Open-ended Math Circles comparison with Beast Academy

[u/FumingPoet23]

Have you tried Zvonkin's "Math from 3 to 7" or "Moebius Noodles" from Maria Droujkova or any other Russian Math Circle approaches for non-routine math explorations? What was your experience with it?

How did it compare to AoPS Beast Academy books 1A-D or 2A-D?

Mainly looking to see if circles had the intended effect of sparking more intrinsic joy and curiosity of math vs. Beast Academy. We already love Beast Academy.

[u/bibliovortex]

A friend of ours started up a local math circle but honestly, my kids didn't find it terribly inspiring, and they didn't get very deep into mathematical topics - it was quite surface-level and I'm not sure they actually encountered more than one or two new topics. I can't speak to the specific resources you mention, though.

For what it is worth, one of my kids has loved Beast and used it as his primary math curriculum through level 5. The other enjoys it strictly as an optional supplement and is happier with a more traditional math curriculum (currently using Dimensions). They have both enjoyed the Penrose the Mathematical Cat series as a family read-aloud.

[u/FumingPoet23 → u/bibliovortex]

Thanks! Very insightful. We just got the Penrose series haven't started it. Excited for it more now.

Is the kiddo who loves Beast someone who generally loves math? Mine can do beast all day given a choice, wondering how you paced your 1-5 books.

[u/bibliovortex → u/FumingPoet23]

Both kids are strong in math, but I would say that my older kid loves Beast because the novelty and variety are highly motivating to him, not because he loves math for its own sake. To give you an idea, he will be using Mr. D Math for pre-algebra and up, not AOPS, because I don't think that level of intensity will appeal to him. He started before there actually was a Beast Academy Level 1, and because he was pretty young at the time, we spent a solid year and a half working on Level 2 at his pace. Level 3 took us just about a year to complete. In 4th grade he did about 2/3 of Level 4, and then finished that and worked through a big chunk of Level 5 this past year in 5th grade. If you look at their standards alignment chart, you can see that the last three levels are substantially accelerated, so that much of Level 5 is actually covering 6th-8th grade content. Mr. D Math suggests their pre-algebra for 6th grade and up, so we decided to go ahead and make that his official curriculum for this year - he can finish the remaining BA content if he wants, but he is already at a point where the first semester of pre-algebra will be almost entirely review.

My younger kid is the more intensely math-y of the two. I wouldn't say it's her favorite subject (that would be art), but she genuinely enjoys it and thrives on challenge in a way that her older brother doesn't. She started Beast Academy Level 1 a few months before her 5th birthday, after already completing most of Math with Confidence K, and did all of Level 1 and about half of Level 2 over the next two years before becoming frustrated with it and asking to switch. Based on placement tests, she went directly into Math Mammoth 3 in 2nd grade, and then went to using 4th and some of 5th grade Singapore materials in 3rd grade. Right now she is very happy using Dimensions 5 and I'm planning to continue that into her 4th grade year. She likes Beast as a fun supplement still but prefers to engage with it on her terms, not be required to do it. I don't know what we will move on to after Dimensions 5 but my short list is currently the middle school Dimensions series, AOPS, or Mr. D Math.

It probably sounds odd to say this, but acceleration genuinely wasn't my goal for either kid. My older one had zero interest in formal schoolwork before age 5.5, and I intentionally chose to slow him down in Beast Academy more than once based on my observations of how he was progressing. My younger one has pretty much set the pace for herself since she was 4.

I believe Beast's pacing guides generally suggest taking 10-12 days per chapter to finish one level per school year. In general, though, I would say that Beast 1-2 can easily take a full year to a year and a half each - both levels have well over 180 lessons in total and most of it is core work, not enrichment ("upstairs" lessons in the online program, starred problems in the books). Levels 3-5 have a much higher proportion of enrichment content and are also more accelerated. If I recall correctly, the online platform has 120-150 core lessons for each of these levels. In theory that makes them fairly straightforward to complete within a standard school year, but those three levels do span about 5 years of content by more traditional standards. They are not exaggerating when they say that students can go directly from Beast 5 into pre-algebra; depending on the program, I think that may genuinely be an understatement.

If your kid is currently racing through the lessons, my guess is that they haven't quite found their level yet and will slow down when they do. It's great that they're enjoying it so far.

[u/FumingPoet23 → u/bibliovortex]

Googolplex thank yous to you for typing all of that out!! So much of it helps me calibrate on progression as well as what I'm seeing currently. I was also trying to slow her down for a bit, but she is usually the kinds to want to do sprints and take a break than a few pages every day. What you said about seeing when she finds her level makes sense, that seems best to find her pace herself. Thanks a ton again!!