abrightmom Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 We are Right Start drop outs simply because the format was EXTREMELY difficult for me and I'm surrounded by littles. HOWEVER, my children love the abacus and the hands on. I also love much of the "Right Start Way" and would like to cherry pick topics to teach. I have tried to pick through the Level B manual but the format is "spirally" and I have difficulty teaching cohesively (does that make sense?). Sometimes I just want to teach a topic and then move on in Math Mammoth (which we really like). I *think* that Activities for the ALAbacus and the corresponding workbook would give me the "Right Start Way" in a topically organized format but I'm not sure. Is this what I need to accomplish my goal of teaching Abacus skills and Right Start strategies without having to pick through Level B??? Thank-you!!!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anabelneri Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 You've more-or-less got the right idea. I'm not seeing the table of contents on their website, so here are the big titles: 1: Basic Concepts 2: Introducing addition 3: Numbers from 11 to 100 4: Mastering the addition facts 5: Introducing subtraction 6: Mastering the subtraction facts 7: Adding and subtracting in thousands 8: Multiplication 9: Division 10: Other topics 11: Japanese (Chinese) abacus The "Other topics" chapter includes things like rounding factors, percentages, etc. We've switched away from RS because the teaching style drove dd nuts. However, we still use the Math Games and the Activities book to dig deeper and solidify what she's learning in our other math program. One thing that it's clearly missing that it sounds like your kids would miss is some of the hands-on stuff. It asks us to use the abacus, and to play games, and I think I've seen it ask for place value cards, but we haven't used any of the other manipulatives that we'd bought for Level B. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I *think* that Activities for the ALAbacus and the corresponding workbook would give me the "Right Start Way" in a topically organized format but I'm not sure. Is this what I need to accomplish my goal of teaching Abacus skills and Right Start strategies without having to pick through Level B??? I think you've got the right idea. I was so impressed with Right Start when I first saw it at a conference, but I just knew I wouldn't ever be able to do the whole program. The scripting, the pages packed with text and no place to rest my eyes, having to collect all the manipulatives. The Singapore we were using was much more my style. So we stuck with the Singapore and bought the Activities for AL Abacus (and an Abacus for each kid), and went through a bunch of the activities over the summer, kind of reviewing everything we'd done so far. Then I'd also pull it out when we hit a new concept and I wanted some hands-on examples. I never even got the workbook - I don't think I realized it existed till after I'd already had the book for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Ladies, Thanks so much for these comments! This is what I needed to know! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabrett Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I hope so!!!! I bought the book several days ago and am waiting on arrival. What you described is excatly what I hope to book will do. I am using SP and want to teach it the RS way.:D I tried RS A and B and they both drove me batty, but I loved the way RS taught the math, not the format the curriculum presented the material. I will let you know how it works once I get the book! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Tabrett, I'm glad to hear this :D. It would be fun to compare notes! We are new to HOD and I'm starting my youngers with Singapore because I love how Carrie has coordinated her hands on math with the Singapore text. Still love the Right Start way though and want to use that as much as possible without the script of the entire program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 That's what I did. Also knew I had neither the time to do the full RS program, nor the temperament to follow a "scripted" program. But Dr Cotter has a great many good ideas about teaching math that I was happy to borrow from. Some things we did with the abacus, others got transformed and modified into Miquon-like activities using C Rods. Irons in the fire :D Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdeno Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have the both books you can have if you would like them. My email is stellar(at)nycap.rr.com I can send them next week. Kariann Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 You've more-or-less got the right idea. I'm not seeing the table of contents on their website, so here are the big titles: 1: Basic Concepts 2: Introducing addition 3: Numbers from 11 to 100 4: Mastering the addition facts 5: Introducing subtraction 6: Mastering the subtraction facts 7: Adding and subtracting in thousands 8: Multiplication 9: Division 10: Other topics 11: Japanese (Chinese) abacus The "Other topics" chapter includes things like rounding factors, percentages, etc. I detest the RightStart script, but love how it makes DD think of math. I would love a way to do math the "RightStart" way, but without the script. I've done levels A and B with DD and am in the middle of C with her. It looks like we've already covered topics 1-7 with RightStart lessons. Do you think that there is enough in topics 8-11 to make the Activities book worthwhile? I already have the games book. Do the lesson books (C-E) cover important material not in the Activities book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabrett Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Tabrett, I'm glad to hear this :D. It would be fun to compare notes! We are new to HOD and I'm starting my youngers with Singapore because I love how Carrie has coordinated her hands on math with the Singapore text. Still love the Right Start way though and want to use that as much as possible without the script of the entire program. I choose to use SP because of HOD's math lessons, but ended up using the RS methods I learned from trying RS A and B. It was easier to use the RS manipulatives I had, than try to gather the things needed for HOD's lessons.:tongue_smilie:I never seemed to have the cereal and dried fruit HOD uses for math manipulatives! Because I want my dc to be able to visualize the abacus when doing math, I want to keep the abacus as the main used manipulative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 Irons in the fire :D :001_smile::001_smile: I have the both books you can have if you would like them. Kariann, How kind! Thank-you for the offer. I just purchased them this morning from a Mom on the boards. :001_smile: I choose to use SP because of HOD's math lessons, but ended up using the RS methods I learned from trying RS A and B. It was easier to use the RS manipulatives I had, than try to gather the things needed for HOD's lessons.:tongue_smilie:I never seemed to have the cereal and dried fruit HOD uses for math manipulatives! Because I want my dc to be able to visualize the abacus when doing math, I want to keep the abacus as the main used manipulative. :001_smile: I am really excited to use Singapore! We love MM but I would like to give Singapore a whirl as well. I think that my youngers will LOVE HOD's presentation and I simply must use it for K and 1st for my Middlers. But I'm always drawn to Right Start and that Abacus. I still *might* teach RS B to all of them together . . . Like Bill says, I have many irons in the fire :Dbut I do need to be very strategic about how to use them. Time and attention spans are limited. We're also getting into C-Rods over here and there are a few goodies coming to help with that. Still trying to get a full set of Miquon for a used price :D. Looking, looking, looking . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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