Ninanoo Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 What would you recommend? 2nd grader is bored with her math. Calls it baby work and gets sick of doing it because she already knows it and gets tired of proving it... I was thinking monster university next year. I have heard it is more challenging. We looked at teaching text book 3rd grade sample lesson 51, and she said it was too easy too. Seems to cover the same thing as math mammoth for 2nd grade although the presentation was nice! What do you think? Her dad and grandpa are naturally good at math and I've known for a while she is too. I can't afford new curriculum until taxes. I could go back to kahn for a while. .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 By monster university do you mean Beast Academy? That would be my recommendation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 If you are looking for more challenging, I'd look at Beast Academy. (Teaching Textbooks would be moving in the opposite direction.) Alternatively, keep in mind that MM is easy to tweak to suit the needs of an accelerating student. There is no reason to beat dead horses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninanoo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Yes I meant beast academy. Lol monster university is a movie. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Did you give her the MM placement test or just choose grade 2 because she was in second grade? If you didn't give the placement test there's a very real possibility she's misplaced and a higher grade would have been better. If you did and she placed into 2, I'd skim through the chapter, let her tell you whether she knows it or not -- and if she thinks she knows it, work the chapter review. If she doesn't do well on the chapter review, she has to go back and do the chapter lessons, because clearly she does NOT know it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I will switch her to singapore and do a placement test Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Give her a placement test for MM. She was probably placed too low. Each math program is a bit different. A placement test will help put her where she needs to be. And you can pair Beast Academy with many different math programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I've had the same issues with my dd8 with Singapore math. I pulled out Zaccaro's Primary Challenge Math today and she really liked it - wants it to be her primary math. (She also pulled out the next Intensive Practice book and commented that it was harder and more interesting when she skipped the text and went straight to the problems.). I also just ordered Beast Academy - she liked the samples, and she likes to figure things out on her own. (Not to hijack, but I've had trouble placing her from the beginning. She gets concepts so quickly yet needs a fair bit of procedural practice; when I skip ahead too much her lack of computational fluency trips her up, yet when there's no conceptual challenge to add interest and motivation to do the hard-for-her computations math becomes pure drudgery.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninanoo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 So as of right this minute, the only things in the book she doesn't know is the multiplication. With the clocks, she found it unbearable, so rather then go through the subject straight through, i had her do one page of it, and a page of something further in the book. Maybe with B2 (which i have looked through quit a bit and know she knows 80% of, and can pick the other up way easy because it is just an extension of things already covered >.<) I'll flip back and forth between the stuff she knows, and the multiplication. I see for A3 she needs to know how to write in the multiplication table in 12 minutes... which is crazy, i can't even do that. lol But she is a verbal learner, and I can see her picking it up quickly. So maybe we will work on that a lot as well. If we were to just go straight through the book Starting January 1rst, she would get done by the end of February unless the multiplication really stumps her... Had I done math every day with her, she'd have finished the A2 and B2 already. I've promised her that if she can get this done we will do something different for 3rd grade. We have read the first lesson of Beast Academy, and she seems into it. I just don't know if i am hurting her in the moment. I have a brother who was not challenged enough and he dropped out. My husband was not challenged enough and ended up getting his GED instead (he just graduated college valedictorian... His grandfather is a master engineer which includes a masters degree in math.) So she has these brilliant genes, and I don't want to hold her back BUT I also went my 3rd grade year missing out on math and it hurt me a lot... so I am scared of her not having a strong foundation too. Agh being a parent is hard... For the record I did give her the placement test... she just learned it quickly and continues to learn it quickly. Even with long gaps... in fact i'd say with gaps she comes back stronger. xD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninanoo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 I just saw that they sell Beast academy in parts. I thought it was all sold together. It doesn't look too expensive at all... So maybe I will just let her blast through MM and order 3A Beast Academy... She already wants to do Anatomy over the summer... If she likes Beast Academy, maybe she will want to do that through the summer as well. I can let her work on MM, read life of fred, and we have this other math book she really wants to do (which i said we'd do in between workbook 2A and 2B for MM) It is beneath her skill, but will hopefully reinvigorate her math drive since it is all zoo related. I really am confident she knows 2A already... so maybe I'll use it more for review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 It's okay to cross out problems in Math Mammoth. I did this for my son and am starting to do this for my daughter. I would teach the first part of the lesson and then assign problems, usually from the last part of the section concentrating on the word problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 If she finds a specific topic unbearably boring because it is so easy for her I would totally skip it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dory Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 My second grader would be bored to tears if I actually made him work slowly through MM2. He is in MM4 right now. I have him do a couple questions and show that he knows how to do something, he does the review, and we move on. There's no sense boring a kid with stuff they already know. Beast Academy doesn't start until 3rd grade. Perhaps you should try and bumping her to MM3 before you throw in the towel. We supplement with Beast Academy when my youngest needs a break from the style of MM or when he is way ahead with his work. I find MM to be very thorough, but if you are working with kids that are advanced in their math skills, a parent is going to have to advance a little no matter what program you use. At this point using MM as the core with Life of Fred and Beast Academy as our supplements, he is WAY ahead and scoring plenty high on achievement tests. You don't have to do everything in MM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaChicken Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 I had a similar experience, and ultimately gave up on MM after 3A. Not only were there too many problems for each lesson, but too many lessons for each concept. Now, in 5th, we use Beast Academy and Khan Academy, and he's thriving. We love the challenge and thinking of BA and the thoroughness and simplicity of Khan (particularly that only one problem is visible at a time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninanoo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Thank you ladies! Today went very smoothly. ♥ I let her go long enough to prove she had it down, and then moved on. Multiplication is going to come easy for her. One of the things we did today was skip counting by 3s, (something we have done 1 other time for fun) and she would do one, then I would do one, and then she would do one... she missed once, and caught herself. So, i'm just going to trust her brain. lol I can't project my own 3rd grade math fears on to her and I can't repeat the things that happened to my brother and husband through the public school setting because of those fears. Homeschooling -is- largely in part about believing and trusting in your childs abilities so that they can work at their own speed. The plan is, just let her soar, and support her when/if it stops being easy. In fact, today... letting her skip around some, when we were done she immediately got onto the kindle, and downloaded the 3rd grade version of a math game she likes and is playing it. ♥ ♥ Thanks guys. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninanoo Posted December 18, 2014 Author Share Posted December 18, 2014 She has just taught herself division with 1s and 2s using the game. I told her on the first gate, "How many times can 1 go into 2?" and bam... she has 1s and 2s... It has yet to show her threes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3 Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Yeah, MM goes slow, but I like that I can look at a lesson & easily see what concepts are being taught and how. So I just pick out a few of each type, and he does them... Then we move on. If I can see that he needs more work, I give him more of the 'problem' problems. :) I really like the flexibility. He's first grade & we're in the middle of 3A. Oh, and sometimes I do skip entire chapters. The addition & subtraction review at the beginning of 3A was driving us crazy, so we finally dove right into multiplication - and he's loving the challenge of doing something new! :) We'll circle back to chapter 1 if I feel he needs to do it later on... In Math, I think it's especially important to keep that balance between challenging your child & not overwhelming or frustrating him. Believe me, I've been on both sides of that balance. :) But with MM, I like that (at least I feel like) I'm the one who decides where the balance is - and not the curriculum. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted December 18, 2014 Share Posted December 18, 2014 Try supplementing MM with some (free) enriching activities from Moebius Noodles. I bet your daughter would enjoy several of the ideas in the Multiplication archives, and the Inspired by Calculus series would be a wonderful spin-off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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