Math Mammoth with Beast Academy?

[Vintage81]

For our next school year I'm switching to Math Mammoth 3A/3B for my soon-to-be 3rd grade daughter.  (We're using Math in Focus right now, but I'm switching because I want less books to deal with.)

 

My daughter doesn't really like to do math, but she's pretty good at it. She loves it when things come to her easily, but when there's a challenge, she gets frustrated. Sometimes she struggles with word problems because she doesn't really want to take the time to read them and understand what's being asked.  

 

I don't want to take challenge problems out of math for her, because I don't think that will help her, but I would like to give her "fun" math challenge problems. I was looking around different threads on this forum and saw that many people like Beast Academy.

 

For those of you who use MM and BA, how do you use them together?  Do you find BA a helpful addition to MM, when it comes to word problems?  Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[silver]

BA and MM are both full math programs. If your daughter doesn't like math, that might be a bit of an overload. I use both with my son because he likes math a lot and speeding through MM wasn't giving him enough of a challenge. He does MM three days a week and then he does BA on the fourth day (we do four day weeks). He then completes a little more than a year of MM each school year, and it will be well over a year to get through one level of BA (we're using BA as a supplement, so I'm okay with that). 

 

MM has word problems. And BA isn't only word problems. If you feel MM doesn't have enough word problems there are easier/cheaper ways to add them (Singapore CWP, for example) than to add a complete 2nd curriculum.

 

I'd try out MM and see if the word problems and puzzle corner provide what you want. If it doesn't, then decide what you want to give her more of: more word problems, more challenging problems, etc. 

[Wheres Toto]

I do MM and BA for my son.  He'll be starting MM6A for next year but still working in BA4C or D.  I like doing BA "behind" since it's so different and challenging. I'm going to try BA for my daughter for the first time next year.  She'll be doing MM4A and starting BA with 3A.  She's not as "mathy" as my son but likes puzzles so we'll see how it goes.

 

This year we also supplemented with Evan Moor Daily Word Problems which is only around $9.99 a grade level, if you are looking for more word problems.

[mlktwins]

My boys are finishing MM5B and are finishing BA3D. We will finish MM 6A&B next year and hopefully the rest of BA through what's been published of BA5. My boys don't mind breaking things up during the week with BA.

[Roseto27]

We use BA as a supplement, but really I just want to commend you for not backing away from challenging math simply because your daughter tends to get frustrated by it. So often I see parents asking about new curricula options sothat they can continue to ensure that every moment of their child's education is sunshine and rainbows. Good for you for stretching her and creating an environment in which she can learn both challenging mathematics and coping skills! :)

[Vintage81]

We use BA as a supplement, but really I just want to commend you for not backing away from challenging math simply because your daughter tends to get frustrated by it. So often I see parents asking about new curricula options sothat they can continue to ensure that every moment of their child's education is sunshine and rainbows. Good for you for stretching her and creating an environment in which she can learn both challenging mathematics and coping skills! :)

Thanks for this!!

[MeganW]

We use BA as a supplement, but really I just want to commend you for not backing away from challenging math simply because your daughter tends to get frustrated by it. So often I see parents asking about new curricula options sothat they can continue to ensure that every moment of their child's education is sunshine and rainbows. Good for you for stretching her and creating an environment in which she can learn both challenging mathematics and coping skills! :)

 

I'm not the original poster, but wanted to thank you for this.  I needed to hear it today!  :)  

[Momto4inSoCal]

We do both. My daughter is in MM4 and she's using BA3. She does 8 pages of BA doing every other problem. She finished MM early so she moved onto BA. My daughter is a very analytical thinker and she does really well with BA type puzzles and we are using it a grade below her so I don't know how it would be using it at grade level. BA is about a grade level above in some of the concepts. 3rd grade covers simplifying fractions, variables, exponents. Some of the stuff it covered was also in my 5th grade daughters MM book.

[Vintage81]

We do both. My daughter is in MM4 and she's using BA3. She does 8 pages of BA doing every other problem. She finished MM early so she moved onto BA. My daughter is a very analytical thinker and she does really well with BA type puzzles and we are using it a grade below her so I don't know how it would be using it at grade level. BA is about a grade level above in some of the concepts. 3rd grade covers simplifying fractions, variables, exponents. Some of the stuff it covered was also in my 5th grade daughters MM book.

Good to know. Thank you!

[silver]

I want to clarify that I wasn't saying you shouldn't challenge your daughter, just that it might be best to see if MM provides enough of a challenge before giving more math to someone that already doesn't like it. From your first post it sounded like MIF challenged her enough, the only issue being that you didn't like juggling all the books. It just seemed from your post that adding a 2nd curriculum (with 8 books a year) wouldn't really meet your goal of reducing the number of books to juggle.

[Vintage81]

I want to clarify that I wasn't saying you shouldn't challenge your daughter, just that it might be best to see if MM provides enough of a challenge before giving more math to someone that already doesn't like it. From your first post it sounded like MIF challenged her enough, the only issue being that you didn't like juggling all the books. It just seemed from your post that adding a 2nd curriculum (with 8 books a year) wouldn't really meet your goal of reducing the number of books to juggle.

I understand, and this gives me some things to think about. It's difficult to know if I'm doing enough, or not enough...definitely a challenge to find the right balance. I foresee a lot of trial and error in my future! :)

 

Thank you for your thoughts and suggestions!

[reign]

We are using MM4 and BA3 right now. It's going well. Beast is a stretch for them because they don't like puzzling out the problems. It is helping them to deal with their frustrations for sure. Even with that they LOVE doing Beast and have told people it is their favorite homework.

[Raifta]

DS just finished MM3 and will be starting BA3 soon (we will only do BA through til Sept then in Sept will pick up MM4 and do the rest of BA3).  DD did SM 3 and then BA3 and moved on to SM4 in a similar manner.

 

Neither of my kids enjoys math (they will, in fact, claim to dislike math, perhaps in harsher terms than that) but they are both good at it and DD found BA more engaging than SM so even though it was, in some respects, more challenging, she was willing to meet the challenge.  I'm hoping the same holds true for DS.