Summer Brain Quest: Between Grades 4 & 5

This is way too easy for a 4th grader going into 5th. The reading level is 2nd to 3rd grade at best and some of the math is too simple. There are a few fractions, but nothing challenging or thought provoking.

The book doesn't have a steady flow from one grade to the next. It all seems like it's just mixed up together in one. I was expecting something going from 4th grade level and morphing into harder work and that's just not the case. For the subjects to be color coded and because I used to use their long question and answer cards when I was little, I expected much more organization to be at hand. We got through the the book pretty okay, but I was just disappointed at how confusing the set up was. Removed two stars because of that. Even though my son finished the book, I wouldn't recommend and I would not buy again.

didn't realize it aligned with common core standards because I was trying to find workbooks this summer which weren't on common core curriculum (our kids are in private school.) but otherwise good material, i had my kids skip some of the math ones that they weren't used to the processes of doing, or had them just write out the answers and ignore the instruction. -copying and pasting this review on the other grades i bought for the other summer brain quest i purchased-

I got this as a gift for my 10 year old niece (for her July birthday), and she's entering 5th grade this year. She's pretty smart for her age, a reading level Z, and she adores math. Ava likes to get gifts that she can open and use right away, so this was great for her.
It has a fold-up tear-out map in the back that you use to mark your progress- along with stickers for each page you complete and special stickers for answering extra questions on some pages- and she just loves that part! She loves finishing a page and then putting the sticker on her map. It covers most of the schooling subjects, and brings in some cool ones like archeology and Pirates. It's a really great way to keep kids learning, or remembering what they've learned, through the summer. Or anytime, if you have a kid that likes activity books. It does have an answer key in the back of the book :)
Some of them are a little difficult to understand what they're supposed to do, so I deducted a star for that. She definitely needed an adults help for some of them. I don't think a fourth grader could complete this totally on their own.

I hope this is helpful!

This is my go to home school situation thanks to Covid. I have a 4th grader so we started with the 4th grade book and finished that in 3 weeks. Then we did this summer brain quest in 2 weeks. I very highly recommend this book because it has both math and English in each chapter. She gets a variety and it’s easier for me to plan the day.

This book has fun and interesting exercises. The brain boxes are great and help her learn. We tried the Scholastic books too and this a million times better. And because it’s paper I don’t have to worry about her fooling around on something electronic.

I highly recommend this book. I just wish it was a little longer. Our school system electronic situation is a total joke and this really saved the day. Rocking old-school paper is the only way to tackle homeschooling. There is a reason why classrooms are still 99% on paper… Because electronics all day simply doesn’t work.

P.s. I also use this series for my 1st grader and she really likes them too.

Pros: it's a great summer book. 100% doable for that period of time, not extremely difficult. The stickers and map to track your progress is fantastic as we can do small milestone awards throughout as she completes different sections. Great idea!

Cons. I took away 2 stars because the pages rip off SO easy and it's extremely annoying for my daughter. If you just have the book open on your lap, they come off. It's too huge of a flaw because the book falls apart and by the end of summer most pages will be all over the house. The other one I took off is because she thinks it's too easy.

The workbook curriculum is excellent, but the binding is awful! I purchased a second workbook after the first workbook started falling apart and papers falling out, and the second one seemed fine till 2 days in and it once again started falling apart. In my opinion most 10 year olds will not be able to keep all of these loose papers together all summer long, especially if they go back and forth in two households. I'm discouraged with the quality of this item.

I bought several summer workbooks to compare, and ended up choosing Summer Fit Activities for my older kids, and these Brain Quest books for my younger kids. While the sticker chart was still appealing even to my 5th grader, and I loved the plethora of information they would read about, I didn't feel this was very "academically rigorous". If you are looking for something to keep the gears oiled over the summer, and get less resistance from your kids, these are perfect. They do not feel like classroom worksheets AT ALL. I was looking for something to tune their brains too, not just oil them, if you know what I mean. It's only maybe 3-5 minutes of work to complete an assignment and get a sticker, not much per day at all. I actually counted how many "lessons" and there were 85, but with multiple routes options, the kids don't have to complete them all to finish the book. Subjects were evenly spread - I'd like to see more math myself. Very beautiful book! Just depends on your personality style.

Every single page we have touched has fallen out. Every. Single. One. Even where I just simply turned the page. So now we have an enormous pile of loose paper. Especially a pain because we got it to work on in the car, and now my entire backseat is covered in loose paper. I don't know why they would even need to perforate the pages in the first place, but their perforation machine must have been on overdrive when they printed this book. A big mess.

I gave two stars because there was no issue with the content of the book itself but with the quality of the book. The back pages started coming off as soon as I was flipping through the book; then it was the entire book (see attached pictures). I purchase 2 of the summer brain quest books grade K-1 and 4-5th and 1 of the summer bridge; that content of the book K-1st grade did not impress me at all, there are way too much freelance work than challenging work. I returned the books the same day and will get the summer bridge instead. On the other end I used the brain quest curriculum books before and I loved them. I’ll order those towards the beginning of the school year; but the summer brain quest are not well made at all.