Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I can second this, with a minor caveat. My daughter (third grade) loves these books, and we get a lot of good problem-solving into the curriculum as a result. The caveat, in my opinion, is that they don't provide enough cyclic review in their default configuration.

Each chapter includes 80-100 problems, divided in to usually between 4-8 sections. The problems are great, but once a section is complete they're weak on later refreshes. I've been working around this by doing even-numbered problems the first time through a section, then half of the odds a few days later when we're a couple of sections downstream, then selecting randomly from all of the unfinished problems in the entire curriculum for just a couple of extra "old stuff" problems each day throughout the year. We also supplement with a number of other great resources, if you're looking to implement a more problem- and exploration-oriented math curriculum:

1. Kitchen Table Math is great for selecting concepts to lead number talks with (for building number sense - this is the first part of our day)

2. Saxon has excellent spaced-repetition exercises for shoring up the calculation side of things, and giving the student some easy wins for confidence building (we typically use Saxon's material as a warmup before Beast Academy)

3. Thinking Mathematically (the one by J. Mason and L. Burton) has a unique and useful mental process for attacking hard problems when you're not handed a nice formula to plug things into. Once a week, we work through a hard problem using the method in this book.

4. I haven't worked it in yet, but Arthur Benjamin's "Secrets of Mental Math" has a lot of stuff in it that will solidly connect arithmetic and algebraic thinking later.



Are you home schooling? If not your daughter must be bored out of her mind at school.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: