Right Start Math

[Guest]

Why do you like it? Is it worth the cost? Is it easy to implement? I tried doing a search but did not pull up anything.

[happycc]

We are using Rightstart B for my 8yrs old daughter who struggles with math.

 

So far this is the only curriculum I have found that reaches and stretches my daughter.

We have come a long ways with this.

 

I do find it rather teacher intensive and storing all the materials, cards, little pieces can be a pain.

 

It takes me awhile before each lesson to figure exactly what I need as they don;t always have a picture code of what they mean by certain manipulatives. I always get the place value cards mixed up with the place value block ones.

 

Anyways it really is a great program but it is A LOT of work. You do know in the end your kid knows their stuff through and through.

 

It does a take a few conceptual leaps here and there with the questions and I have had to back up and review quite a bit.

 

For my struggling daughter I make several copies(ok many copies) of each worksheet and she gets a packet of three pages of review each day on top of me teaching her a new lesson. If we don;t do it this way, she will never ever retain it and we never move forward. She needs a serious spiral review.

 

The order on how it teaches the concepts is a bit strange but it is what it is. A little a bit of this for a few days and then a bit of this for a few days and back to this.....

 

In terms of standards...it nowhere follows the CA standards. I am doing Rightstart B with my 8yrs old however other people do Rightstart B with their younger kids like 5-6 yrs even so then I suppose by the time your child gets to be 7-8yrs you might be doing Rightstart c and your child would probably be ahead of the standards. I don;t know as I do not have the Rightstart C curriclum manual in front of me to refer to. regardless I plan to spend the money and use Rightstart c for her next year. How long I stay with this program--I don;t know yet. Most people leave middle of Rightstart C I think. Not exactly why but it has to do with the drawing....which my drawing girl might actually like.

It doesn;t even touch on subtraction until Rightstart C.

[T'smom]

Which child are you looking to use it with?

 

I can only speak to Right Start A and we haven't been using it very long. But my son (4) likes it a lot. At this level there is hardly any writing which I LOVE- he's ahead of his age in math, but behind in writing. It is not a "hand it to them and go away" program. When we do math, we sit on the floor with our box of stuff and go through the lesson together. He doesn't do anything on his own. (But that's the way I expect to do it with one so young- if you're looking for one of your olders, I don't have any ideas!) We keep all the manipulatives in a plastic bin (with a lid that snaps shut so the littler one can't get into it if I forget to put it away!) I don't find it difficult to just pull out the bin and go.

 

So far I have no complaints!

 

(oh, wait- I do have a complaint. One lesson wanted me to bind two popsicle sticks together to make sticks of different lengths- there was NO WAY I was going to do that. I cut straws into different lengths instead, but it didn't work very well. We were supposed to be making triangles and quadrilaterals and you had to be really careful with placing the straws or they would roll. But that's my only complaint!)

[lexi]

Well, we're new to it too so I can't offer tons of help but we really enjoy it. It makes my daughter think and she really gets it! Love the mental math aspect. The manipulatives and games are great. I keep all my stuff in a colored cube in our cabinet. When it's math time I pull it all out. The manips have really helped us and we love the variety. It is time consuming but everything is time consuming when they are young like that. So, I just make time for it and it's been worth it so far. I plan to hit B next year. Here's a post I did about it....

[She Reads a Lot]

I have only praise for RightStart Math. It is a wonderful program! I started using it with DS last January and we worked through all of Level B (just finished two weeks ago, after taking the summer off).

 

Before we started, my son couldn't even add 1 to anything. He would skip around on the first grade worksheets at ps and only do the problems that added 0. For many reasons, we pulled him out at Christmas and started HSing one year ago. He can now add any two digit numbers you give him in his head. ANY numbers. And he can do four digit addition on paper easily. A mom of one of his former classmates was telling me how her son doesn't really get the whole carrying thing in four digit addition. He doesn't really understand where to carry the 1. Well after a year of RightStart, my son who was so behind in math totally gets place value! It is amazing.

 

RS isn't heavy on subtraction until the very end of Level B. But by then, he had done so much "moving around" of numbers for the mental addition that it took him about 10 minutes to be able to do subtraction in his head. It wasn't a problem at all! So it's untrue (from a previous poster) that subtraction isn't in Level B at all. It's just not emphasized heavily. But in our experience this wasn't a problem b/c he already understood how to do it without calling it subtraction.

 

Every once in a while, a lesson would require a fair amount of cutting out of stuff (I recommend getting the pre-printed appendix for Levels A and B b/c the items come on card stock). We got a paper cutter from Costco, which was wonderful! Other than that, it's really open and go. I've got all of the manipulatives in a plastic bin. I pull it out. Look at what the lesson says we need. Grab the items and we dive in.

 

He loves it and I love it! Sorry for the long post but I cannot say enough good things about RightStart. My son is wiggly and writing is difficult for him, and this is just the perfect program to help him thrive at math without having to slog through tons of worksheets!

 

We are two weeks into Level C and are just as pleased as with Level B.

 

HTH,

Christina

[lakshmi]

I have only praise for RightStart Math. It is a wonderful program! I started using it with DS last January and we worked through all of Level B (just finished two weeks ago, after taking the summer off).

 

Before we started, my son couldn't even add 1 to anything. He would skip around on the first grade worksheets at ps and only do the problems that added 0. For many reasons, we pulled him out at Christmas and started HSing one year ago. He can now add any two digit numbers you give him in his head. ANY numbers. And he can do four digit addition on paper easily. A mom of one of his former classmates was telling me how her son doesn't really get the whole carrying thing in four digit addition. He doesn't really understand where to carry the 1. Well after a year of RightStart, my son who was so behind in math totally gets place value! It is amazing.

 

RS isn't heavy on subtraction until the very end of Level B. But by then, he had done so much "moving around" of numbers for the mental addition that it took him about 10 minutes to be able to do subtraction in his head. It wasn't a problem at all! So it's untrue (from a previous poster) that subtraction isn't in Level B at all. It's just not emphasized heavily. But in our experience this wasn't a problem b/c he already understood how to do it without calling it subtraction.

 

Every once in a while, a lesson would require a fair amount of cutting out of stuff (I recommend getting the pre-printed appendix for Levels A and B b/c the items come on card stock). We got a paper cutter from Costco, which was wonderful! Other than that, it's really open and go. I've got all of the manipulatives in a plastic bin. I pull it out. Look at what the lesson says we need. Grab the items and we dive in.

 

He loves it and I love it! Sorry for the long post but I cannot say enough good things about RightStart. My son is wiggly and writing is difficult for him, and this is just the perfect program to help him thrive at math without having to slog through tons of worksheets!

 

We are two weeks into Level C and are just as pleased as with Level B.

 

HTH,

Christina

 

 

I:iagree:

 

I love it. It makes it hard for me to think about teaching math in any other way.

[black_midori]

RS isn't heavy on subtraction until the very end of Level B. But by then, he had done so much "moving around" of numbers for the mental addition that it took him about 10 minutes to be able to do subtraction in his head. It wasn't a problem at all! So it's untrue (from a previous poster) that subtraction isn't in Level B at all. It's just not emphasized heavily. But in our experience this wasn't a problem b/c he already understood how to do it without calling it subtraction.

 

 

HTH,

Christina

:iagree:

I wanted to comment on this specifically, as I know it will come up in other places as well. There really is VERY LITTLE subtraction for RS until late in B, and even then it isn't very heavy. I was quite concerned about this, going along, especially when I added Math Mammoth as a supplement (for worksheets) and they had heavy subtraction much earlier (which we skipped). However, once I did get to subtraction I found that my son truly grasped it right away. As above poster mentioned, the lack of subtraction just wasn't a problem at all - the basis of understanding fact families was so solid at the time the subtraction was introduced that there was a seamless transition into doing it (for us!).

 

I have used all of RS A & most of B for my 2nd grader & will be moving into C (in the closet!) for 3rd grade. My 1st grader is currently working on A.

 

I am very satisfied with Rightstart. It truly teaches me HOW to teach math, which I love. I don't follow the scripting to a T, now but I do follow it heavily & refer back to it as needed. After a lot of trouble in the preliminary mathematics area, I was happy to use something that was stress-free (mostly) and that my ds really understood!!

 

PS - I do supplement with Math Mammoth worksheets, mainly as a way to incorporate independent studies & review into our math schedule so that I can work better with 2 kids. :) Next year, I am considering changing to ALEKS so that it is even more independent & mom-free - but I will continue to use RS for my main teaching & anything else as just a review supplement.

[basschick]

We use RightStart for both my kids. My 5 year old is working on Level A and my 7 year old on Level C. I have absolutely no complaints. We tried Math U See for a year and a half and not only did my son dread it, so did I!

I love, love, love it and I think it is soooo worth the money. A strong foundation in math is very important in my opinion.

 

I blogged about Rightstart once... here in case you are interested.

[lorrainejmc]

I bought RSa in September for my then 7yr old ds with language delay. I was totally overwhelmed by all the bits at first and put it away for awhile. We started up again recently and it's the best thing I ever could have used with him. For me it's worth the effort and money if you have a child who needs it.

[Soror]

If it works for your kids it is nothing short of amazing. It is teacher intensive, expensive, and all the pieces are crazy annoying but I find it truly is worth it. His understanding is amazing and I love the connections the program makes and the different approaches we do. I love that they teach various strategies for problems and then let them see which they want to use. I love that they give them such a great foundation in mental math. In the last month or so column addition and subtraction were introduced. I let him do it on his own first to see what he thought of to do and lo and behold he's explaining to me just like the book is stating one of the methods to do the problem. As another poster mentioned it does briefly hit on subtraction in RSB but he got it down as soon as it was introduced and was quickly doing double digits in his head.

Edited February 14, 2012 by soror

[shinyhappypeople]

I have Right Start C. I loved it, younger DD got bored. We did MM for awhile and have now moved onto Dreambox for her main curriculum.

 

Dreambox reminds me a lot of RS (uses the same abacus, very "conceptual"), but is obviously less teacher-intensive. She's having fun and it allows her to work at her own pace. So, Dreambox might be another option to consider.

[HejKatt]

I've used RightStart B with DS for a little over a year.

 

Cost - I'd try the RightStart users yahoo group, or calling the publisher to see if they have scratch/dent copies of the text. Last year, HSBC had 20% off their manipulatives and worksheets. The curriculum rarely goes on sale, otherwise.

 

Ease of use - I personally found it easy to use because I'm new to HSing and I liked the scripting of the lessons. There were a couple of activities which we just didn't do, such as the fractal triangle. The lessons are open-and-go.

 

When you searched, did you try "RightStart" and "RS"? I seem to recall discussion on these forums.

[Crimson Wife]

RS does have an nontraditional sequence, but B and C together cover almost everything on the CA math standards through 3rd grade (the only exception is some of the multiplication and short division).

 

My DD took the 3rd grade ITBS a month after she finishes RS C and before she hit anything new in Singapore 3A, and she scored in the 99th percentile for both computation and calculation. She did score lower on estimation, so if your child has to take a standardized test you may want to take a few days to go over that topic.

 

I love, love, :001_wub: RS B and the first part of C. However, I don't care much for the later part of C and decided to pass on D & E. For my kids, the higher levels of RS have too much review and too little new material. D & E struck me as having about a single year's worth of material spread out over the two levels. Singapore is easier to accelerate and also up the challenge level for a bright child by using the Intensive Practice books.

[ScoutTN]

We love RS! We did A last year and are almost done with B now.

I read ahead to make sure I understand he coming wk's lessons - 20 minutes max. After that it is open and go. I keep all our RS things in a plastic storage box (12x15x5") so everything is right there and ready to go. No big deal.

 

It is teacher intensive in that I am actively teaching and with my DD for most of the lesson, but I would expect that in elementary level math, regardless of curriculum.

 

There are zillions of threads about Right Start on these boards, many very helpful!

[ItoLina]

I ma about half way through level A with my almost 5 year old and we both love it! Math is not really my "thing" so I love that it tells me exactly what to do. My son is not a work book kid, and doesn't write well yet, so he loves that it is fun and different everyday, and that he doesn't have to write during math time.

 

I think it is worth the cast. You really get a lot of fun things and I feel like my son has learned so much, and also that what he has learned he REALLY KNOWS and UNDERSTANDS.

 

I am planning to keep using it and purchase level B. I am bummed that it seems people don't like the later levels because I love it and would hate to switch to something else.

[semory]

We use RightStart for both my kids. My 5 year old is working on Level A and my 7 year old on Level C. I have absolutely no complaints. We tried Math U See for a year and a half and not only did my son dread it, so did I!

I love, love, love it and I think it is soooo worth the money. A strong foundation in math is very important in my opinion.

 

I blogged about Rightstart once... here in case you are interested.

 

Thanks for sharing your blog post - glad to hear your reasoning and experience! I am planning to start Rightstart A for preK with my son. I've heard great things as well - thanks again.

[Guest]

Thanks for all these great replies. I guess it is well-loved. I was looking at it for my younger 3. Right now, we are doing R&S1 at the rate of 2 lessons a day. I already tried McRuffy K Color Math (scattered and too many 'toys' lessons that seemed to have no purpose) and CLE 100 (too much too soon). They are doing well with it but I wondered about alternatives.

 

It seems RS would not be a fit for us because we like workbooks and do not like 'bits' in our math. I do not want to do what I did with my olders who are now behind because of so much skipping around in their younger years.

[sbgrace]

Thanks for all these great replies. I guess it is well-loved. I was looking at it for my younger 3. Right now, we are doing R&S1 at the rate of 2 lessons a day. I already tried McRuffy K Color Math (scattered and too many 'toys' lessons that seemed to have no purpose) and CLE 100 (too much too soon). They are doing well with it but I wondered about alternatives.

 

It seems RS would not be a fit for us because we like workbooks and do not like 'bits' in our math. I do not want to do what I did with my olders who are now behind because of so much skipping around in their younger years.

 

Yes, if you have workbook loving kids I would steer clear of RS. Singapore is a workbook style conceptual math. Math Mammoth is workbook like. If what you have is working, though, I'd stick with it.

[didadeewiththree]

We love this program and I think you will find it worth the investment. Its amazing what my little guy can do now, with only 70 lessons done so far.(Counting by 5, 10, 2's, odd numbers, telling time to the hr and half hr, adding, showing me on the abacus any given number up to 100 that I ask him to show me in record time) Actually on a website we use called adaptedmind.com, he has tested at mastering 80% of the 1st grade curriculum and we've only completed A.

[learnersinbloom]

I just started RightStart Math A with my twin girls (2.5 years old), and so far we all love it. We're taking it very slowly and repeating most of the lessons, but they're really catching on to the concepts. I love that it uses a lot of manipulatives and games rather than worksheets, and I think it has a good balance between getting the kids to really understand concepts and reinforcing arithmetic skills that should be memorized.