Five Summers ago, I reviewed various elementary mathematics curricula. At the time, Beast Academy was a fairly new curriculum on the market. Five years later, I continue to use this program.
When new programs come on the market for math students, I tend to be skeptical. I want to try to help my children enjoy the study of mathematics as well as learn as much about the world of mathematics as possible, and many new programs offer great things. However, I have found few who actually deliver. For example, I remember when Masterbooks’ Math Lessons for a Living Education first became available. At the time, I had a third grader struggling with the procedures in his math. He loved to read, but learning how to divide and problem solve was a daily battle. This new program seemed to offer a more Charlotte Mason quiet, low stress, beautiful process for learning mathematics. I was hooked. It was March. We dove in.
My non-math struggling third grader less than eagerly started his new book. By the end of the first week he was no longer “struggling” with his mathematics. Something for which I was thankful, as I had 4 other homeschool children to balance. By the end of the second week, he was completing his mathematics in record time. This seemed to be going well. However, I knew that something was off when by the end of April, he had completed the entire book. I was not impressed. Looking at the book more thoroughly, revealed a significant lack of skill building and problem solving, which is one of the main goals of elementary education. From then on out, I only added new math curriculum to our daily learning as a supplement. Enter Beast Academy.
Not wanting to repeat old mistakes, I spent time reading and exploring this curriculum. It seemed very thorough, fun, and engaging. I gave this program to my oldest son in sixth grade alongside his trusty Singapore mathematics. I wasn’t going to waste his pre prealgebra year with a mathematics dud. Our poor oldest children. That kid studied both programs for a half of a school year before I was convinced that he could drop one. He was very excited to drop Singapore and continue with Beast Academy. Beast was more fun and engaging. I wrote a review about this program, and continued to use it for my other children. Five years later, I love this program still.
Beast Academy is the only elementary program that I can fully recommend for all students. Before Beast, we used Singapore as a main text and supplemented with other programs. Now, all of my students, regardless of math interest, have completed Beast Academy. Some of the concerns that I had in my original review of Beast, which can be found at the link below, have been addressed with the online version of the program. Students can read the texts online, complete the assignments, and watch short quirky lessons in the online platform. There’s a huge emphasis on mental mathematics, but I require my students to have a notebook for showing their work on paper.
As a middle and high school math tutor, I find that Beast Academy has equipped many students for a solid higher level mathematics education. It really is the balance of fun games and foundational concepts that we all thought it might be back in 2014.