RightStart Math

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Hi Ladies,

 

So after reading all your wonderful posts and looking everything over with my dh, we are very interested in Right Start. We watch the Power Point Presentation, and I am embarrassed to say I didn't get all of it right away. My dh was totally into it and is now looking into getting his own book on Suroban (Japanese Abacus) and a how-to book!

 

Isn't that cool?

 

The only thing that is holding me back is the cost. I mean, 150.00 for one grade, for one year is steep!! I could get Miquon and the rods for 26.00. Or I could get Singapore for about 60.00, including all the intensive practice books, etc.

 

So here's my question...When purchasing *such* an expensive program, how do you finally get up the guts to do that? and what is the deciding factor?

[GailV]

I had tried Miquon because it was cheap and it got good reviews. Dd hated it with a passion -- she became convinced that she was stupid in math.

 

So, then I decided to do my own Montessori type program. I made manipulatives, I got books on Montessori math out of the library... that phase didn't last long, as it's very, very teacher intensive to pull all of that stuff together.

 

Next, we tried Singapore. At this point I had all sorts of cool manipulatives. Remember Imelda Marcos' shoes? I had the math manipulative version of her closet. And Singapore was okay, but not great. Dd wasn't really retaining stuff, and I was tinkering with it constantly to make it more Montessori-like. Because, let me tell you, by that time I was convinced that I wanted something that was sorta Montessori and sorta Asian in its approach.

 

Then, lo and behold, about the time dd got totally fed up with Singapore (still convinced she was stupid about math, by the way, even though Miquon was a distant memory), I discovered RightStart. Montessori! Asian! And, frankly, the only things I needed to buy were the abacus, and the cards for card games, as well as the Transitions book (but I also got the Invecta balance because I thought it was really cool). So it was a pretty cheap start for us insofar as RightStart, if you don't count buying the Miquon books and rods and the Singapore books and all the other stuff I still have squirreled away around the house and ended up being MISTAKES. I was able to buy so little because I had made or purchased so many manipulatives over the years that I already had something equivalent to everything else.

 

And the rest is history -- dd did Transitions, then levels D, E, and Geometry; her sister has done B and is now working on C.

[SoCal Sandra]

If you start with level A you should be able to also. That limits your initial investment so you can decide if you want to buy the next levels, either new or used. I see Level A for sale more than any other level on the For Sale Board as well as on ebay.

 

We love Right Start, especially the math games. Good luck on your decision.

[HappyGrace]

so worth it, that I cannot even begin to tell you. No matter where you go with your math journey after those two levels, you will not be sorry you did them because your dc will have the most wonderful math foundation. Money cannot buy that. And one of the things I loved best about it was I was able to learn HOW to teach math. Another invaluable factor!

 

And I looked at every math out there (and tried most of them too.) RS is very similar to Singapore-I laid them side by side-but the RS will help you teach it, if you are not mathy (like me!) I also own Miquon (I told you I've tried most of them-I know, it's a sickness!) and again, it's a great program if you're mathy, but RS covers the same material, holding your hand all the way in teaching it.

 

So for me, I guess that was the deciding factor, how could I learn to teach math in a way that will give my dc a conceptual understanding, not just learning by rote. And RS did that for me (and her!)

 

We're in RS C now, and not sure where we're headed, but I will definitely be doing A and B again with ds for sure!

[chiguirre]

My advice, having failed with RightStart twice now, is to actually try the sample lessons with your dc and see how they like them. I still like the idea of RS, but my kids have both hated it with a rare passion. My dd who is eager to please and compliant told me today that she hates doing this math and we're only on lesson 12, so there have been no new concepts at all yet. Ds just burst into tears every time I took it out. I think the problem is that it's TOO conceptual for them. I'm really bummed out about having spent so much on this program only to have BOTH kids dislike it so intensely, but I guess there will be a RS A kit for sale soon...

[Sunshine Mama]

We love, love, love Right Start Math. We've used it for 2 years now (finishing up B) and I am so happy that we went with RightStart. My just turned 6 year old is able to add 56 + 83 in his head faster than I can!!! It's really amazing and I'm even re-learning how to do math. Really, it is so worth it!

[April in NC]

One good thing about RightStart is that even though it is a bit pricey initially, it also has good resale value.

 

There is no one curriculum that is right for everyone, so it is certainly a bit scary to spend a lot of money on something that you don't know for sure will work for your children. Fortunately, if it doesn't pan out for some reason, you can always resell it for not much less than what you paid for it initially. If you do love it, you can sell each level when you finish, and use that towards getting the next level. So, ultimately, it isn't quite as much of a risk as it seems!

 

I have tried Miquon and Singapore, and while they work very very well for some people, they didn't seem to be as good a fit for our family as RS. Miquon's rods couldn't do everything that the RS Abacus can to show math concepts, and Singapore relied on counting up and down a bit too much for my taste, especially compared to RS - the abacus allows you to add and subtract without counting.

 

Good luck finding something that works great for your family!

[prairiegirl]

The deciding factor for us that our oldest hates workbooks. We started out with MCP and dd quickly slid into the land of mathphobia. At that time, she did not do well with workbooks. Her learning style was more hands on. So this was the clincher for us.

 

The other factor was that I have two other children. In my mind, I am getting my money's worth out of it in using it with three children. I only have to buy the workbooks for the other two and I think they only cost $20. This is how I justified it to my dh.

 

I am very happy with RS. I have a mathphobe who does very well with it. I also have a math whiz and he does well with it, too.

[Linda...inOwasso]

On the RightStart math website there is a "forum" section. Inside the forum section is a post by Kathleen Lawler on behalf of the company with a long list of "gently used products" substantially discounted. I called them on Friday and learned that all of the items are new but may have a slight scuff or a bent corner so they are selling them at a reduced rate. The woman I spoke with is named Bernice and she was very helpful. The phone is 1-888-775-6284.

[Guest mikailin]

We do a "compromise" (and love it) Singapore textbooks and the Right Start supplemental program (just games). I think the two programs supplement each other well. If you go this route, you just have a one-time expense for the Right Start.

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I am going to try a sample lesson but I wonder how you can do that without the abacus.

 

For us the whole excitement of Right Start lays with the abacus. We're totally into the grouping way of adding instead of the counting way. And we saw a bunch of YouTUbe videos about how Japanese people use their abacus (soruban I think it's called)

 

I took the quiz at the website and it placed my son in Level B. So that's fine. But I wonder if I should get level A and combine my kids.

 

What does Level A cover? The website says you can start in A or B, both are designed as first year curricula. My son definitely likes a little challenge, discussion, discussion, discussion, hands-on stuff, etc.

[chiguirre]

I'd try the sample lessons that don't include the abacus. In the (admittedly only) 12 lessons, we've only used it about 4 or 5 times. It's important in the program, but it's not the only thing they do. Tally sticks are probably more important in the beginning and those are just popsicle sticks.

 

RS may be exactly what you need, but I honestly thought it was terrific and I do still like the idea in theory, but it was a total bomb in the day to day implementation. Both of my kids were hating it in under a month. It does have good resale value though, so it's not a total loss.

[King Alfred Academy]

I was feeling the same way about the price of RS. I loved the idea of the concepts, but the price tag was really steep...especially after having bought Saxon and failing at that.

 

I contacted the company and they offer a 30 day (it might even be a 60 day?) money back guarantee. I wasn't sure if it was going to work for us so I wanted that safety net of being able to return it. It was worth it for me to pay the extra money and not buy it used for that reason.

 

FWIW...we are on lesson 30 something and it is going well. I also bought Level A for my rising Ker.

[prairiegirl]

Level A covers the same things that Level B covers but it goes much slower. Level B continues on from where A leaves on. I wouldn't do A with your ds. He would probably be bored from the slowness. I would get B for him. Even then, if the beginning goes too slow for him you can always skip or double up lessons.

 

I don't know if you can do B with both of your kids. If you did do B with your dd you would have to go very, very slow with her. There is an awful lot packed into B and it just might be too overwhelming for a pre-schooler.

[Greta]

I only quickly skimmed the replies, so I apologize if this has been said already and I missed it. But you should consider joining the RightStart Yahoo! group, because used materials do get posted for sale there. Also check out http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com. And if you keep your books in good shape, they have good resale value. I always use the sale of one level to help me buy the next level -- that makes it more affordable. But if you want all new materials, I think Rainbow Resource has slightly less than retail prices.

 

It was not a trivial decision for us to invest this much in one subject. But since my dh is a Physicist, he feels very strongly that a quality math program is worth paying for. That first year was the biggest investment (because we bought the big manipulative pack) so I had to compromise in other areas. The following years haven't been bad at all. For us this program has worked so well and given dd such a love of math that it's been worth every penny.

[nmoira]

While I loved RightStart, DD chafed at its teacher led nature. We ended up switching to Singapore part way through Level C. However, I'm not sorry we started out with RS, because I think Level B is far superior to Singapore 1A/1B. Since both use a similar approach, switching is a piece of cake (just go back one level in Singapore to pick up topics missed). As others have said, RS has good resale value, so it's not like you're gambling the entire $150.

[Debbie in OR]

Reading the other posts reminds me why we homeschool and how thankful I am that we get to teach our kids the way they learn best. Unfortunately, the trial-and-error before finally finding THE ONE BEST THING can get very expensive :001_huh:! So, while I would say that we have had the absolute best experience with RS (going on two years now with ds 9 who cried with EVERY OTHER math program we tried....and there were many!), it just may not be a good fit. I accidently found out about RS and from the time I started researching it until weeks later when I finally said to my dh "I fear that we are going to have to buy this...it really feels like it could be THE ONE", I was just sick over the price. Two years later, however, I am so glad we found it. And truly, after the initial cost (which I did get used), it's totally reasonable. I keep the TM through both kids, get new worksheets and add in the various manipulatives as they are needed. Not so bad after the initial shock. But I wouldn't do any other math now. And the longer I use it, the more I see of the genius behind it. FWIW!

[siloam]

Miquon was a bomb here too. The girls refused to use the rods, even my hands on girls. It was confusing to me because even after using it for over a year I would have to look at a cheat sheet to remember which colors represented which numbers. Or line them all up so I could "see" it.

 

Singapore is my favorite program, I just agree with it philosophically. Love the base 10, the algebra with bar graphs, just love it. The practical problem I had was that the Earlybird program was not a good fit (my kids could do all 4 books for K), then they struggled with Primary 1A when they took away the pictures. Basically the Earlybird program uses pictures as manipulatives. Now I tried to get them to use something else, but they were resistant and I didn't want to force things. Singapore is *known* for being half a year ahead, but really it is almost a year. Even the Singapore website will show that an average student should do 1B and 2A for 2nd grade. Given my kids did the Earlybird books so quickly I was left doing a lot of filling for Pre-K, K and 1st.

 

Eventually I just got tired of my 2nd dd, the hands on learner, struggling. I bought RS B for her last year and we started it in January. This time she didn't fight me on the use of manipulatives. She learned to use the Abacus. She loves the games. Of course my oldest also though it looked fun, so I stared doing it with her too. I didn't buy another level, but instead just did an overview of it. No warm ups, just talked about the concept, had her do a worksheet if there was one, and then played a game. It worked much better to teach her math facts than our Flashmaster did!

 

In time my 3rd dd joined us in level B and my ds has started level A, while my oldest is still doing an overview, and has moved on to level C.

 

I really think that RS gives a better foundation, and just makes math more interesting and fun. Think of it as an investment in not hating math, LOL! That said I still use Singapore because I was committed to it first and we hs year around, so if we just did one or the other we would run out of material.

 

Both are based on the same basic philosophy, by the way. They do approach it slightly different. To split hairs, Singapore is a base 10 approach and RS is a base 5. What is the difference? Well Singapore would do 8+7 as:

 

8+7=8+2+5=10+5=15

 

RS would do it this way:

 

5+3+5+2=(5+5)+3+2=10+3+2=10+5=15

 

Ok it looks like it takes longer, but really both are pretty fast once you get used to moving numbers in your mind, which is the goal of both programs. I prefer the Singapore method simply because I learned it first. They both work fine.

 

For the ages you have I really would encourage you to give RS a try, if you can afford it.

 

Heather

[GailV]

For us the whole excitement of Right Start lays with the abacus. We're totally into the grouping way of adding instead of the counting way. And we saw a bunch of YouTUbe videos about how Japanese people use their abacus (soruban I think it's called)

 

For the record, the RightStart abacus is different than other abacuses. Really, there isn't much cross-over in technique. Although at one point dd enjoyed putting on a silk robe that my parents brought back from China every time she got out her RightStart abacus, just to set the mood.:) But, anyway, I think the math behind the RightStart abacus is going to be different than that behind the Japanese abacus.

 

But, yeah, the grouping is way cool. Singapore talks about the grouping, but RightStart gets you right into it and shows you how it works.

 

I took the quiz at the website and it placed my son in Level B. So that's fine. But I wonder if I should get level A and combine my kids.

 

What does Level A cover? The website says you can start in A or B, both are designed as first year curricula. My son definitely likes a little challenge, discussion, discussion, discussion, hands-on stuff, etc.

 

Honestly, we did a few lessons in Level A and then ditched it. It was veeeerrrryyyy slllloooooowwww. And I thought some of the stuff was sort of dumb. True confession: I think the song Yellow is the Sun is absolute twaddle, and doesn't really teach anything useful; I can find much better poems to teach what makes 10. And I think Cotter does a crummy job of explaining the Montessori Three Part lesson, so I did all that stuff freestyle on my own. So, by the time we skipped over all the stuff I thought wasn't worth doing, Level A wasn't worth much to us. We started somewhere in Level B, and had no issue whatsoever skipping A. Dd was 6 at the time. I don't consider her a math whiz, and she generally prefers no challenges :tongue_smilie: but she much preferred B to A.

[GailV]

Both are based on the same basic philosophy, by the way. They do approach it slightly different. To split hairs, Singapore is a base 10 approach and RS is a base 5. What is the difference? Well Singapore would do 8+7 as:

 

8+7=8+2+5=10+5=15

 

RS would do it this way:

 

5+3+5+2=(5+5)+3+2=10+3+2=10+5=15

 

Ok it looks like it takes longer, but really both are pretty fast once you get used to moving numbers in your mind, which is the goal of both programs. I prefer the Singapore method simply because I learned it first. They both work fine.

 

 

Actually, I don't think RightStart dwells too long in the land of base 5. By the time you're doing 2 digit mental addition, you're doing it the same as Singapore. At least, in our house that's the way it works. I suppose that could be because I didn't read the directions too terribly well, and just did it the way I wanted to (oh, like that's the first time I've ever done that with a curriculum:tongue_smilie:).

 

To me, the real difference is that RightStart gives guidance on how to teach the concepts, and why you should approach them a certain way. After a couple of years of RightStart I felt that I could pick up Singapore and do a bang-up job of teaching it -- or for that matter, many other math programs.

[siloam]

Actually, I don't think RightStart dwells too long in the land of base 5. By the time you're doing 2 digit mental addition, you're doing it the same as Singapore. At least, in our house that's the way it works. I suppose that could be because I didn't read the directions too terribly well, and just did it the way I wanted to (oh, like that's the first time I've ever done that with a curriculum:tongue_smilie:).

 

To me, the real difference is that RightStart gives guidance on how to teach the concepts, and why you should approach them a certain way. After a couple of years of RightStart I felt that I could pick up Singapore and do a bang-up job of teaching it -- or for that matter, many other math programs.

 

I agree. I still teach the base 10 because it is what I learned first. Practically I don't think it matters which you use. They both get to the same place. Philosophically it is an extension of the visualization skills at the beginning: 5+1=6, 5+2=7, which is why I think RS teaches it differently, though just slightly different.

 

I didn't have any problems teaching Singapore, but I am a math person, so I will admit to doing all the workbooks before my dd does them. :D I also own the teaching books: Elementary Mathematics for Teachers and Mathematics for Primary Teachers. Yes I am pathetic, LOL!

 

Heather

[lighthouseacademy]

 

I took the quiz at the website and it placed my son in Level B. So that's fine. But I wonder if I should get level A and combine my kids.

 

What does Level A cover? The website says you can start in A or B, both are designed as first year curricula. My son definitely likes a little challenge, discussion, discussion, discussion, hands-on stuff, etc.

 

I started level B with my math minded son at 4. It starts with a lesson on visualizing 3 objects as 3 rather than 1-2-3 then goes on to 3 and one more is 4 and seeing that... very basic. For him B was slow- I regularly combined 3-5 lessons into one. I have started level B with my 4 yr old (not buying A which covers the same stuff because we will all be bored to tears come B then) and she is having no trouble with it. She is not as math brained as ds is.

I spoke with Dr. Cotter and she said that B was written first for the first math book but many wanted a slower "K" book so she wrote A but she said that B is all the same as A but goes further in math... so I personally say get B and go as slowly as you need to and enjoy.

[lighthouseacademy]

Actually, I don't think RightStart dwells too long in the land of base 5. By the time you're doing 2 digit mental addition, you're doing it the same as Singapore.

 

:iagree: RS teaches several methods to group numbers- "two 5s" which would be splitting into base 5 as above, as well as "9s trick" and also the same method of getting to 10 and then rearranging the number mentioned by the first poster.

 

I have found that there are times when it is handy to know the 5's tricks and time when it is better to go with 10s.