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Posted

We've been doing RightStart for the past year and a half--level A last year for K and Level B this year for 1st. We are around lesson 34 in RS. I just bought the Miquon orange and red PDFs to supplement because I felt DD could use more drill and practice work. However, I must be missing something here, because the lessons are so confusing!! I bought the notes, annotations, and first grade diary as well but it seems like so much to weed through for me to understand how to teach first grade math. I guess I was expecting something more scripted like RS. What the heck. Did I buy the wrong program as a supplement or is it just going to take some working through for me to figure it out? I really did not want another main program.

Posted

Have you looked at it beyond the first few pages? Only asking because more than one of us has backed away from Miquon after our first look based on those first pages alone. :p

Posted

It's very organized and the lessons are very organized. However, it's also no linear, so you don't necessarily go through it page by page in association with each lesson, mastering and then moving on like you might with Right Start.

 

See how the pages at the bottom of the Lab Books are labeled with letters? Those are different threads that cover different topics. As you begin a thread, or begin looking at the pages for a thread in a new book, then turn to that thread in the Annotations. The Annotations will give you teaching ideas to get you started on each topic.

 

You don't have to do the topics in order... though I find that it's good to do the pages about the topic within a book in order. One nice thing about Miquon is that you can take out the Lab Book and let the kid choose a page and just do it - again, following each thread more or less in order within the thread, but otherwise you can skip around. It's nice because you can get stuck and say, oh well, let's do something else and just pick a different thread.

 

Reading the First Grade Diary and watching Rosie's videos at Education Unboxed can help you get more versed in the use of the rods. As you get used to Miquon's method, you probably won't feel tied to the Annotations. We're about to start Purple in earnest (we've done a few pages of it here and there as we finish Yellow - again, because you can skip around like that if you pay attention to the thread organization) and I only look at the Annotations maybe once a week or so at this point. I say, okay, let's see what we need to do to better introduce different things that you're choosing.

 

Give it a longer shot. :) It's an odd program, but it's very worth it. Of course, no program is for everyone, but Miquon is worth trying a little longer.

Posted

We've been doing RightStart for the past year and a half--level A last year for K and Level B this year for 1st. We are around lesson 34 in RS. I just bought the Miquon orange and red PDFs to supplement because I felt DD could use more drill and practice work. However, I must be missing something here, because the lessons are so confusing!! I bought the notes, annotations, and first grade diary as well but it seems like so much to weed through for me to understand how to teach first grade math. I guess I was expecting something more scripted like RS. What the heck. Did I buy the wrong program as a supplement or is it just going to take some working through for me to figure it out? I really did not want another main program.

 

 

Hmmm...if I wanted something that provided more drill and practice work, Miquon would not have been on my list of things to do that with. In fact, people mostly start with Miquon and add something like Calculadders or Quarter Mile Math for drill and practice work.

 

The actual teaching is, or, rather, the guided learning, is in the Lab Notations. You open that to the page number of the page in the workbook, and have a discussion with your child, helping him to discover stuff. Then you have him do the workbook page; many of those are open-ended; that is, there may be more than one way to do the activities.

Posted

We love Miquon, and use it in addition to RightStart. I agree with Farrar....give it a try using her explanations. I gave up on it with my first child. It "hit" me the same way you are describing it.

 

However, I revisited with my others and am so glad I did. I took the time to really give it a chance and it was worth it.

 

I also recommend Life of Fred as a supplement, and if your child likes worksheets for spiral review, Horizons. You won't need a TM, the layout and colors of Horizons are very appealing to most children, and it is great to have math that you can pick up and take with you when you need to.

Posted

Somehow I missed that the OP wanted it for drill... It's such a great program and I think it can be a great supplement - it doesn't have to be a main program at all. But it isn't really about drill - it's about conceptual math. So while I think since she has it, the OP should totally give it a real try, it may not be what she "meant" to buy.

 

The Right Start Card Games are the built in drill for RS.

Posted

If you want more drill and practice, the Math Mammoth blue topical workbooks might be a better choice (it still teaches conceptual math, etc.).

 

Or just print out some things from math-drills.com... Those are free.

Posted

Yeah, I totally thought it was something different. And I didn't realize it required C-rods--haha! But I'm glad I got it, because after reading through some threads here and taking a closer look last night, I think it will be a good complement to RS and I think the C-rods will really help her understanding of these concepts. I am going to print off some MEP pages for the worksheet aspect. (I do love the idea of drilling with games in RS, but my DD enjoys worksheets and, honestly, we don't always get to the games.)

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