mamamoose Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 (edited) We have a very hard time with all things school. Ds has a vast array of learning issues, but he's good at math (not math facts but conceptual math). He LOVED the guide book but I'm concerned he will get discouraged by the level of difficulty. We've been using right start, but there is no "love" for it, and I'm tired of the mom-time and games. Anyway, mostly wondering if anyone has used beast academy, successfully, alone with an intelligent but not positively gifted kid, and/or alongside math mammoth, and what did it look like from day to day? Edited February 1, 2017 by mamamoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountains27 Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I think I can help here. My son is almost 9 and has ADHD, he now takes meds for it which has helped him this year a lot. He couldn't read well at all last year and this year reads better then ever and loves it. Math wise it has helped also but he still struggles with it. Last year and into this year we were going slow using a 2nd grade Rod and Staff math book that focused on easy addition and subtracting just so he could get a grasp on basic math concepts. He didn't seem to understand numbers really at all and the idea that some group plus another group could be combined seemed lost on him. I heard about dyscalculia and that was him. So anyway, we went slow and tried the meds and at the start of the year it was slow going. His sister is a math wiz and took to BA so well that we now own all the books up to 3D so I decided to start him with 3A a couple months ago. He LOVES the books and looks forward to reading the guide when it is time for a new lesson. The practice problems have been challenging to him but I always do it with him and gently guide him in the right direction to solving the problems. We also use MM so both my kids are in MM and BA. My son is finishing up MM2b and BA 3a at the moment and my daughter is in MM5a and BA 3d. They don't follow along exactly but I find it works to do both at the same time. I have also used BA by itself with my daughter but wouldn't do that with my son, he needs more practice with certain concepts and I find using both programs together helps him get that. Not sure if that helps answer any questions but that has been our experience with the programs :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 You might be able to pair them. Some do so successfully. Work closely with him though. Break it up so he only has to do a little each day if it is frustrating or overwhelming him, especially at the beginning. The goal with BA is to learn how to learn, to figure out the process to get to the answer, not just get the right answer. If it takes him days to just get one problem done, o.k. Let him take days. Let him work through the process of figuring it out. Eventually, if it is a good fit, things will gel and he will move faster (although he may still have to slow down significantly at times...even adults do :) ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 My oldest is 7 and he uses MM and BA. He is accelerated in math, but struggles with focus, attention and perseverance (he has ASD and ADD). We treat arithmetic and problem solving as two separate subjects. We use Math Mammoth for arithmetic; DS only does about half the "regular" problems (less if he shows mastery, more if he struggles) and all the word problems and puzzle corners. He does 2-3 pages a day, which take him ~10 minutes. For problem solving, DS spends 20-30 minutes a day working through either BA (two days a week), Singapore Challenging Word Problems (two days a week) or Balance Benders and other logic puzzles (one day a week). I make no effort to line up topics between BA, CWP or MM. DS simply works through them at his page; he is currently working on MM 5a, BA 3d and CWP 4. Below I am going to copy from a previous post my description of how we use BA: "For us, Beast Academy is entirely open and go. When my son finishes one level, then I pull out the next Guide and Practice books and he devours the guide in a matter of hours (and rereads it over and over for fun). I encourage him to do the thinking problems scattered throughout the book, but I doubt he does. Then, as he progresses through the practice book, he works largely independently until he gets struck or starts getting a string of problems wrong (we check his answers at the end of every page). At that point, I sit with him and model how to seek help from a textbook. We find the appropriate section in the Guide, we read through it and test our understanding with the thinking problems, we find a worked problem in the Guide that looks similar to the practice problem that is stumping him, we might even close the Guide and try to work through that example problem so that our brains and our hands have to actively engage with the process rather than just passively reading the steps. I don't do any prep for BA. When DS needs my help, I have no prior experience with how BA is approaching a topic. I make it a point to enter the process not as the "teacher" or the fount of all knowledge, but rather as simply another problem solver (albeit one with slightly more experience) who needs to work and struggle and read and go through all the problem solving steps to figure out the solution." Wendy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 For a long while with my ds I alternated days between BA and MEP. The nice thing about that is if BA turns into a train wreck (or MEP/MM) you can quietly phase it out. Alternatively, if BA goes well, you can skim faster through MM. That's what we ended up doing and switched to BA alone, eventually after we realized the other program wasn't giving him anything new, and he didn't find the additional practice necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamoose Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 Very helpful! Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 My daughter is ADHD, SPD and is doing MM and BA. I have her do only every other problem in BA.She is currently working through 4C ad 4D. We do about 8 pages a day and are planning on slowing down a bit once we get to 5A. My goal with BA is to get her to think outside of the box with BA. She really zooms through MM with no problem at all and BA provides puzzles that really get her to think. My daughter tends to slow down with simple math facts (addition, multiplication etc) but she understands algebraic idea's very easily. BA is the only thing that I've found to really get her to think about the problem. We do 2 pages a day also of MM. I have her do pretty much all the problems in MM. I really love the combination of the two programs for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I use Beast with gifted with learning disabilities. I sit with my kids and do it alongside them most days. I do it with another math program. We just go at whatever pace in each program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamoose Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 My daughter is ADHD, SPD and is doing MM and BA. I have her do only every other problem in BA.She is currently working through 4C ad 4D. We do about 8 pages a day and are planning on slowing down a bit once we get to 5A. My goal with BA is to get her to think outside of the box with BA. She really zooms through MM with no problem at all and BA provides puzzles that really get her to think. My daughter tends to slow down with simple math facts (addition, multiplication etc) but she understands algebraic idea's very easily. BA is the only thing that I've found to really get her to think about the problem. We do 2 pages a day also of MM. I have her do pretty much all the problems in MM. I really love the combination of the two programs for her. Eight pages per day? Is BA at your dd's level? Or below? I think that would kill ds! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Eight pages per day? Is BA at your dd's level? Or below? I think that would kill ds! :iagree: I think DS is just about perfectly challenged by BA, but he could never handle more than 3ish pages. Wendy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountains27 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 My kids both max out on about 2 pages of BA and a page of MM or vice versa. Although my son did enjoy the gumball counting problems in the skip counting section of BA3a so much that he was begging to do more that day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamoose Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 Okay--we just started and I was very concerned we were going way too slow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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