Finishing Beast Academy - what next?

[RoundAbout]

I have a gifted 8 year old that is finishing Beast Academy 4D this month.  Trying to figure out whether to jump right into AOPS pre-algebra or something else.

 

He does not find BA very difficult, and we would probably be further along except for the the fact that we tried out our local gifted magnet school for 6 months where no math progress was made.

I do not necessarily believe in rapid acceleration as the only answer.  I have a computer science and math background myself and have exposed him to other topics as he has become interested - things like graph theory, knots, combinatorics, digital logic, etc. He has also attended a lecture series at the local university aimed at advanced middle schoolers, participated in an awesome math circle and math camp, etc.  He says he wishes school could be all math.    A list of supplements we have used in the last 3 years:

-Singapore Challenging Word Problems

-Penrose the Mathematical Cat

-Math: A Human Endeavor

-Zaccaro Primary Challenge Math

-Zaccaro Real World Alegbra

-The Cryptoclub (built a school science fair project around it)

-Alien Math

-Dragonbox and Dragonbox: Elements

-Venn and Grid Perplexors

 

He has a great ability to problem solve and think abstractly and enjoys unusual topics.  He loves "algebra" and geometry (the geometric drawing portion of RightStart was his favorite even though he was small), but hates rote computation.  He is good at arithmetic computation but probably needs a bit more work on making it neat and not making careless errors.  But the way he sets up problems blows me away, he comes up with solutions that I would not even think of.  One of the problems we had with his school is that they told him he could not do anything more advanced until he was getting 100% on his papers.  He was already working 2 grades ahead there, so think some of it was laziness in not wanting to provide something else, but a perfectionist mentality is NOT what I wanted to encourage.   I'd like to keep moving forward while building skills like showing his work neatly. But also keep it fun and interesting.  

I wish BA would finish level 5 quickly because its kind of perfect for his interest and maturity level, but alas I don't think that will happen.  I'm tempted just to jump right into AOPS pre-algebra and fill in any gaps we come across but also want to keep his enthusiasm high.  I was not thrilled with Singapore other than the IP and CWP books.  The textbooks and workbooks seemed way to repetitive for him.  Any suggestions?

 

[go_go_gadget]

My son went from 4B (the most recent BA at that time) to AoPS  Pre-A, and my DD8 is starting Pre-A in a few weeks, having finished 4D. I did supplement with Khan Academy for exposure to some topics not yet covered by BA for my son, but now that 4C and 4D have been published, the only topic I'll need to fill gaps in for my daughter is decimal multiplication and division. We'll do that alongside Pre-A, since decimals don't appear until Ch. 6.

[mathnerd]

My son went from BA 4 to AOPS Pre-A too. We are few chapters into Pre-A now. We are doing pre-A 3 days/week, taking it slowly, working through all the problems and adding in competition math problems for the other days of the week. I also have the Dolciani pre-algebra book which I use very rarely.

 

To answer your question, BA says that 5A will come out in the Fall of 2015 - which is probably weeks away. You could either wait for it or plunge into pre-A right away. I will purchase 5A mostly because DS loves the Beasts and says that he misses them!

[Runningmom80]

I'd check out Pre-A.  Even our Singapore books are getting repetitive at this point.

 

I wouldn't wait for BA, you'll be waiting until early 2017 for 5D.  (As an aside, I find it their production schedule completely ridiculous.  I'm glad BA didn't work out for us, because when it first came out it was supposed to be completed by now. )

[SanDiegoMom]

He will probably write more neatly as soon as his fine motor skills catch up.  My ds9 started PreA at 8 and is finishing up soon -- the first half of his math notebook is vastly different than his second half.  

 

Also if he wants another supplement, the Murderous Maths set are much loved around here. 

[zarabellesmom]

My daughter is older than your son, but we are finishing up Beast 4D this week. We'll be starting AOPS PreAlgebra and just taking it slowly. When the next BA comes out, I'm sure we'll buy it and do that because she loves it so much.

[ErinE]

A list of supplements we have used in the last 3 years:

-Singapore Challenging Word Problems

-Penrose the Mathematical Cat

-Math: A Human Endeavor

-Zaccaro Primary Challenge Math

-Zaccaro Real World Alegbra

-The Cryptoclub (built a school science fair project around it)

-Alien Math

-Dragonbox and Dragonbox: Elements

-Venn and Grid Perplexors

 

 

If you've finished all the above, I'd recommend AoPS Pre Algebra. Your child may be bored because he's ready for the next level. My son was older than yours, but I did buddy math for the first few chapters, working through the example problems with my son. There's plenty of challenge there, the problem sets are not repetitive, and once completed, the whole AoPS book list is available. 

[kiana]

I think jumping and filling gaps sounds like the right plan here.

[Julie of KY]

I agree that I'd start AoPS PreA and just take breaks and fill in the gaps as needed.

[Allearia]

We also just finished BA 4 and have moved into AOPS pre-algebra. Just three weeks but so far it is going really well. We had also used Hands On Equations with their Verbal Problems book quite a bit so I think that was a big help.

[RoundAbout]

Thanks everyone. I have AOPS pre-algebra on the way.

[visitor]

When will 5A Beast Academy be on sell?