Is Beast Academy a full math program?

[poppy]

I am tempted by the new 2A program for a 7 year old math lover.  I'd planned to do Math Mammoth.... would I do BA in addition to MM, or instead of?

[maize]

It's a full program, do you know though when the rest of level 2 is projected to be out?

[MeganW]

There is very little repetition / practice.  My kid is VERY mathy, but we use Beast as a supplement.  It is well worth doing for a mathy kid to develop conceptual understanding, but I just don't feel confident that they see a concept enough to totally solidify.  

 

[Jackie]

It's definitely a full program, but the release schedule won't keep pace with those starting now. 2B is due this winter, 2C in summer 2018, and 2D in fall 2018.

[libbypr]

BA said today that they anticipate about 5 months between levels.

 

I ordered 2A to use as a supplement, so doing it only once a week or so, i think I'll be ok between levels.

 

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[sweetpea3829]

It's billed as a complete curriculum and for some kids it probably can be.  Buuuuuuuuuut.....then there's everybody else.

 

My eldest son is very math-intuitive.  He absorbs concepts readily,  But he still needs review to keep things in that noggin.  Beast just doesn't provide enough of that.  So I use it as an enrichment supplement.  The new online Beast Academy is likely going to address this shortcoming.  We'll have to see.  

 

If you're kiddo is ready for 2A now...I'd say it's not going to work for you this year.  Wait until the entirety of Grade 2 is out, and use it a year behind your main Math spine.  

[rainbowmama]

It's a full program. I did 3-5 with my oldest and then headed straight to pre-algebra. I plan to use the second level as a supplement, though, just because of the publishing schedule. If they publish on schedule, 2D still won't be out until my kid is already in third grade, so my plan is pretty much to wrap up his second grade curriculum (Rightstart) while doing any of the second level that come out while he does that and then switch him to the third level as soon as he finishes RS C. 

[Epicurean]

It's a full program. For those who need more practice, they're working on releasing BA Online where your kid can do extra problems, etc. I'm not sure when it's going live though.

[Soror]

It's a full program. For those who need more practice, they're working on releasing BA Online where your kid can do extra problems, etc. I'm not sure when it's going live though.

they say it is going live Jan 2018

[fralala]

It's billed as a complete curriculum and for some kids it probably can be.  Buuuuuuuuuut.....then there's everybody else.

 

And I suspect the "everybody else" is going to be even smaller when it comes to second graders, because even mathy kids often benefit from having concepts presented concretely, and to working together on a sticky concepts with a human guide who can help model the problems. My first reaction was that BA is of course a full math program, but then I envisioned someone just handing a 7 or 8 or 9 year old the books and saying, "Read this, and do these problems," and I think even for gifted kids that's not complete (insofar as math is a real thing and not just a set of ideas, and a joint human endeavor, and all that). That's also likely not what anyone here would do or does! Probably someone who has been comfortable with the MM model would do very well with BA plus a little extra practice for retention/fluency because of the way each is written directly to the student and assumes a parent/teacher's comfort with coaching using just the student materials. (Looking at the samples, I'm kind of tempted to use BA2 as my spirally supplement to BA3!)

[Carrousel]

I'll be interested to see how BA online changes the practice element, but as is, no, I don't use it as complete. I use it as a problem solving and logic strand, and use Singapore as our main curriculum for math.

[rainbowmama]

And I suspect the "everybody else" is going to be even smaller when it comes to second graders, because even mathy kids often benefit from having concepts presented concretely, and to working together on a sticky concepts with a human guide who can help model the problems. My first reaction was that BA is of course a full math program, but then I envisioned someone just handing a 7 or 8 or 9 year old the books and saying, "Read this, and do these problems," and I think even for gifted kids that's not complete (insofar as math is a real thing and not just a set of ideas, and a joint human endeavor, and all that). That's also likely not what anyone here would do or does! Probably someone who has been comfortable with the MM model would do very well with BA plus a little extra practice for retention/fluency because of the way each is written directly to the student and assumes a parent/teacher's comfort with coaching using just the student materials. (Looking at the samples, I'm kind of tempted to use BA2 as my spirally supplement to BA3!)

 

It depends on the kid. I literally bought my daughter the books. She'd read and do the problems. I would correct them. We would discuss anything she got wrong and she'd have a second try. She did well this way. She was playing on Alcumus and Mathcounts trainer a lot while we waited for books. We did a little extra fractions and exponents work on Khan when we hit a few sections that she had more trouble with. I really appreciate that it's a pretty hands-off program and that it has low repetition (as for many mathy kids a lot of review is unnecessary). It's easy for me to pull a supplement for the occasional topic where she could use a little extra review or practice than it is for a lot to be built in and then I have to decide what she should do and what to weed out.

 

My second kid is less mathy, though, so maybe it won't work as well with him. 

[Targhee]

For my son it was complete. For my oldest or would have been but she was too old. My middle DD used it for grade 3 and we added DreamBox for additional practice (asynchronous with BA). She went to public in 4th (ahead of the curve in math). My youngest is also in public, but my guess is she would have needed DreamBox or another practice bank to solidify skills. So it depends on the kids. It is EXCELLENT math and I believe complete in conceptual explanation and teaching problem solving skills, but the approach is maybe not for everyone.

[sweetpea3829]

It depends on the kid. I literally bought my daughter the books. She'd read and do the problems. I would correct them. We would discuss anything she got wrong and she'd have a second try. She did well this way. She was playing on Alcumus and Mathcounts trainer a lot while we waited for books. We did a little extra fractions and exponents work on Khan when we hit a few sections that she had more trouble with. I really appreciate that it's a pretty hands-off program and that it has low repetition (as for many mathy kids a lot of review is unnecessary). It's easy for me to pull a supplement for the occasional topic where she could use a little extra review or practice than it is for a lot to be built in and then I have to decide what she should do and what to weed out.

 

My second kid is less mathy, though, so maybe it won't work as well with him. 

 

 

See, my kid CAN do the work on his own.  He works it just like your DD.  Reads the text, does the workbook, brings it to me for correction, and then he fixes the ones he missed.  If he continues to be stumped, we'll work on it together on the white board.  

 

It's just that...he needs to review to keep it in that noggin and some of the topics in BA were difficult to find practice for.  Like their chapter on perfect squares with the area models.  He learned some neat tricks for solving these square equations, but did not retain them at all.