoys]

I used to be a Saxon math user. It was too jumpy and too much rep. We use math mammoth now because it is cheap. We bought 1-6 grades on the coop site.

 

MM has explanations but if you buy the ebook you can just print what you need. She explains how to use MM as a framework for the concepts to be studied in each grade. My son also doesn't need the explanations five different ways. So I have a black sharpie that I use to cross out the scaffolding sections in MM. We will start Beast 3A in a few weeks and I will use MM if I need more practice.

 

For my next son, I'd like to use Miquon. I just don't want to buy the rods since Saxon had me to buy a big manipulatives kit.

[eternalsummer]

Yay, Miquon it is.  I loved the look of the pdf samples but was afraid of the manipulatives - I'll get them anyway, but it's good to know that if he resists they're not necessary. :)  

[Megbo]

My 2nd grader finished MM2 and then started BA.  She's halfway through 3A and it's going fine, it was perfectly adequate preparation.  She's not crazy accelerated like some kids here, but once she had mastered MM2 she was well prepared for BA.  The nice thing about using MM is that it is cheap and easy to accelerate - you can give the chapter reviews first to identify what he has already mastered and only do the lessons he needs.  My dd did every single problem in MM2 and found it easy, and doing 2-4 pages a day was done by the beginning of April, but I thought she needed the practice on becoming fluent with addition and subtraction, and I wanted her to build the confidence that she was good at math before tackling Beast.  So far so good.

Thanks for posting this! Ds just started MM 2B, and I was hoping he'd be prepared to start BA in the fall. :)

[blondeviolin]

We did Miquon/Singapore as well. My 6yo will be doing BA next year and will mostly be ready with little Singapore work. It can be done with just Miquon if your child doesn't need much repetition.

 

Also look at Kitchen Table Math.