WahM Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 My daughter is only in second grade (a young second grader at that), but she is naturally very math minded. She just gets math, always has, and loves it. She does it for fun. We've been using Primary Mathmatics and I love it. I think it is a great solid program, but I feel like my daughter needs something more advanced/challenging. I had her take the placement test for BA and she passed it. Only missed one. Now, would it make sense to move her into Beast at this point or wait till third grade? Stay with Singapore all together? I prefer just one full curriculum and supplementing with other things, so I wouldn't want to do both programs, just personal preference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Try Beast. If she is able to handle it, go for it. If you decide to stay with SM, use IP books. They are much harder than workbooks. We love BA, but the retention for my younger kid has been somewhat poor. I am glad we didn't drop SM. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porridge Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Beast can be quite challenging, even for the math-inclined. But I would let her try it if cost is not a factor. Even if the program does not turn out to work for her, she may like to even just read the text books for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 3A actually has some of the toughest problems in the third grade series, IMHO, so it would be a good litmus test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WahM Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 I actually the 3A set on hand. I think I may add it it in slowly and see if it seems like it would be a good fit before ditching PM. Thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 (edited) Doesn't have to be one or the other. Why not ease in BA one or two days a week? Edited November 21, 2015 by SusanC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zarabellesmom Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 I think you should go for it. My young second grader will start beast this year too. ;) My oldest zoomed through MIF 1A through 3A before April of her first grade year. She started out loving math and begging for more. By April, she was bored and irritated at how easy it was. Beast Academy published 3A and we immediately switched. Math became her favorite again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 If PM is too easy, add IP. If still too easy, add CWP. If still too easy, move faster. If still too easy...hmm not sure never had that happen before. BA is cool and fun but my kid didn't learn from it (he just read them like comics and didn't do the wb, which was fine for us). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 My one caution is this... she's a math minded kid. Beast is probably her ultimate destiny. You don't necessarily want to mess up that destiny by trying to make it come too soon and ruining her opinion of the program. This wouldn't be an issue for all kids, and, of course, Beast isn't right for all mathy kids anyway, but I could see that for some kids, having them give it a serious try and having it not go so well could turn them off it and set up a mental block against using it. If you feel like that's a danger... maybe it's worth waiting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WahM Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 The reason I finally had her do the assessment is because she is so bored with PM and doesn't like it anymore. She gets excited when it goes over new multiplication/divivison facts, but that's it. She even has flown through CWP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 The reason I finally had her do the assessment is because she is so bored with PM and doesn't like it anymore. She gets excited when it goes over new multiplication/divivison facts, but that's it. She even has flown through CWP. That was my older kid. No matter what I did, he ran through it. IPs, CWPs, JA. Finally I gave him preA when he turned nine. I just couldn't go there mentally at eight. Now looking back, I should have gone there sooner. So throw BA at her. She will most likely love it. I do caution to keep an eye on retention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrousel Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 (edited) Ds here is much the same but a year older. Farrar has a good point about readiness for beast being more than just math ability level and you don't want to turn them off of it with poor timing relative to their maturity. We started beast 3a, I sensed his maturity for problem solving wasn't great yet, and we flew thru sm 3a and b, then restarted beast along with sm cwp 3 to makes sure rentention was good. We will do sm 4 before ba4 too, at least that's the plan. Edited November 22, 2015 by Carrousel 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted November 22, 2015 Share Posted November 22, 2015 Both. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 My son started Beast as an older first grader after having completed SM 1 and 2 and he did BA 3 just fine. We chose something other than BA 4 only as a sideways step to allow him time to mature into the frustrating problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4KookieKids Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) We just do PM faster and that seems to help a lot. Oldest easily does two exercise each day and we do beast once a week only. Edited November 24, 2015 by deanna1ynne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reign Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 (edited) We do beast with a second grader. She also does mm4. I suppose mm would be considered the supplement becAuse we don't do every problem. She has really enjoyed Beast. It's not easy and she's a perfectionist who wants to be right on her first try. She's learned A lot about perseverance. It's been good for her. Edited November 24, 2015 by reign Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoCal_Bear Posted November 24, 2015 Share Posted November 24, 2015 Doing both over there. Looping through BA after finishing SM. It's working out great this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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