Best Elementary Math Curriculum for Gifted Students - Homeschool or Supplement
Updated: Feb 24
Beast Academy is one of the best math curriculums available for gifted students. Kids who like math love Beast. It is a comprehensive math curriculum for grades 2-6. While it is recommended for kids who've completed grade 2, I've seen kids as young as 5 years use it and enjoy it.
How to start using Beast Academy
Beast Academy Books vs Online - which one to choose?
Advantages of using the online version
Extra help/ where you can learn from
Why choose Beast Academy?
1. It is challenging - This is one of the most rigorous Elementary curriculums I've seen. It is also one of the very few curriculums that challenge gifted kids. It goes really deep into topics. This is a sample question from Level 2.
2. It is engaging and makes you practice concepts through puzzle type questions - previous question as an example
3. It is a complete curriculum that also prepares you for math competitions
What does the Beast Academy curriculum consist of?
1. Physical Books
For each year/ level it consists of 4 guide books (similar to textbooks) and 4 practice books. There is also a puzzle book.
Guide Books:
The guide books are in the form of a colourful graphic novel which appeals to young kids. The books are presented in the form of a discussion between various beasts. But do not let the graphic part fool you. While it presents the materials in an easy to learn format, the depth is unparalleled.
Practice Books:
For each of the guide books it has a corresponding practice book. For example for Level 2 we have 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D guide books and practice books. The guide books tell you where to go and practice from the practice book.
The practice books also have an example of how to do the problems and gives you a bunch of questions to practice. There is barely any repetition. The questions are well thought out and gives a good workout for your brain.
Puzzle Books:
These are supplementary and are currently only available for Level 2 and 3 but more might be on the way. You can see a couple of sample puzzles here.
This is present in 2A as well.
https://beastacademy.com/pdf/2A/printables/HoneycombPaths.pdf
Check out Beast Academy from Teachers Pay Teachers as well. They have a few more free puzzles in there. They also have the full version of some of the puzzles (not all)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/X-Out-Puzzles-Free-Version-5263719
While these are supplementary I would highly recommend doing them. Apart from being fun, it also helps develop your thinking skills.
The books are available on their website. You can buy them individually or as a set. You can also buy them from amazon. If you want to just get the puzzle book you can get it from Amazon.
2. Online Version
The online version consists of Class, Library, Theater and Lab. This is subscription based. One year of subscription costs $96 USD for the first child and $48 for any additional child. Once you have subscribed you have access to all 4 levels.
Class:
Class is where you go to practice the problems. Every problem set is accompanied by a set of instructions. Do make sure the child reads the instructions. Once each problem is answered, they give a detailed solution as well. They have multiple problem sets for the same topic and the questions in the books and online version are different.
The following screenshot is from the demo version.
Library
Library has access to all the guide books. The online guide books are the same as the physical ones. You can choose any level you want, but going in order will definitely help you understand the concepts better.
Theater
This is the part I love about online. Young kids love videos and this is where you can go to watch videos. Videos make the online version unique for this feature is not available when you just purchase the books. Even while you are doing the problems, if you have trouble with a particular topic, you can go and watch the videos.
Let's say you run into trouble while doing Block Mountains, you can click on the video button on the top. It'll take you to the video explaining the idea. You can also click the book symbol right next to it to read the corresponding section from the book.
