Curriculum Review of Beast Academy Math

When we started to homeschool I knew that I needed to find a rigorous math program to challenge my eldest daughter. I was still waffling between the options I had explored when another homeschool mom posted a mini curriculum review of Beast Academy math on her Instagram site. It was the first time I had heard of the program, and the bit of information she included piqued my interest.

Math with comic books? Puzzles, games, and mind-bending challenges? Outside-the-box instruction? That sounded like a great combination to me!

But that wasn’t the only question that I had to answer when shopping around for math curriculum. Is this a good fit for my daughter?

Let me go ahead with my curriculum review of Beast Academy math, and then I’ll answer the second question in a way to hopefully help you decide if its right for one of your students.

The Idea Behind Beast Academy Math

Beast Academy Math is a complete math curriculum for grades 2-5. It was developed by the team at the Art of Problem Solving that coaches middle and high school competitive math teams. The coaches wondered why more students weren’t entering middle school with more enthusiasm for continuing with math.

They set out to create a curriculum that they would’ve wanted when they were going through school. But their motivation was not just to teach math, they wanted to create students who were engaged and enthusiastic about mathematics.

Overview of Beast Academy Math

Two standards are immediately evident with the Beast Academy curriculum: challenge and creativity. This is the most rigorous math curriculum I’ve seen in the past three years. It is also the most engaging.

Beast Academy has not organized its curriculum on any set of national or state-level standards of sequence. But rest assured, you will cover more than your child will be exposed to in any other elementary school curriculum. It just may not be in exactly the same order.

Each grade level, starting at second, is broken into four books. Each book has three chapters. So, in the course of a full level, your student will cover, in-depth, twelve math concepts.

Students begin by reading the corresponding section in the Guide Book, which includes explanations and several examples of working through problems. After students complete their reading, they then turn to their Practice Book and complete the pages that are assigned.

To see an overview of what each grade covers, visit this page and scroll down. They have a break-down of what is included in each grade, divided by quarter.

Beast Academy Guide Books

Let’s talk about the Guide Book. The comic book approach is quality. Sometimes when adults try to be funny or make something approachable, it ends up being 10x worse. Not so, in this case. The comics hold high the tradition of comic book standards and math instruction standards. Hard to imagine, but it’s true. Both my girls have thoroughly enjoyed reading through their Guides. Sometimes they’ll go back to a section just to read a funny part out loud.

The colors are bright and bold. The characters are dynamic, and the storylines are engaging. In the process they are your first touchpoint with the material. The narratives aren’t just telling students how to solve a problem; they also show why that method is a good choice for the given scenario. I find this extra level of explanation – usually given through comical anecdotes or conversations – one of the best parts of their instructional style.

Beast Academy Practice Books

After they read, or you read together, the section that they will be working on, you pick up the corresponding Practice Book.

None of the Practice Books are in color, but they maintain the same characters in the headings and the same quality instruction. Each book holds hundreds of puzzles, games, problems, and multi-step challenges for math beasts to explore and manipulate the concepts.

The lead sections in the Practice Books also include instructions and examples. These can be useful guides for breaking down the content in manageable chunks. This is another instruction point your student (and you!).

Then, let the fun begin! You will not think of numbers the same way again, I promise. Most sections have numerous practice problems. Then, you’ll notice that some problems towards the end of the section have either one star or two stars next to them. These are the challenge problems.

Challenge problems typically involve multiple steps and creative thinking. They are challenge problems for a reason. Fortunately, your Practice Book also has a Hint Page for the challenge problems. Start there if you get stuck.

Checking the answers is a third opportunity to discuss the concepts. Beast Academy has included an extensive answer section. Not only do they give you the correct answer, but they write out the full explanation – often times including why the other answers are incorrect. This is a third touchpoint for your student to engage with the material.

FAQ’s about Beast Academy Math

If you’ve made it this far you might have a few questions. Sure, it sounds great. Also, sure it sounds a bit daunting.

Yes, it is both.

Let me see if I can answer these common questions.

How do I know if Beast Academy Math will be a good fit for my student?
What if I don’t understand the concepts well enough to teach Beast Academy math?
If it’s not aligned with any common core competencies, will my child fall behind?
Can I try some of the curriculum before committing to it completely for my student?
Can I buy the Practice Books without the Guide Books?

How do I know if Beast Academy Math will be a good fit for my student?

We selected this program because my daughter was bored with the level of math she had been given in her previous two schools. I knew we needed something to challenge her in order to keep her engaged.

If you have a student who is flying through grade-level books in other curricula or seems to be grasping concepts quickly, Beast Academy might be a good option.

Be prepared for the shift that will happen – a student goes from easily knowing all the answers to having to stop and think for most of them. And, they will rarely finish their assignments in less than ten minutes. It’s a transition, but not a bad one.

Another way to try it out is to take one of their placement tests at the grade-level that you’re considering. This will give you a sense of the types of problems that they use and how well it might fit with your student.

What if I don’t understand the concepts well enough to teach Beast Academy math?

I’ll be honest. This is a valid concern.

After making it through my daughter’s second-grade year with Beast Academy, I told my husband I loved the curriculum, but I couldn’t handle third-grade math. Obviously, we’ve found a way to make it work since she’s entering her fifth-grade year with the program. But there have been a lot of moments when I’ve just had to say, “I don’t know.”

My husband is well-versed in math concepts so he has picked up some of the instructional pieces, and we’ve relied on the explanations when we can’t make a next step.

It is not insurmountable – they give a lot of different explanations and touchpoints for explaining the material. They also do a good job of building on the concepts bit-by-bit. The first couple pages will gradually build your student towards some of the more complex skills. It’s very well-paced in this regard.

We continue to use Beast Academy, despite my limited math skills, because I want my daughters to engage with math and not just dismiss it after a series of drill-it-and-kill-it exercises.

If it’s not aligned with any common core competencies, will my child fall behind?

No. Even if you are not exactly lining up, your child will be learning to manipulate, manage, and understand numbers on a level that will give her the critical thinking skills necessary to fill in any gaps. With the fourth-grade curriculum my daughter was using math skills that my husband and I remember learning in middle school.

Can I try some of the curriculum before committing to it completely for my student?

There are several ways to incorporate elements of Beast Academy into your homeschool rhythms. Here are a few ideas for testing the curriculum for your student or school situation.

Puzzle Books

Just recently Beast Academy began producing Puzzle books. These contain some of the various types of puzzle problems that are included in their Practice Books. Each group has one-star (easy) to five-star (very challenging) puzzles.

These books are great supplemental materials for your math teaching. As an added bonus, because they have a range of difficulty levels the puzzles can be used for various ages and stages of math. Just because the puzzle book is from grade two, doesn’t mean it’s only for second-graders. The challenges draw in a wide range of students.

Flexible Purchase

If you have your student complete an online test, and it looks like they might benefit from Beast Academy math, you can decide to buy the first Guide Book and the first Practice Book at the grade level that you need.

The full curriculum is four Guide-Books and four Practice-Books, but they are sold individually so you can adapt as you feel comfortable.

Flexible Use

We’ve used a more flexible approach with Beast Academy math and our youngest daughter. She was bored with the materials that we had available for her at the first-grade level in her other curriculum, so we introduced material from the second-grade Beast Academy. Since we knew it was a grade above where she was, we took it very slowly. When it started to get overwhelming, we stopped and revisited some of the concepts that she needed to know but that weren’t in the BA curriculum (time and money, for example).

She’ll enter second grade next year, and we’ll pick up where we left off and build her skills. Because she has a different temperament and different way of engaging with math, I’ll adjust and adapt how we use Beast Academy with her.

However, when I mentioned going back to the other curriculum she very quickly said, “No thanks, I’ll do Beast Academy.” Still, it’s likely that her math experience will be a bit more hodge-podge than my eldest’s direct route through the curriculum. I appreciate that that is a choice I have.

Can I buy the Practice Books without the Guide Books?

Yes, it is an option to buy just the practice books, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you’ll be using this as your primary curriculum. The content is an excellent introduction to the material and a useful reference.

Now, if you decide to use the curriculum with multiple children, then you can reuse the Guide Books and just order new Practice Books.

Curriculum Review of Beast Academy Math: Conclusion

If you haven’t guessed from this curriculum review of Beast Academy Math, I’ve been very impressed by its quality and creativity.

Beast Academy Math is a good fit for my eldest daughter, and she is entering her final year with their curriculum for elementary ages. We have been able to adapt the curriculum and pacing for our youngest daughter. Flexibility is great.

I have at times struggled to explain some of the strategies that they have introduced, but they provide extensive explanations for all the answers.

For students who may feel isolated by everyone around them acting like math is a weird thing to like, this curriculum is refreshing. It is not stale and dry. It will challenge those students who breeze through other material, and it will connect them with a narrative that is pro-math.

For students who are already struggling with math, Beast Academy may not be the best answer. There is value in engaging with the comic books and possibly some of the puzzles but proceed with caution. If it becomes stressful or overwhelming, this may not be the best avenue to take. Or you may need to adapt your expectations.

What other questions do you have that were not answered in this curriculum review of Beast Academy math? I’m happy to answer the best that I can – leave a note in the comments!

For other curriculum options, check out the review of Two Inclusive History Curriculums or a Unit Study on Biographies or a Unit Study on Air & Wind.

Happy schooling!