Flaura Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I am having a difficult time with math and my kindergarten dd. We are doing RS level A and she is having a really hard time with it. The games - like come before where you say a number and they say the number that comes before it- and the one where you flash numbers from 1-10'with your finger and they have to identify it are super hard for her. She complains and today she was crying and saying she is not very good at math! I was an engineer before kids so I really want her to love math and have confidence. I am totally fine with taking a break but she loves to do school every day. I do school with her older brother so she wants the mom time. She also really loves colorful workbooks and would do workbook pages all day if I let her. Any advice/suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Frustration for a 5yo is just not worth it. I say toss the RS and do something completely different, such as giving her a set of Cuisenaire rods and letting her have at it. She can do fun workbooks for other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yslek Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Reminds me of D. I started D on RS A, and she had trouble with it, too. She's also a workbook lover, so I switched to Singapore Earlybird with her. She loves it, and seems to understand the approach better. I'd still like to give RS another go (maybe after finishing the EB workbooks); hopefully she'll get it and like it better then. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 You might want to put aside RS for now and come back to it later. Becca went through RS A pretty quickly, but it was after we did half a year of other math. I don't plan to start Sylvia on it until at least partway through her K year because it gets into sophisticated concepts pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Frustration for a 5yo is just not worth it. I say toss the RS and do something completely different, such as giving her a set of Cuisenaire rods and letting her have at it. She can do fun workbooks for other things. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoveBaby Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Frustration for a 5yo is just not worth it. I say toss the RS and do something completely different, such as giving her a set of Cuisenaire rods and letting her have at it. She can do fun workbooks for other things. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Hold on RS and just play with her. Hopscotch is awesome for number order - and fun. Chutes and Ladders and Monoply Jr are also terrific. You are probably moving too fast for her in RS. I have RS A for my youngest, but we only do it once or twice a week. She's learning to sing This Old Man, and we are still working on identifying the numbers up to 5 without counting and sums to 5. She could go much faster, but I've run into a wall with the older dd because I moved her too quickly so I refuse to go through that again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 You are probably moving too fast for her in RS. I have RS A for my youngest, but we only do it once or twice a week. She's learning to sing This Old Man, and we are still working on identifying the numbers up to 5 without counting and sums to 5. She could go much faster, but I've run into a wall with the older dd because I moved her too quickly so I refuse to go through that again. :iagree: Right start is conceptually very difficult, and we are moving through it very slowly. Heck, there are days it makes my head hurt! I do feel like it is laying a great foundation of understanding though, so we keep at it, albeit slowly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Hopscotch is awesome for number order - and fun. Chutes and Ladders and Monoply Jr are also terrific. :iagree: Somebody has been reading the same scientific professional journals as Loverboy. Last year he brought me home an article about "how can low income families improve their children's math skills?" (without expensive curriculum or tutors or other fancy programs, etc). The most effective way was to play the exact games listed above. Yes, just normal, run-of-the-mill boardgames. --Laura in Iowa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StillStanding Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Frustration for a 5yo is just not worth it. I say toss the RS and do something completely different, such as giving her a set of Cuisenaire rods and letting her have at it. She can do fun workbooks for other things. :iagree: We have enojoyed Making Math Meaningful, playing with Tanagrams and just playing games where the child needs to use math (count). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I'm finally on the other side! My oldest is in 2nd grade. When I problems with him in the past, I would try to keep hammering away at it. But now that I've been doing this for 3 years, I have learned what everyone has been saying all along. When it's K and 1st and even 2nd and the child just isn't getting it AT ALL, then it's time to back off. I was amazed how when I finally did back off from some things, waited a half a year (or even a year) and then started up again--bingo! He was ready. My 4 yo will get the benefit of this wisdom. I won't be making him cry over his math and reading like I did with my first. So, I say: take a break from it. Do other things. She's not ready quiiiiite yet. But soon enough she will be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I can so relate. My dd did it for 1st and ended up being math phobic over RS math. We dumped it. And BJU & MUS pulled her from her phobia. It was the whole "picture it," "don't count" thing that drove her to complete frustration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Don't worry too much about it. I did RS A with my dd when she was in first grade. We did it two days a week for the first 2/3 of the year and three days a week for the last 1/3. I know that would make some people faint, but it worked very well for us. My dd is now in second grade and is almost 1/4 of the way through C. Our slow start did not hamper us in any way, my dd LOVES math, and she has an extremely solid foundation in understanding numbers and how they work. I know that "they" say RS A is for K, but I think, conceptually, it's very advanced. Take a break from RS for a while (or just play the games) and then come back to it when your child has matured a bit. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolchic Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 She might enjoy these free file folder games also: http://www.filefolderfun.com/KindergartenMath.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pageta Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 My dh and I were both good at math, and I tried RS B earlier this year with DS and it was a disaster. Then I tried Singapore and it was a disaster. DS always said his favorite thing we did (when I asked him at the end of the day) was math, but it was like he just didn't get it. So I did my own thing for six months, and now we're doing Right Start B and it's easy and fun. Just give it time. She isn't ready for those concepts yet. She won't be math retarded - I promise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaura Posted January 28, 2010 Author Share Posted January 28, 2010 Thanks everyone. My son was totally different- math was easy but reading - that was a whole other story. I tried the wait and see approach with reading and it turned out he was dyslexic and I feel like we wasted valuable time. I guess that is making me feel more anxious when I run into issues with dd. I talked with her about doing chutes and ladders for math tomorrow and she was excited. Hopscotch will probably go over well too. Thanks for the ideas and encouragement! Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mystika1 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 My daughter hated RS Lvl A. It seemed like every week I was asking for help because my daughter was in tears. I tried the recommended slow down which didn't work then I was told to speed it up and that was worse. The tears didn't end until I shelved RS. I came back and tried lvl B later and that was also a complete bust. The day my daughter yelled out "I'm just stupid" and burst into tears I refused to continue no matter how wonderful everyone claimed RS to be. To this day when I pull out the alabacus she gets a pained look on her face.(I kid you not) She really does better with workbooks and added manipulatives so that is what I use now. HTH, Penny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabrett Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 My dc did the same thing as you described. I did RS for a 1/2 and quit. Everybody said to put it aside and try again. I did. I tried again this year for 1/2 a year and after the first 9 week test, (she got EVERY answer wrong) I quit and ordered CLE 1st. Big improvement! Dd still struggles, but no where as bad as with RS. I just don't think my dc thinks in a "conceptual" way. OTOH my 4 yo who would just listen, could do the work easier than her. Kids just think and learn differently! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skueppers Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 One thing you could do, if you wanted to continue with RightStart math, would be to do it much less intensively, and combine it with other math activities. You might incorporate pattern completion, Cuisenaire rod games, and/or pattern block puzzles. You could do just a minute or two of the activities that are challenging for her, either in between other activities, or as part of a math lesson that included things drawn from other sources. My daughter has math lessons almost daily, at her request (I would have preferred to wait until she was actually in K next year, but I also wasn't going to turn her down). We're using MEP and Miquon, but we don't follow anyone's lesson plans verbatim. Instead, our math lessons usually go something like this: 1) I ask her what she'd like to do. Typical answers are work on the whiteboard, work with the number line, work with magnets, or do math on paper (this means a workbook activity). 2) I figure out something to do in the mode she requested. For example, today she wanted to do something with the number line, so we started with some oral math involving the number line. This is an activity from MEP, but one she's already pretty proficient at. 3) Once she's gotten to do something of her choice, she's amenable to having me move things in another direction. Today we switched from doing oral math on the number line to doing oral math using number cards, a new activity. We generally repeat these steps until the timer goes off, after 45 minutes. Today we moved from the oral math to doing MEP worksheet problems on the whiteboard. One type of problem we did was another variant of the kind of thing we'd just been doing, while the second type of problem was completely different. We finished up with a Miquon page of her choice; today she picked one that was very easy for her. This method is working well for us right now -- we both have a level of input into what we're doing that makes us happy. It's not always the case that she's the one picking the activities that are easy for her; sometimes I'm the one picking an "easy" activity, and she's the one picking a challenging one. I try to be very flexible and focus on what the lesson is actually trying to teach, rather than on the exact form of the lesson. Earlier on, she resisted the use of the number line, so I shelved it and taught the concepts another way. I re-introduced the number line just a few days ago, and now it's fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildiris Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 You could try Calvert math too: Very workbook oriented. Bright but not overwhelming, coloring is incorporated into some exercises, and not too much work for one lesson. Pattern block are a good thing to play with too. If it were my DD, I would not move on until she felt comfortable with the idea of what comes before, after or in the middle. I played this type of game with numbers in the car with my DD until she got it and then we expanded on the game by adding 2 or subtracting 2. You get the idea. She also likes 21 questions. Your concern is understandable. Pay attention, but don't abandon math, just move laterally until she is ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melenie Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Don't worry too much about it. I did RS A with my dd when she was in first grade. We did it two days a week for the first 2/3 of the year and three days a week for the last 1/3. I know that would make some people faint, but it worked very well for us. My dd is now in second grade and is almost 1/4 of the way through C. Our slow start did not hamper us in any way, my dd LOVES math, and she has an extremely solid foundation in understanding numbers and how they work. I know that "they" say RS A is for K, but I think, conceptually, it's very advanced. Take a break from RS for a while (or just play the games) and then come back to it when your child has matured a bit. Tara I agree, I think A is advanced for K. We have been doing A for over a year now and we are about 3/4 of the way. I would not toss it yet, but back of for a bit. Either take a break or move much slower than before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Don't worry too much about it. I did RS A with my dd when she was in first grade. We did it two days a week for the first 2/3 of the year and three days a week for the last 1/3. I know that would make some people faint, but it worked very well for us. I want to add in that we do RS only three days a week too - I got the idea from Tara and it works great for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oak Knoll Mom Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 She could go much faster, but I've run into a wall with the older dd because I moved her too quickly so I refuse to go through that again. Same here. Don't tell the homeschool police :D, but I use the RightStart levels a grade behind what they recommend. My kids still test at/above grade level on standardized tests and will start pre-algebra in 7th grade. Disclaimer: I do supplement RS with enrichment type math such as Hands on Equations and Singapore Challenging Word Problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 You could also use books like Games for Math by Peggy Kaye or Kitchen Table Math by Chris Wright. Just play games for 2-3 months and then come back to RS and see if she is ready. I agree with the others that it does get into advanced concepts very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmacnchs Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I am having a difficult time with math and my kindergarten dd. We are doing RS level A and she is having a really hard time with it. The games - like come before where you say a number and they say the number that comes before it- and the one where you flash numbers from 1-10'with your finger and they have to identify it are super hard for her. She complains and today she was crying and saying she is not very good at math! Any advice/suggestions? Let me preface this with the fact that I have never done RS but before #s have taken WAAY longer for my dd1 to get too and we both used to get frustrated. I realized that part of the reason I got frustrated is because I expected her to get it right all the time - I had to tell myself (and then remind myself sometimes daily) that unless it is a test, it is a teaching moment and I would just help her, tell her tricks to find the answer (like counting backwards from 10), etc. I also try not to dwell on the problems she gets wrong (like going over them until she gets it) - we just do what the book says to do and move on. I have found that they (Saxon) are really good about going over it many more days and I just assume/hope she will get it eventually. I do not agree that math should be done less than everyday b/c I think the repetition is good for them (esp. if it is a problem area). I am very big on doing math and reading everyday even if that is all we get to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessedmom3 Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 :iagree: :iagree: Frustration for a 5yo is just not worth it. I say toss the RS and do something completely different, such as giving her a set of Cuisenaire rods and letting her have at it. She can do fun workbooks for other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Last year i did RS A with my youngest. We did a lesson or two a week then on the other days we read math storybooks and played math games. I found the living math site very helpful for ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 I do not agree that math should be done less than everyday b/c I think the repetition is good for them (esp. if it is a problem area). But doing math every day doesn't mean you have to be doing your math curriculum everyday. I can't move forward with my son at the pace RS sets. He needs time to mull over concepts and practice things we have already learned. He does three lessons a week and uses the other days to consolidate and practice. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flaura Posted February 1, 2010 Author Share Posted February 1, 2010 I have been trying to do 1 lesson per day but I will really slow it down now. I was talking to a friend at our homeschool group and she pointed out that there is no reason we have to finish level A in kindergarten. It make sense I guess I was so focused on making "progress" I left my student behind. Thanks for the input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 But doing math every day doesn't mean you have to be doing your math curriculum everyday. I can't move forward with my son at the pace RS sets. He needs time to mull over concepts and practice things we have already learned. He does three lessons a week and uses the other days to consolidate and practice. Tara :iagree:The concepts in RS are very thought-provoking and they take some time to process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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