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[quote=pettifogger][quote=Anonymous][quote=pettifogger][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I like Beast Academy a lot, but I am not convinced that it is the best tool for someone struggling with math. The modal BA student is someone who finds the pace of math at his or her school much too slow, though occasionally a more average student will use it at a lower level to help shore up concepts.

Instead, I would support developing your daughter's "number sense" intuition through use a of a program like Kumon or Rod and Staff Math (disclaimer: Christian), whose focus is on fluid calculation. The more conceptual Singapore Math US Ed. would possibly make for another good option, possibly with the addition of the "Extra Practice" workbooks, which provide, well, extra practice on top of the main textbook/workbook combo.

If she starts breezing through the above, then maybe the problem was that she got off track during virtual school and Beast Academy really would be a good fit. But given the situation as described, I wouldn't try that first.

If even R&S or Kumon do not seem to stick, then it might be worth looking at some of the "tools" used for dyscalculia.  People I know who work with that population tend to be big fans of Ronit Bird.[/quote]

OP, here. I missed this before and appreciate the thoughtful answer. Needing to excel is definitely NOT the problem. However, I worried that Kumon was too rote memorization. She can memorize facts and even strategies. But, I think because it's all memorization, being flexible with strategies and understanding what it all means is lost.[/quote]

I think of Kumon & R&S as akin to musicians practicing scales. The major way to get an intuitive feel for something is to do a lot of it. The greater power of memorization, fluidity in calculation, etc is that it frees up mental resources -- when presented with an problem, you don't have to waste any of your IQ points on the cognitive load of figuring out, say, 9x8 - you can dedicate your full powers to the core issue.

But!  Thinking more holistically, I think Singapore Math probably  would be better fit for you -- I suspect it's not just number sense that is involved in your above-average kid underperforming at math, and number sense may grow with time and a reasonable amount of practice. I suggest US Edition because it is older and there is a LOT of materials and resources out there to help the parent (and they are available in used copies, so it's cheaper).

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I have to disagree with the above with respect to Kumon as developing an "intuitive feel". From what I have seen, the reason that people think of Kumon as "drill and kill" is that it is an endless drill of very similar, basic, exercises, like pages and pages of them!. There are [i]only [/i]scales, no actual problems to be solved, imagine forcing your child to only do that each day without playing a musical piece, they are surely likely to quit. [/quote]

On the other hand, there are some kids who actually do like the repetitiveness and the measurable progress, and more who could use the practice, and I think these are underestimated aspects. Repetitiveness helps intuition by more or less eventually letting things happen automatically in the background of one's mind. Kumon's math program is also strictly supplementary -- the "music" would be in whatever one's main curriculum is. It's not something I would recommend to most "good at math" students -- certainly for older elementary and above, I wouldn't expect much, if any, overlap in student needs between AoPS and Kumon, outside of to shore up a particular area of weakness (my mathy kid has had to work his way through more than a few pages of Kumon workbooks, though he's ever needed to do a whole workbook, and probably wouldn't be suited to their in-person centers).[/quote]
We're in agreement, some kids need extra practice either because they don't get enough of it (perhaps not enough at school, or they're doing a curriculum such as AoPS which is almost all problem solving with minimal very basic exercises, etc), or some kids really need drill at particular times in their development (maybe multiplication, fractions). However in these instances Kumon isn't special; any materials providing extra practice will achieve the goal and pretty easy to pull from various random workbooks or worksheets. I think the structure of their program is just overkill and would certainly not fit most kids. It could very much actually teach them to give up more easily when they encounter non drill like problems where they have to pause and think for a bit before finding the solution. [/quote]

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