What math curriculum would you choose for this child?

[blue daisy]

I need help deciding where to go with my daughter for math.  She is almost 8 and will be a third grader next year.  She is definitely my most challenging child to homeschool.  She's a difficult child in general and doesn't like anything that looks like school.  She is very bright and quick to pick up concepts.  She's maybe a little ahead of grade level and she has good number sense.  Math is not difficult for her so she doesn't need tons of repetition. We've used Singapore for the past 2 years because I like how thorough it is and I thought she'd like the colorful pictures.  She hates it.  We sometimes threw in a little Miquon.  She liked this at first but does not want to do it anymore.  I got her Beast Academy 2A (her brother uses Beast as his main curriculum) and she really enjoyed that although it is challenging for her and I feel like for HER, it's not enough for a main curriculum.  Sometimes she likes using manipulatives, and then sometimes she gets mad if I try to show her a concept with manipulatives. I never know what I'm going to get with her. lol  Anything with a lot of text on the page will be overwhelming and honestly, a lot of writing is overwhelming for her.  (she's very capable just not willing to do it.)  Yes, we are addressing underlying issues of this general behavior so I'm not looking for help there.  I just want ideas for math for next year.  If this was your kid, what would you do?  Thanks!

 

 

ETA - For Singapore, we just go over the textbook if needed, and do the workbook.  We don't use any of the extra books.  We spend maybe 15 min a day on math.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

With Singapore, do you use the Intensive Practice books? My mathy son has enjoyed using those instead of the Workbook because the problems take things a step further & are more like logic puzzles. We often do problems on the dry erase board in brightly coloured markers to keep things fun / interesting.

[blue daisy]

27 minutes ago, Expat_Mama_Shelli said:

With Singapore, do you use the Intensive Practice books? My mathy son has enjoyed using those instead of the Workbook because the problems take things a step further & are more like logic puzzles. We often do problems on the dry erase board in brightly coloured markers to keep things fun / interesting.

No, we have just done the textbook (sometimes ) and workbook.  I can check into those.

[knitgrl]

No math curriculum suggestions, but I second the use of the white board for problems. We do the Math Challenge problems on a white board from Dollar Tree. (We also do most of her spelling lessons on a white board as well.) Dd is writing resistant, but has no issues writing on a white board, and never complains about her hand getting tired.

[Janeway]

My child who hated Singapore Math loved Horizon's math. He is now in high school and does very well in math and considering math as a major.

[blue daisy]

3 hours ago, Janeway said:

My child who hated Singapore Math loved Horizon's math. He is now in high school and does very well in math and considering math as a major.

I hadn't looked at Horizons before.  I will check it out.  Thanks.

[blue daisy]

This child would probably do well with unschooling but that is way out of my element.  I feel more comfortable following a curriculum.  I have been looking at Right Start. I'm just concerned because of the expense and the possibility she'll hate that too.  Although I think that's what I'm leaning toward using with my youngest child so I guess I wouldn't really be out money if I needed the manipulative kit for her too.

[fralala]

Hmm. She likes BA. That's a really good sign. So she likes doing the actual problems and not just reading the books?

Does she like doing any math games or apps that provide substantial bits of extra practice with no written work (or interaction with you!) required?

If she has actually found a curriculum she enjoys, I'd do that (especially if her brother gets to use it as his main curriculum!) but come to some kind of agreement about extra practice. Sometimes I find it helpful, rather than thinking in terms of curricula, to actually take a glance, say, at the scope and sequence of a third grade math curriculum. (Or the Singapore Math TOC.) How much of what she's learning will require lots of practice and memorization? What is she already pretty solid on?

(I don't think there's anything wrong with pulling out the manipulatives even if she uses BA. Knowing that is going to help you better understand a concept is a good skill! I have to admit I have some competition math problems that occasionally have me pulling out the manipulatives to understand more fully. And these are problems for first graders! But the first time you encounter a problem or concept, it can be extremely helpful to model it in different ways.)

[blue daisy]

I forgot to add she likes to do Khan Academy.  This is not a requirement from me, so when she does it, it's because she wants to and she is allowed to work on what she wants.  We also have a Reading Eggs membership that includes Math Seeds.  She likes that too.  So I don't really want to only use a screen based curriculum (just trying to cut down on screens in general), but maybe pairing those with Beast Academy, and checking against a third grade scope and sequence to make sure we're not missing anything would work. Also adding in math games and real life activities.  I should revisit that relaxed math thread. lol

[blue daisy]

11 minutes ago, fralala said:

Hmm. She likes BA. That's a really good sign. So she likes doing the actual problems and not just reading the books?

Does she like doing any math games or apps that provide substantial bits of extra practice with no written work (or interaction with you!) required?

If she has actually found a curriculum she enjoys, I'd do that (especially if her brother gets to use it as his main curriculum!) but come to some kind of agreement about extra practice. Sometimes I find it helpful, rather than thinking in terms of curricula, to actually take a glance, say, at the scope and sequence of a third grade math curriculum. (Or the Singapore Math TOC.) How much of what she's learning will require lots of practice and memorization? What is she already pretty solid on?

(I don't think there's anything wrong with pulling out the manipulatives even if she uses BA. Knowing that is going to help you better understand a concept is a good skill! I have to admit I have some competition math problems that occasionally have me pulling out the manipulatives to understand more fully. And these are problems for first graders! But the first time you encounter a problem or concept, it can be extremely helpful to model it in different ways.)

Thanks, this was really helpful to think about. :)

 

ETA - she likes BA because the stories are fun but she also likes the problems.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

4 hours ago, blue daisy said:

I have been looking at Right Start. I'm just concerned because of the expense and the possibility she'll hate that too.  Although I think that's what I'm leaning toward using with my youngest child so I guess I wouldn't really be out money if I needed the manipulative kit for her too.

Their math games set is fabulous. Comes with a big book of games, good quality playing cards (0-10, multiplication table, fractions, money), & a few other things. Even if you don’t decide to purchase the curriculum, I would order those! 

Also, take a look at LivingMath.net for awesome book & activity extensions. Mix it up! 

[Tsuga]

What is it she's not getting out of BA? You say for her it's not enough, but what do you think she needs?

[blue daisy]

20 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

What is it she's not getting out of BA? You say for her it's not enough, but what do you think she needs?

I guess because she's not quite as "mathy" as my 10 year old that I feel like she needs a little more repetition than BA offers, but that's easy enough to supplement if I need to.  Also, while she's quite capable, she tends to freak out when things get too hard and I worried that BA would just be too stressful for her.  That being said, today I asked her which of her math books she likes best and hands down it is BA.  So I think we will be going with that as her main curriculum and supplementing as needed.  This thread really helped me think through the options.

[blue daisy]

34 minutes ago, Expat_Mama_Shelli said:

Their math games set is fabulous. Comes with a big book of games, good quality playing cards (0-10, multiplication table, fractions, money), & a few other things. Even if you don’t decide to purchase the curriculum, I would order those! 

Also, take a look at LivingMath.net for awesome book & activity extensions. Mix it up! 

GOod to know about the RS games and I will definitely check out that link!

[blue daisy]

Update- DD noticed me looking at Beast Academy on my computer and got very excited.  We talked and I asked her which of her math books she enjoyed the best and she said she loves Beast Academy.  We decided to use that as her main math next year.  We'll work on 2B this spring, do 2C when it comes out and I have all of level 3 so we can dabble in that slowly.  I still have a Miquon book for back up to review topics as needed and she also has a Math Seeds account that she likes to do for fun.  Mix in some math games and I think we are set.

Now I have to figure out her language arts, which I suspect will be pieced together in the same way. lol

[Targhee]

Why not stick with BA and add a form of review/reinforcement? We had subscriptions to DreamBox for my kids while they worked through BA.  They got the concepts and practice in BA, and then they got a chance to see those topics again in DreamBox (which was fun, and not so School-ish).

[Targhee]

29 minutes ago, blue daisy said:

Update- DD noticed me looking at Beast Academy on my computer and got very excited.  We talked and I asked her which of her math books she enjoyed the best and she said she loves Beast Academy.  We decided to use that as her main math next year.  We'll work on 2B this spring, do 2C when it comes out and I have all of level 3 so we can dabble in that slowly.  I still have a Miquon book for back up to review topics as needed and she also has a Math Seeds account that she likes to do for fun.  Mix in some math games and I think we are set.

Now I have to figure out her language arts, which I suspect will be pieced together in the same way. lol

My kids really loved MCT grammar, and we read the writing books as well for overview but chose different writing instruction. They are more like reading a story together than school work. 

[blue daisy]

7 minutes ago, Targhee said:

My kids really loved MCT grammar, and we read the writing books as well for overview but chose different writing instruction. They are more like reading a story together than school work. 

We have MCT and she loves it.  I'm thinking a combo of that, some BraveWriter (Jot it down for writing and some of the younger Arrow books), and not sure what else.  Maybe that's enough.

[Targhee]

1 hour ago, blue daisy said:

We have MCT and she loves it.  I'm thinking a combo of that, some BraveWriter (Jot it down for writing and some of the younger Arrow books), and not sure what else.  Maybe that's enough.

Lots and lots of reading and being read to! I loved read aloud say that age because I could pause to say things like, “listen to the beautiful sounds of this sentence - that’s using alliteration,” or, “oh, the author is making an allusion here - can you think of to what it is?”  We did Spelling in 3rd grade too for all but one (who had finished three levels of spelling in 1st and was good to go). Have fun!

[nixpix5]

If she was my student I would use Rightstart math games and probably Rightstart in general with some tweaking if she didn't need all of the manipulatives for lessons. My  precocious math student doesn't need much repetition in math and sometimes he will just say "I got this, I don't need the abacus today" and I don't push it. I do a lot on the white board with him as well. He loves that. We get lots of different colors of dry erase markers to make things fun. 

 

He started out with Horizon and it was a bust because there are so many problems per page. It sucked his will to do math. We use Beast as a supplement and it has been a great combo for this particular student. It doesn't work for my other two and they are their own math programs. Finding the math sweet spot is so challenging with some kids.