Explicit math instruction(that is to say, detailed explanations) for 6th grade?

[madteaparty]

Dd has finished Beast 4 and RSM 5. She needed some support with the latter but beast she did with a class and the homework mostly independently, I’d say 30% of the homework sitting next to DH.

I tried returning to Singapore but I don’t want to teach the bar method and at this point it’s ALL that it seems. We are doing beast 5 and it’s mostly her (online). I always feel my kids need something on top of AOPS because once they “discover” whatever it is they’re supposed to, they proceed to forget. Anyway I know of MEP and I understand Math Mammoth also has explicit explanations. Any other shiny program I’m missing? I will make our way to PreA with AOPS, because I managed that once before with DS, but we do need something in between...My great preference would have been RSM prealgebra and geometry (they teach both at the same time) next year, but she asked not to do that again.

[HomeAgain]

I am not familiar with the RSM acronym. 

There are a couple of other options that come to mind for explicit instruction, but you might have already discarded them:

Key To....series 
Focus On....series, though this isn't as explicit as the Key To ones.
Mortensen - to be able to work in strands, but you need blocks
Making Math Meaningful - but it may be more gentle than what you're looking for.

[madteaparty]

25 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

I am not familiar with the RSM acronym. 

There are a couple of other options that come to mind for explicit instruction, but you might have already discarded them:

Key To....series 
Focus On....series, though this isn't as explicit as the Key To ones.
Mortensen - to be able to work in strands, but you need blocks
Making Math Meaningful - but it may be more gentle than what you're looking for.

RSM is just Russian school of math, sorry.

thanks for the suggestions! 

[Eilonwy]

11 hours ago, madteaparty said:

Anyway I know of MEP and I understand Math Mammoth also has explicit explanations. Any other shiny program I’m missing? I will make our way to PreA with AOPS, because I managed that once before with DS, but we do need something in between.

I think I would have used Math Mammoth as a fill-in year if I’d needed it.  They have Gr. 6 & 7, in blocks rather than spiral,  and reportedly pretty well scaffolded.  My oldest just finished BA 5D, but the book rather than a class.
 

8 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Mortensen - to be able to work in strands, but you need blocks

What is working in strands? Following one topic as needed?

[HomeAgain]

4 minutes ago, Eilonwy said:

 

What is working in strands? Following one topic as needed?

Right.  Mortensen is set up so that it has sets of books: arithmetic, algebra, etc.  and levels that they suggest for each set groupings.  Really, a kid could go as far as they want in one set, then switch to another, then another, then back again to the first..all within the same level.
It's a little like how Math Mammoth Blue can be set up, or Miquon.

[JennyD]

One of my sons, who does not work independently at ALL and has the patience of a fruit fly, moved with surprising ease from Beast 5 to AoPS prealgebra.  I honestly thought it was going to be a disaster but he wound up sailing through the prealgebra book.  Now, mind you, I sat right next to him the whole time, but as far as the actual math was concerned he was well-prepared to tackle prealgebra after BA5. 

Online BA wasn't around for my oldest, but with my younger two I have found that BA works far better if we do the books (guide and practice) and use the online stuff as an extra resource, rather than try to do the whole thing online.  

All that is to say, I'd be inclined to just start the prealgebra book after BA5 and then just fill in as needed.  Each chapter starts with an easy review so if you realize that, say, she's totally lost on exponents, you can go back and work on those intensively before moving to the more challenging stuff.  I've used the Key To series for this sort of thing, but that was a while ago, not sure they're still available.

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by JennyD

[daijobu]

I agree with @JennyD,  there is considerable overlap between the topics covered in BA level 5 and prealgebra, which should ease the transition.  

[Not_a_Number]

I'm happy to work through AoPS with her, you know. I'll make sure she doesn't forget anything 🙂 . 

[ElizabethB]

A good follow on to what you're doing for review of everything is Lial's Basic college math, they have a geometry section now in the 9th edition. As a bonus, it says "college" in the title so they feel smart while doing the basics!! A used paperback copy is fine, there are several for cheap right now.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321825535/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&asin=B00AEFU3RQ&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1

Edited June 24, 2021 by ElizabethB

[birchbark]

I like the detailed explanations in Learn Math Fast. Sample pages can be found here.

[Clickie]

Evan-Moor Math Fundamentals Grade 6 has detailed math models for each teaching point (I own it).  Pages have appropriate space for student to work out answers (no recopying into notebooks or scrap paper...).  You can preview all of the pages on Evan-Moors website:

https://www.evan-moor.com/math-fundamentals-grade-6-teacher-reproducibles-print

Jump Math Grade 6 is a Canadian program, but has US editions for sale into the US.  Inexpensive for how thorough it is,   

Note:  Not "Jump Math at Home" which is the practice book that parents can buy their kids to practice at home if students are taught using the program at school.  Also, books must have US flag printed on upper corner or it won't be US grade level topics, I'd say mainly because Canada does data science early and fractions later.    It's very scaffolded:  The program gets the student to work out pages on the math models before moving on to the math concepts. If we need to review any given topic, I rip the pages out for that section and get my son to do portions for a series of days until he retains it.  They have a full website with lots of additional resources at no extra charge, I believe you have to register.

Amazon doesn't carry the series right now (it did a few months ago), so I'll show a link for Rainbow Resource so you can see the table of contents:

https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/062277/Jump-Math-Assessment-%26-Practice-Book-6.1-US-Edition.html?