Lawyer&Mom Posted October 11, 2022 Share Posted October 11, 2022 My third grader has started asking if she is smart enough for high school math. I told her of course she is, but she’d have to learn fourth through eighth grade math first. Her response? Okay, so when can I start fourth grade math? Ugh. She’s in school so she can’t move through that curriculum at her own pace. We could after-school ahead in math, but my priority for after school has been read-alouds and French. (This is maybe a half-hour a day.) I could carve out a bit of daily time for math with her, but not a lot. Maybe dad could do more on the weekends. Any math curriculum ideas that would allow a kid to work semi-independently? And would be interesting enough for a kid? (I could hand her Lial’s this afternoon, but that’s not exactly compelling.) I’d rather not spend a ton, I don’t know how durable this math kick will be. She’s dabbled in the first two books of 3rd grade Beast Academy, and I could steer her back that way, but I suspect she wants to learn ahead more than she wants to dive deeper. I don’t see a problem with giving her access to what she really wants, even if I’m not going to push her to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 12, 2022 Author Share Posted October 12, 2022 Hmm. Maybe since we absolutely don’t need a full curriculum, I can get her Hands on Equations, tell her it’s high school math (which isn’t really a lie…) and just see how far we get. I think she’d enjoy jumping straight to algebraic thinking without having to finish all of arithmetic first. Especially since she will have to do all of arithmetic over again at school. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted October 12, 2022 Share Posted October 12, 2022 Hands on Equations was good practice for my dd. Arithmetic in disguise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Been there, done that...Mine started finding algebra placement tests, printing them, doing them and leaving them on my computer. As a 7 yr old third grader. So, we finished SM through 5B, LOF Fractions, and Decimals and percents. All of which took...about a month after I said that was the requirement to start algebra. Keys to Algebra and LoF PA was a good first step, and then we moved into AoPS PA. We'd already done HoE and as much of Dragonbox as was out at the time. HoE now has an app, so that and Dragonbox might be good independent work. Keys might be relatively independent as well, but since she's got to do school math, might be too much writing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Maybe LOF? My older did it along with AoPS from pre-A through Alg. 2 and said that it helped to see a different perspective on the math. But, it is independent and has short chapters with just a few problems so it's not daunting. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 What about Mortensen? She can work in whatever strand she finds interesting at the moment. I have found that other than self-teaching programs, which often have a lot of review (like Math Mammoth), it's necessary for a young student to have someone to interact with and correct faulty premises. DS loved working with Gattegno math, which does require interaction and then moves into open-ended conceptual work at each micro-lesson. But, it was necessary for me to work with him first and make sure he understood the idea he was working with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 I totally don’t mind checking in every day, but I want something she can work on independently. I’ll check out LoF. A smaller number of problems would be good. Too much review frustrates her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 Okay so LoF looks amazing. Rainbow Resource says to start at the beginning regardless of grade. What says the Hive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 4 minutes ago, Lawyer&Mom said: Okay so LoF looks amazing. Rainbow Resource says to start at the beginning regardless of grade. What says the Hive? Begin at the beginning. It ramps up quickly, introducing sigma notation and sets by the 4th or 5th book, IIRC. Plus, it's one long story. My youngest loved it through Mineshaft, but the upper books were a bust. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 We started with fractions without issue. The elementary series wasn't out yet. If you actually go in the order written, the first book was calculus, so obviously it isn't actually required to do lower level math books to handle higher ones! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebcoola Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 If you want something independent you could do prodigy math on the computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 18 hours ago, rebcoola said: If you want something independent you could do prodigy math on the computer. Prodigy only goes through 8th grade, so if she wants algebra, it won’t do much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SanDiegoMom Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 We did Life of Fred, he read Murderous Maths, and he loved Aops. DS read Beast Academy after he'd already started AOPS since his sister was using them, and he loved those too. He loved any books about math. I got a lot of choices from here -- there were lists floating around. Number Devil, Penrose the Mathematical Cat, Why Pi, then later Math with Bad Drawings, Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension, What IF... so many great books about math or related to math! He started with Aops Pre-Algebra in 3rd grade once he'd worked through Singapore Math 4 and 5. We just took it slow -- it took about a full calendar year. This was during homeschooling though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 15, 2022 Author Share Posted October 15, 2022 I told her I bought Life of Fred. She was upset I hadn’t bought more of the “Little Monsters.” Kid, you are nine. We have time to do it all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malam Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 (edited) I would recommend Zearn up to 6th or 7th grade followed by a prealgebra/basic math text. Most of them, like this or this or this, start from the basics of addition and go from there (albeit at a faster rate), so if she's the type to get things quickly, there's no reason why she can't start with them right now. The idea of doing middle school math would obviously be great for her confidence and perhaps make her more gritty when she inevitably struggles. By "Little Monsters", does she mean Beast Academy? Edited October 15, 2022 by Malam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Not_a_Number Posted October 15, 2022 Share Posted October 15, 2022 Have you tried Beast Academy online? I know people have reported that it's more independent than the books. And I know that AoPS prealgebra has a self-paced version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookbard Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 Give Beast Academy Online a trial run. It's pretty fun. I wouldn't just turn it on and leave them to it, though. Show them how it works with the different parts: you read the comics, do the lessons, and then have a go with the puzzle lab. There's videos as well but they're pretty dull. My kids tend to pick and choose the bits they like (my daughter has been doing nothing but logic all year) but it's good to do it in order. Start with BA3 and go from there. There's also Khan Academy which I find is even easier to just work through without having to find different bits here and there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 On 10/15/2022 at 7:10 AM, Malam said: By "Little Monsters", does she mean Beast Academy? Yes. We have 3A and 3B. She’s devoured the comics, but only dabbled in the workbooks. (This was at least a year ago, I bought the books ages ago when 3A was the first one.) The last time we tried we had to sit next to her while she attempted the problems, or she would give up because it wasn’t instantly easy. I’m all for working on hard things, but I don’t know if I have the time. Maybe no matter what we do we just set a timer. Easier to get the kids to commit to ten minutes of something everyday. It’s what we do with French. (I know ten minutes isn’t much, but this *is* after schooling.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 21 hours ago, Lawyer&Mom said: Yes. We have 3A and 3B. She’s devoured the comics, but only dabbled in the workbooks. (This was at least a year ago, I bought the books ages ago when 3A was the first one.) The last time we tried we had to sit next to her while she attempted the problems, or she would give up because it wasn’t instantly easy. I’m all for working on hard things, but I don’t know if I have the time. Maybe no matter what we do we just set a timer. Easier to get the kids to commit to ten minutes of something everyday. It’s what we do with French. (I know ten minutes isn’t much, but this *is* after schooling.) Maybe buy the guides and let her read them for fun, but use something different for practice. As someone with a math ed background, I'm torn on BA. On one hand, I can definitely see where it involves puzzles and problem solving beyond the typical math curriculum, just as AoPS does. OTOH, most young children simply don't have the mental stamina of kids who are doing Math Counts, AMC 8/10/12, etc as their chosen extracurricular! It didn't come out until L was past that point, but honestly, I'm not sure that it would have worked for my mathy kid even as a complete homeschooler for 3rd grade level math. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 @DmmetlerShe would *not* complain if the guides showed up on their own! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawyer&Mom Posted October 23, 2022 Author Share Posted October 23, 2022 Okay, so I said I wanted her to be able to work on her own, but *I* love Life of Fred. His sense of humor and interest in curious non-math tangents is *very* Autistic, in the best possible way. I imagine the initial enthusiasm will wane, but Fractions has been a big hit at our house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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