Beast Academy 5B... Talk me off a ledge.

[zarabellesmom]

I'm so frustrated. I love love love Beast Academy, but, this chapter in 5B on LCM and GCF has driven me crazy. It seems like the longest chapter (maybe because I'm hating it so much?) and we are down to the last few pages. They are covering things like numbers being relatively prime and then there are the end of chapter challenge problems. I'm so tired of factoring numbers (I've been working alongside her). I hate to say that the problems at the end of the chapter seem irrelevant because I think there is great value in puzzling over hard problems, but I'm ready to throw the book through the window. Keep in mind that we had moved on to AoPS Prealgebra and we came back to do this book. We were moving along just fine in AoPS, in fact we set is aside near the end of Chapter 3 which covers number theory including GCF and LCM and those problems were not as irritating as these BA problems. Has anyone else completed this chapter yet? Opinions? Advice? Throw the book through the window or just keep plugging away at it?

[wapiti]

You are in charge.  The topic has been learned, right?  If the fun has worn out, perhaps come back to this later.  IMO a few challenge problems here and there can make for excellent review much further down the road.  (Disclaimer:  none of my kids have worked through that chapter)

[Roadrunner]

Keep in mind that we had moved on to AoPS Prealgebra and we came back to do this book. We were moving along just fine in AoPS, in fact we set is aside near the end of Chapter 3 which covers number theory including GCF and LCM and those problems were not as irritating as these BA problems. Has anyone else completed this chapter yet? Opinions? Advice? Throw the book through the window or just keep plugging away at it?

I will share my experience to echo your feelings. My younger DS really struggled with Beast, earning him the reputation of a non-mathy kid who needed easy math to survive. This kid fought me to do AoPS to keep up with his older brother. Let me tell you, he is 9 and completed 7 chapters of preA without a single twitch. I don't know what it is about BA, but I can see what you are describing. Get back to preA and wave good buy to little beasts. They don't make everybody happy.

[Guest]

Yup. I'd just set it aside for now or plain move on to pre-A or another program, if he isn't quite ready for full on AoPS yet. No guilt mama!

[Farrar]

It'll be well covered in pre-algebra. I really like the way both topics are covered in Jousting Armadillos in particular (in fact, my kids who is doing Dolciani Pre-A ended up cutting away to do those chapters in JA for the better approach) if you find its an issue down the road and want to go back to another source for it. So, yeah, move on.

[kirstenhill]

My DS9 will be in 5B later this year. I find it interesting that I am working through this same topic with DD12 today in Dolciani pre-Alg. Like, earlier today I read your post and found myself thinking, "wow, I can't even remember what a relative prime even is", and found myself tonight reading thru a Dolciani lesson with DD that included that exact topic (yes, DD wanted to work on math at 9:30pm...a sure way to procrastinate bedtime?).

 

Knowing that BA5 is delving into topics that are typically in a solid pre algebra book makes me feel a bit better taking my time with DS9 and taking rabbit trails in other directions...so far as we are just finishing up the first chapter of 5A he is not enjoying beast nearly as much as he did with the 4th grade books...I thought maybe it was just a "phase" for him but maybe the 5th grade books are a bit different somehow.