Coco_Clark Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 My DS7 wants to make the Beast leap. He aced the entrance test, so I think he's "ready" for it. But I'm nervous about using it solo. Over the last two years he's done Singapore K and 1, parts of Miquon orange and red, LOF a-d, and MIF 2. So....a bit of everything. The only one of the above he LOVED was LOF, he likes the "story"; the only one he HATED was Miquon, he didn't like using blocks, and didn't always feel the directions were clear. Conceptually he's usually bored; but with facts he needs constant, constant, constant work to get them memorized. It's that fact memorization trouble that makes me think Beast will need supplementation. The times tables are coming, dun dun dun. That and no one uses just one math, it seems. Especially with This one. Any suggestions of a program that meshes well with Beast? Is beast+ flash card and memory work "enough"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mathnerd Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 We use SM CWP to supplement. I have the IP from SM and MEP pages printed out as well, but there has been no need to pull them out so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventuresinHomeschooling Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 I recently asked this and was told Khan Academy would be a good supplement. They do cover multiplication in BA and only ask for addition and subtraction facts down, but it does seem to ramp quickly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 If it is just facts practice one of the computer drill programmes would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 It's that fact memorization trouble that makes me think Beast will need supplementation. The times tables are coming, dun dun dun. That and no one uses just one math, it seems. Especially with This one. Any suggestions of a program that meshes well with Beast? Is beast+ flash card and memory work "enough"? One interesting thing that happened for us is that my dd found her multiplication facts easier to memorize after being exposed to them in BA 3. It seems that the organization and patterning helped them to click for her. We've used Singapore with Beast -- it's worked well here to run them almost in tandem (or with Beast a little behind). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forgiven Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 We use Beast alone. I tried supplementing with Beast, using MM3 as the main program, but my DS was sick of MM and loved Beast. He begged to only do BA, so I let him. He's now in BA4, and we only use Beast. He learned how to multiply with Beast, and though I've read that they're supposed to have the multiplication tables memorized before doing Beast, my kid didn't. He learned it in Beast, and has them down just fine. We never focused on multiplication, never did flash cards or anything. Beast has review, it's just not blatant review. Everything is added incrementally, but things you learned in previous chapters show up in problems later on. It's review, just not review the way other curricula do it. It seems I may be one of the few people who use BA as a stand-alone curriculum. The only problem we've had is that we go at a slower pace. I did so because I didn't want to get stuck ahead of production. So my son is about to finish 4A and start 4B, but his 4th grade year is almost over. The problem this caused was with standardized testing last year. He hadn't learned how to divide before the test, or he had just started division. I can't remember exactly, but he wasn't confident in it yet, but there was a lot of division on the test. He told me that he did great in math, but had to guess for a lot of the division problems. He got a low score on his math. The year before he had a very high score in math, so I was a bit disturbed at the end of last year, but at the same time, he learns from Beast very well. He gets it. It's my fault that I let him go slower through the books than normal, and all for my not wanting to get ahead of production. Oh well. Such is life. Angie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2boys030507 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Well, we were using Beast and Singapore IP but have recently dropped IP. My second grader does use Khan as he thinks anything on a computer is awesome and all of my boys do Life of Fred on Fridays as that is considered our light and fun day. But, I do consider Beast to be his main math and would drop both Khan and Fred if they become unenjoyable to my son. Also, with Beast being published through 4D now I feel better about not out pacing them completely. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kateingr Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 That's awesome that your son aced the placement test. It's quite challenging. I use Beast as my only curriculum for my eight-year-old. It truly is enough--and then some. It covers all the usual third-grade topics, but in such wonderful depth and in such an interesting manner. The only thing I add is some speed drill with the multiplication facts. After the multiplication fact chapter in 3B, I had my son do Kumon 3rd grade multiplication for review, and now we do occasional flash cards for speed practice. But other than that, I find Beast to be extremely complete. I actually just posted a review of Beast tonight. Check my signature for the link to the full review, but here's what I said about basic skills practice and review: Overall, Beast Academy has far fewer basic computation problems than other curricula. Instead, basic skills practice is incorporated into the more complex problems. There are no specific review pages, but previous topics are constantly revisited in new contexts. For example, perimeter and area are introduced in 3A. Both topics are reviewed in all three sections of 3B and 3C (in contexts ranging from variables to perfect squares) and then are the focus of the final chapter of 3D. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 For a while DS was doing BA plus some RightStart, but we dropped the RightStart. The only other thing he does regularly is Xtramath for fact practice. We have also occasionally used these "Daily review sheets" for a quick warm up: https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/math/resources/daily-routines I found we could easily use them a grade ahead (i.e. DS is in BA3, he was doing 4th grade sheets from the review pages at that link). I've discovered that after focusing really hard on some of the BA topics, DS is getting a bit rusty on some of his algorithms for things like multi digit adding and subtracting, so I want to make sure he is getting problems like that every now and then. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 Thanks for all the comments. Luckily I don't have to worry about outpacing the program. I hadn't thought of that being a factor for so many people. I think I will start with Beast alone and if I feel like he's getting overwhelmed by the intensity, or struggling because his multiplication facts are too slow, I'll consider switching to something else for a bit. Since he's working a grade ahead I don't mind if the grade 3 books take us 2, or even more, years to finish. We use those same warm-ups already for independent work. I like the review. And Kahn is a good idea, too, I haven't even really looked at it much yet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 I actually found dd got her multiplication facts memorized better with BA, there is plenty of varied practice. We still supplement BA a little, because dd finds it very mentally intense and asks for Singapore for a break! I'm happy with that, as we're getting close to outpacing the release schedule! We also do khan and LoF for fun. 😀 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted March 31, 2015 Share Posted March 31, 2015 I actually found dd got her multiplication facts memorized better with BA, there is plenty of varied practice. We still supplement BA a little, because dd finds it very mentally intense and asks for Singapore for a break! I'm happy with that, as we're getting close to outpacing the release schedule! We also do khan and LoF for fun. 😀 I had this same experience with DS...asking for Singapore as a break from Beast, lol. Beast is great...lots of fun, engaging, etc...but it is TOUGH. I will say...it has built DS' stamina and ability to struggle it out. When we first started Beast, he frustrated very easily and was very quick to throw in the towel. Beast + age/maturity has made a difference in the year since we first started Beast. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimk3 Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 We recently made the switch from MEP to BA and have found a good groove. We use khan becuase it provides continued practice and review in a wide range of concepts. My son does five questions a day at Khan. When he needs a break from puzzley, deep-thing math, we snuggle on the couch with strayer upton and do word problems and mental math. Or we read living math books and play games. He reads LOF on his own, his choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 I had this same experience with DS...asking for Singapore as a break from Beast, lol. Beast is great...lots of fun, engaging, etc...but it is TOUGH. I will say...it has built DS' stamina and ability to struggle it out. When we first started Beast, he frustrated very easily and was very quick to throw in the towel. Beast + age/maturity has made a difference in the year since we first started Beast. Yep we had the same experience. Frustration and tears but she kept coming back for more! Big learning curve beginning BA. But we got through and she loves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kathkath Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 We do beast and cle, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dauphin Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Will you tell me more about how that looks for you kathkath? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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