Beast Academy placement and as a stand alone or not?

[Janeway]

I started daughter on BA 2A. She finished MIF grade level 1, so through 1B. She was strong on her math. Son has finished SM primary math 3B. Son tried BA in the past and did not like it, I still have his book. So I wanted to try daughter on it before I made a final decision on what to use with her next year. Also, I am open to using BA online too. I also downloaded Dragon Box and I am open to more apps. 

 

Daughter is not complaining about BA. But I also find myself wondering if it really is enough or if it makes a better supplement. Would it be enough if we simply added some online things or an app? Or even just BA online? Again, we are not having any trouble yet, I am just looking at what we are doing and wondering if we will need to add in more. Also, I am finding it is definitely tough for her, but not so hard she cannot do it. So i had my son who has finished SM Primary 3B try the problems and found that he did not just fly through them but had to actually think. Would it be worth it to try to get him to do the work book pages along side her or just a waste of time? I tried BA with him in the past and he already rejected it as a primary program.

[MeaganS]

I think it's is enough. Most people worry that there isn't enough drill. I argue that the drill is hidden in the puzzles. I do have my kids do xtramath for math facts fluency, but other than that, for my neurotypical kids, I am confident beast academy is enough. I also had them go through all of Miquon before starting and they do a fair amount of Prodigy on the computer, so we do supplement some. Still, imo, Beast Academy is a full math curriculum. Oh, we also do half in the workbooks and half online, using the online component to review previous chapters. 

[AmandaVT]

Beast is enough. DS started with Math Mammoth and we switched to beast in 2nd. For the next couple of years, I would occasionally worry if he was really understanding a concept. I'd pull out a MM page or two of the same concept for extra practice and each time he'd breeze through it like it was nothing. He's taking Pre-A through AOPS online as a summer class and BA prepared him very well for it.

[CAtoVA]

I have used it it as a supplement for two of my kiddos—now rising 3rd and rising 6th. We have used levels 2-4 so far and I have level 5 on deck for for my rising 6th grader. My "spine" math curriculum for both is Singapore Primary Standards. Ymmv, but in my experience BA has worked great as a supplement. I have also used Math Mammoth for targeted practice if and when needed.

 

 

[EmilyGF]

I think it depends on your kid, frankly. 

[Jackie]

It was plenty for my kid. She did need more practice with the algorithms for multi digit multiplication and division, so I bought Kumon workbooks for those specific topics, but that was it. She transitioned into Algebra 1 this past year without difficulty.

[Sarah0000]

I think it's enough but you may want to cycle through some of the multiplication work in particular or add in a small supplement (we used MM Multiplication 2) to keep the facts fresh. I allow my son to bounce around the chapters and since he hates rote arithmetic he tends to go long periods without practicing multiplication facts until I add something in or make him work on the BA multiplication chapters.

Regarding BA Online, for my distractible son who use to balk at math that he couldn't do instantaneously in his head, I find it a huge help that the online version will link to a teaching video and the comic guide directly related to the lesson he's working on. So it's much easier to stay on task and use the resources to figure it out himself versus the paper books where he has to flip and find and get on a tangent. Just yesterday he said he now actually likes to try to solve the hard problems on his own!