I've seen in different threads that people talking about Beast Academy, AoPS and Singapore Math. I want to start my DS7 on one of these programs at home but not sure which one would be the best. He is in first grade but at the third grade level math per the grade 2-5 MAP test. He's currently given advanced math questions at school and he can work on them at his own pace on his free time (after he's done with the regular classwork). In second grade, he will be taking the challenged math class with the third graders (half grade accelerated).

I want to have a program that is great in building math foundations, as I've read that the common core curriculum could be jumbled-up which doesn't help building the basic in math.

Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

We are quite familiar with Beast Academy and AoPS. Beast Academy is actually AoPS for grades 3-5. From what you have posted in the past, I would suggest getting a book from Beast Academy for 3rd grade (where it starts) and trying it out. It has a comic book format that discusses the math (the text), plus a book of problems.

AoPS really starts with pre-algebra right now, so unless you feel that your DS is ready for that, I would wait a bit. Also, even the pre-algebra is QUITE challenging...probably much, much more so than most students are EVER likely to see in their B&M school.

Thank you so much, Loy58 and Portia for sharing your experience and thoughts on these programs. I realize every kid is different so I may try both Singapore Math and Beast Academy (of course in different grade levels) and see which one he likes better and we will stick to it. Sounds like AoPS is a really good program so we will definitely give it a try when he reaches to the higher grade level.

Honestly I don't know how mathy my DS is. His WISC-V subtest scores suggest that he has a potential to be really good at math (99.9% visual spatial and 99% fluid reasoning). But whether he likes math that much is another story. Can't really figure that out yet until we try these programs and see how he deals with the challenges that he doesn't currently get from school.

Again, really appreciate your posts :-)

So this is to supplement what he's getting in school, which sounds like it will already be somewhat accelerated, right?

I think my recommendation would be to try Beast Academy first and go to Singapore if your child doesn't like it. Beast Academy is much more presented in a way that many kids will find to be fun and engaging, whereas Singapore, while excellent, is textbook math. I've found that even my rather mathy PG child got bored of textbook math on top of school math, even when the school math was a couple grade levels too low. DS6 loves Beast Academy (though I think he's only now approaching the "right level" for 3A) and Dreambox; DD10 has always been just a year ahead of Beast Academy but likes Life of Fred, Dreambox, and "math puzzle" workbooks. 32

Thank you Aufilia. Yes, this will be a supplement to what he's already getting in school. They just started his individual learning plan a couple of weeks ago. What they do for him is to have him working on a math packet that is in 2nd/3rd grade math after he's done with his normal work in the classroom. Then the math specialist reviews the answers and discusses anything that he did not understand or did not get right. From the feedback I got from his teacher and himself, it doesn't seem to be working out too well for him so far. He doesn't like to do it but I am not sure if it's too hard for him to self study or still too easy. He told me it is boring.... We are having the teacher-parent conference tonight. The teacher will show me what is in his packet. I may have a better idea what's going on then.

I did decide to start DS with Beast Academy, for the reasons that it is presented in a fun way and it is more in line with common core. I had him taking the 3A assessment and we are going to start there. I think he may be able to start at a higher level but I worry that there are gaps in certain areas so we'll start from the beginning of the program so he gets all the basics down. Hopefully he'll like it and gets excited about doing the problems (like how he gets excited to do problems on Brain Games)

Hi, thank you so much for all the help. My DD9 is doing Singapore Math at her school (she refers to it as "snail math") I don't think is the program itself but the teacher she has now. Now, this is supposed to be a school for the "gifted" but it has become clear that even though it was founded on those premises, that is not the case anymore and is catering more to the high achievers. With these said, I have noticed that many of the kids who are more incline to be high achievers supplement with John Hopkins or Stanford math online courses at home. Anyone has experience using any of these programs instead of Singapore or Beast Academy? I feel quite overwhelmed and want to do the right thing for my DD who used to love math since before she could talk. She processes information really fast and loves being challenged, but she could care less about all the praises the high achievers crave. Thanks in advance for any advise you can provide!

Singapore Maths (SG Maths) is a good curriculum, IMO.

The books a relatively low cost and easily available for purchase online.

There are also SG Challenge question books.

When you encounter a brick wall, try to find a route that bypasses it.

What we did with our DD was to do the SG Maths through their 5 grade and then we switched to AoPS for the pre-algebra onwards. This left her classroom Maths far behind.

I would recommend that you just use the online tests to see where your DD is for SG Maths and then just get the books. We got the textbooks and the exercise books (I was super worried about gaps so made her do the practice in the exercise books) but not the teacher guides because they were not needed.

Portia,

I know DS used to draw (which he loves to do a lot) after he's done with his regular class work, because he had so much free time. So I am wondering if your comment it's true that he thinks that by doing the math packet, his free time has been taken away....

I will have more information from the conference today. If that seems to be the reason that he sees it as punishment, I may suggest that just having my DS do the math packet he's got from the math specialist instead of doing both work.

Thank you!

Advanced work *instead of* and not *after* was key for our DS. I totally laughed when he told me in grade 2 that "I purposely do my work really, really slow so they don't make me do extra". Needless to say the really, really slow part made advocacy that much more fun. Good luck!

Supposedly this set up is temporary. According to my conversation with the principal, the plan is also flexible. The trial period is only six to eight weeks and we can adjust if necessary. So I am hopeful that if the "after" doesn't work well with my DS, they can adjust to just do advanced work.

For 2nd grade, the principal has already said they will be working with my DS' schedule so he can go to the 3rd grade challenge math which is half grade accelerated. If he does really well at the fall MAP test, he may be bumped up to advanced which is a full grade acceleration. Either one he will be taking math class with advanced 3rd graders next year. Hope this setup would work better.

My K DS found the Beast Academy books I have for him for summer math and started pouring through them. He begged me for each one after he was done with the other. He read 3A, 3B, 3C and part of 3D in under 2 weeks. I know he isn't getting all the concepts this way but he's asking some really interesting questions. He literally spent 5 minutes jumping up and down and screaming "I love this one!" when he got to 3B about multiplication. This is a really reserved, laid back kid. He got more excited about this than the donuts I brought home last night.

We'll see how he does when we sit down and have to do the hard work that goes along with the books. But I just thought I'd add our experience and say thanks to everyone that recommended these books to me. I'm looking forward to a fun summer of math work.

For the school year we're doing Dreambox, mostly for double digit addition/subtraction practice. It's been a good program. We're just now moving to 3rd grade content so I'm not familiar with the level your son would be working at, a year ahead of what we've been doing.

Thanks Portia. I sure will keep that in mind. This is mostly the reason why I wanted to get the supplement outside of the school to make sure he's well challenged. If he goes the same pace as in school, that is fine too as this will be more practice for him

Based on MAP test score, my son is in 3rd grade level. We did not really give him accelerated math work to do at home except taking a couple of math courses at the University enrichment program on Saturdays. So I think 3A would be a good starting point. This way I know we won't have a gap in any areas.

So nice to see your DS getting excited about the books. I hope my son would have the same reaction when he sees the book

We've also used IXL.com to fill in gaps for things that aren't "core" math, like telling time, money, shapes, etc. It's a way to browse topics for a certain grade with very little time investment. I don't know how accurate it is but we have found things DS didn't know that we didn't realize were covered in that year.

You can do a certain number of free problems per day, which are about right to do a quick daily math type of thing. After a year of using it like that we did finally buy an account, but you don't really have to.

It's just okay but for what we use it for it's actually kind of great. The biggest challenge is keeping DS from wandering off to high school level topics.

Had a good conversation with DS' teacher at the conference last night. The teacher told me that after the last email communication about DS not very interested in doing the challenged packet, he has been showing more interest in the packet. Part of it could be due to working the same packet with another boy in the class who is his good friend.

Right after I asked the teacher if my understanding was correct that he was working on these problems after he's done with the regular classwork, the teacher said yes but she will start to just have him do the packet (after he's done with the current one) because it is just redundant work for him to do what he has already mastered. I told the teacher this may help his attitude towards working on the challenged problems since he won't see this as "extra" work.

One thing I found out from the teacher is that because his limitations in vocabulary, he's had some trouble understanding the word problems. Once he's explained the meaning of the words, he usually does not have trouble answering the question. So this is an area that we need to work on with him. I hope Beast Academy will help with this as well.