I am trying to find a curriculum to use in homeschooling.
Currently looking online at Beast Academy, Life of Fred and have one workbook of Singapore already in hand. (But it is far below level; one of the problems of having a kid who goes so fast through things, is that if you buy curriculum ahead of time, before you get to using it, you suddenly find he has surpassed it )

I know there are tons of different ones available, and it is daunting to try to find the right one, whatever that may mean. Who knew there could be so many approaches to learning basic math?

From what I can tell thus far, I think my son learns best visually, and likes to think abstractly. So I am leaning to a story-problem approach.

Could I have some help comparing and contrasting what has worked for you or cluing me into other systems you have used.
Thus far we have just worked on ixl.com, which is great because he can just key stuff in, and writing at this stage isn't terribly great (although in past month of working on it, it has improved much). But the work on there is just test-form. Unless you get the problem wrong there is no lesson on how or why to do things. I would like to have a better basis for understanding shortcuts, and why things work.

Thank you so much for all your great input, now and always.

My DW hasn't found a silver bullet. There's no one curriculum that seems to work best. So she mixes and matches, and tailors it herself.

I bought Mighty Mind and Geoboards with workbooks. Right now I'm looking at how Waldorf form drawing grows into Waldorf geometry lessons in middle school. Very pretty!
http://waldorfessentials.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Waldorfgeometry.pdf


I subscribed to Bedtime Math. It's making the math facts become automatic. We don't do it all the time, but we still do it.
We just got a place value game we got out of a workbook. It has a spinner made from a paperclip hanging off of a brad. One spinner is for place values up to one-hundred-million. One spinner is for the number you write in that place value. You fill them in until you're done and then you read it.
I don't know how old your kid is, so you might be past all this. This video explained dividing to my kid. Check out this video on YouTube:



The Apple Fractions book led to Kumon fractions and decimals. My kid reads the book at the table while I cut the apples into fractions and then bake a pie.

You're right about not knowing what they'll need or outgrow and the price of books and all, so I do a lot of teaching with a whiteboard, crayons, and paper. I read him stuff off the internet and show him videos on youtube. We do have the old singapore book set.

From what I've read, don't buy the hands on equations for how much use you'd get for what it costs. Buy Jacobs Algebra instead, which is a gentle introduction. (I haven't bought it yet). And I remember what Grinnity said once, buy middle school books and take as long as you need to work up to them and take it slow, rather than spinning your wheels and buying stuff they outgrow too quickly. Also check the math section in the non-fiction in the children's section of the library. I have found living math books there. (not life of fred, or anything).

One thing that I liked best about Singapore was that it was quick to get, and CHEAP to replace when DD hopped out of level.


Nothing in prepared materials is truly intended for teaching HG+ kids, so bear that in mind.



Yup.

My daughter has done BEST with an approach that teaches her mathematics without manipulatives, but WITH 'story problems' that challenge her to know how to problem-solve using the tools that she knows about, and encourages her to stretch and use some that she is exploring, too.

It's less right/wrong and more about "this problem is one where we HAVE to apply this new concept... or is it?"

We found that Singapore's underlying philosophy was best suited for that (of those things we tried).

Don't skip the "challenging word problems" workbook, though. That was the BEST part of the Singapore program, in my DD's opinion. She really likes those kind of applications questions for exploring math.

I would choose Singapore Math with supplements like the Challenging Word Problems and Intensive Practice books.

The reason I'm not recommending Beast Academy is that it only has one level so far and with a kid who is likely to blow through more than one level per year, you'll find yourself out of levels before you know it.

As for Life of Fred, it's a fun supplement for kids who like the narrative approach, but I don't recommend it as a primary program.

http://m.youtube.com/#/user/MathMammoth?&desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2FMathMammoth

Maria Miller has a ton of great videos on youtube, so does khan academy, so does singapore math. google, for the lessons you need. If you need skip counting, google youtube for that too. youtube, how did we ever live without it?

Okay, thanks for the help. I had worried that beast academy was only one grade so far...the grade he is working through though. But yes, it could be a prob when he finishes it. And LoF looks fun, but if you would not use it for the whole bang, then Singapore it is! Although I might just try LoF fractions for fun.
Thanks. Of course, we might always change down the road...but that's the beauty of this thing!

We use EPGY as the main curriculum and supplement with Singapore. EPGY is good for getting the basics down and requires less adult time per unit kid time. Then we use Singapore for the things that it does well, like the mental math strategies and the word problems.

We've also just started also using the art of problem solving Prealgebra book and it's quite good.

AOPS is a step up from most presentations of the same material, so if you have accelerated to the point where math is challenging, you might find that it is worth going through prealgebra once at "EPGY-level" and then going back through it at "AOPS-level"

What about Primary Math Challenge and Math Challenge by Edward Zaccaro?

We ran out of Singapore Math and moved to Brighter Kids. My 4th grader is doing the 6th grade Geometry- it's kind of intro to geometry. It's very nice though and it seems to explain things well.

We have used the following:

IXL. DS7 did some self-teaching using this, bouncing around levels and skills, at age 5.

ALEKS. We were unimpressed for various reasons but it filled a need at the time and allowed speeding through a year or so of curriculum for hole-checking purposes.

EPGY. This seems all right for quality of instruction, but the software on our machines was buggy as heck. Never got into it for this reason, and in any event we prefer books.

Life of Fred. There's nothing really to recommend against this, but it's only enrichment, not a curriculum. We've also used bits of Ed Zaccaro Challenge Math a while back, and many other sources of problem solving enrichment. Raymond Smullyan and similar logic puzzles are another fun type of challenge.

Singapore Math. There are some off-brand "Singapore 'Math Practice'" workbooks sold on places like Amazon, but you have to make sure to buy the actual system if you want it, not copycat brands. The actual system uses teaching / home instruction guides, textbooks (important), workbooks (not so important for a child who learns quickly, in my opinion), and extra practice in the form of Challenging Word Problems and Intensive Practice books (important, but you would generally only need one or the other, since both are pretty challenging at the right level). It's my belief that you can get by without the teacher's manual / instruction guide if you know what you're doing with math, but it's cheap so you might want to get the first one just to see how you like it.

(Here, by the way, is what a "Singapore 'Math Practice'" workbook looks like, with branding such that people tend to confuse it with the actual Singapore Math curriculum:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0768240018

This is what a workbook from the Singapore Math curriculum looks like:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/9810185014 )

"Geometry", by Harold R. Jacobs (the older non-cartoonish version). I can't recommend this enough.

Algebra, Structure and Method Book 1, by Brown, Dolciani et al. I think this is also a great resource, and DS has learned a lot from it.

I also recommend taking a look at Alcumus and Art of Problem Solving; we just haven't gotten much into them beyond dabbling in Alcumus yet.

Iucounu, thanks so much. I thought I had tried Singapore Math, and I no idea I had only gotten a look-a-like. Now we can try the real thing! We also use ixl and like it.
The Aops is something I plan to look at down the road, but right now we are "running" through 3rd grade. I will keep these others in mind for later.

I have one Life of Fred on order to try out, but I am glad to know it is not a complete curriculum.
Also got the Murderous Math books from a rec on here, but haven't looked at them yet.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. There are so many to look at!

I buy Singapore here: https://www.singaporemath.com/
They've also got forums and a list of errata.
In addition to the text/wb, we use IP and CWP.

We'll be switching away after finishing 5B (Standards edition). I'll still go through IP and CWP for 6, but we won't use the text/wb for them.

We'll either move to AoPS (Art of Problem Solving) or do more with Elements of Mathematics http://www.elementsofmathematics.com/
I used these textbooks when I was in middle school and they're excellent. It's definitely not traditional math but it is very much real math.

I will second/third/etc. the suggestions for Singapore Math and AOPS. A lot of the homeschool math books can be a little "light" so be careful about what you choose as your spine. Some of the lighter books are good for back-up, though. Somebody mentioned Zaccaro books. They're great, and were really fun enrichment books in the elementary years. My son loved solving the "Einstein Level" problems and receiving a little award when he solved one. I heard the author speak at a gifted conference once when my son was little and I found him to be really inspirational. He stressed the importance of giving our gifted kids real challenges.

My DD8 has been going through the Singapore Maths books like a hot knife through butter so I am glad that to see the tip on the 'challenging word problems'. She has just been looking at the books on her own without any help and is just tearing through to the point where I have been getting scared that she isn't learning anything. I will try the word problems and report back...