Thinking about switching to Beast Academy from CLE

[summerreading]

There is nothing wrong with CLE Math at all, so I'm wondering what I'm thinking.

Well, I'm thinking monsters and comic book layout would appeal to my dyslexic and that AoPS looks good for the older years, so might be good to start on their system early.

 

How does your dyslexic child do with either one of these?

 

Also, over the summer I am hoping to remediate issues DS has with carrying and borrowing. He knows how to do it and why, but the step by step is tripping him up. He crosses out when carrying and tries to add while he is carrying the number over. In CLE, they mix subtraction and addition, which I know is a real life situation, but it throws him off too.

 

Thanks

[Incognito]

My dyslexic does well BUT I have to read it with them AND it is a program that involves a lot of complex mathematical thought, so it is not for the faint of heart.

[OneStepAtATime]

Absolutely do Beast.  He might thrive.  I would not drop CLE, though, at least not right away.  I would do Beast together for the depth and different approach and the fun comic (which is really only part of the program, the workbook is where the real practice comes in) and still do some CLE for review and consistency.  Maybe you could focus just on addition for a bit with CLE, crossing out the subtraction problems, until he is more solid on addition, then focus on the subtraction for a bit, still maybe doing addition together on a dry erase board periodically so it doesn't get "lost", but cross out the specific problems in the Light Unit.  Beast doesn't cover everything that CLE does (although the things it does cover are more conceptual, obviously).

[summerreading]

Absolutely do Beast.  He might thrive.  I would not drop CLE, though, at least not right away.  I would do Beast together for the depth and different approach and the fun comic (which is really only part of the program, the workbook is where the real practice comes in) and still do some CLE for review and consistency.  Maybe you could focus just on addition for a bit with CLE, crossing out the subtraction problems, until he is more solid on addition, then focus on the subtraction for a bit, still maybe doing addition together on a dry erase board periodically so it doesn't get "lost", but cross out the specific problems in the Light Unit.  Beast doesn't cover everything that CLE does (although the things it does cover are more conceptual, obviously).

 

 

 

Good idea to try out both. I'm just starting to realize I need to separate the addition and subtraction. I hope things will eventually stick and he isn't trying to figure out addition in college LOL. I also realize if he takes a break over the summer, he will possible forget how to spell his name :P

[OneStepAtATime]

Yeah, summer breaks are a disaster here.  Short breaks do seem to help, though.  Like 2 weeks or maybe 3.  But not a whole summer.  We lose so much ground it is like 6 months to catch up, not just a few weeks.

 

The kids are still doing formal school work for the time being.  We will continue the rest of this week and next week, then take a three week break.  Then we will do just Barton/typing/math/reading/possibly Fix-It since it is short for another 3 weeks then take another 3 week break before starting school again.  DD likes our morning academic routine.  She likes taking breaks but she prefers to have that structure and scaffolding for her day in place most of the time.  

[displace]

DS also likes BA superficially. I read it aloud but DS prefers to just do the main book vs practice pages.

 

Some of the spacial problems (especially) he excels in.

Edited June 1, 2016 by displace

[kitten18]

My dyslexic thrives in BA but he's always been very good at math. He did SM before BA and did well with that but it wasn't as fun.

The best thing about BA for him is that he doesn't need very many practice problems. Once he learns a concept, he only needs a few problems to cement it.

 

I read the guide to him but he's getting to where he can read some of it on his own and he can read most of the instructions himself.

[summerreading]

Yeah, summer breaks are a disaster here.  Short breaks do seem to help, though.  Like 2 weeks or maybe 3.  But not a whole summer.  We lose so much ground it is like 6 months to catch up, not just a few weeks.

 

The kids are still doing formal school work for the time being.  We will continue the rest of this week and next week, then take a three week break.  Then we will do just Barton/typing/math/reading/possibly Fix-It since it is short for another 3 weeks then take another 3 week break before starting school again.  DD likes our morning academic routine.  She likes taking breaks but she prefers to have that structure and scaffolding for her day in place most of the time.  

 

What age did you start Fix It? I have it for my older and I think it would work well for his brothers at some point.

 

 

It's great to see that BA works for some many. I am going to go ahead and order the first section and see how we like it.

[OneStepAtATime]

What age did you start Fix It? I have it for my older and I think it would work well for his brothers at some point.

 

 

It's great to see that BA works for some many. I am going to go ahead and order the first section and see how we like it.

DD started Fix-It last year.  She is 1/3 of the way through book 2 now.

 

DS just started this week, actually.  I was going to start him in book 2 and move slowly but DD suggested he start with Book 1 since he has had less grammar exposure than she has.  She made some very specific arguments and I agreed with her.  I appreciated her weighing in.  

[pitterpatter]

My DD loved the comics, stories, and presentation of the material. She has low frustration tolerance, so after a couple of weeks (after the new and shiny wore off), she couldn't deal with there not being a set number of problems to do per day. She also did not deal well with having to puzzle out the answers to the more difficult problems. She likes things to be easy for her to figure out (I think this is due to the frustration dyslexia causes) and it stressed her out to get stuck on certain problems.

[Julie of KY]

My dyslexics love Beast Academy (but they may have some math loving genes as well).

 

My dyslexic daughter has done Beast as it was published from day 1. We've always had to do something else alongside since it wasn't being published as fast as she would do it. She would work in older grades SM and MEP and then do Beast at whatever rate published.

 

My youngest dyslexic loves Beast and it is his main program. He needs a little more drill of facts, but every time he gets a new book he writes out a huge multiplication chart in the back of the book for his reference.

 

... by the way my dyslexics can't carry and borrow on paper until years after they learn it - though they can do it in their heads.