How long does it take to teach a RightStart lesson?

[arcara]

I'm really tempted to get RightStart math for a couple of my kids, but the one thing (besides the price) that's keeping me from getting it is my concern about how much time it will take me to teach. I have 7 kids, 5 of whom are school aged so this is something I have to be realistic about. I'm looking at Levels a, B, and C. Thanks!

[lexi]

I am currently teaching Levels A and B (and I was teaching C also until last week when my dd finished it-I still need to order D)

I spend only 15-20 min on A. If we don't quite finish a lesson we just pick up where we left off the next day.

I spend about 30 with ds on B and about 30 with dd on C.

I stop after that length of time because I'm tired of math by that point. We usually complete a lesson unless they are struggling with the concept.

I'll be honest-I'm not great at doing the games all the time. But my kids are picking up on all the concepts with the manipulatives so I haven't felt that playing the games every day was necessary.

I do give my Level B and C kids worksheets from math mammoth for extra practice especially for math facts. They do this on their own.

So far I'm thrilled with their understanding of math concepts. Right Start has been one of my favorite homeschool finds.

It has been worth all my time and effort so far!

[athomeontheprairie]

My youngest finished A in December. for her we spent maybe 15 minutes, and right now we're only spending 15 to 20 in B. but I expect that will increase a little as we get further into the book. my oldest spent 30 minutes in both C and D.

I also am not great at doing games, but I aim to do them a couple times a week. some days I think maybe we should have tried a different math program. but then I'm reminded how well my kids seem to understand math, how much fun it is, and most importantly there are seldom tears!

Fwiw, I've been able to buy off ebay and homeschool classifieds. that really helped save some money.

 

ETA: these times do not include game play. there are so many games that my kids love, they would play far longer than I am willing.

[arcara]

Thanks! Those detailed replies definitely help!!

[Haiku]

Forever.

 

Seriously, I loved RS for its conceptual teaching, but I was always baffled by how people said they spent 15-20 minutes on it. RS lessons regularly took us 40 minutes, and we often spent upwards of an hour.

 

Sorry to be the dissenter.

[Soror]

Another vote for forever. Hr long lessons were the norm here until Level D and then we would often finish in about 20ish or so.

[arcara]

That's ok. I want honest replies :)

[domestic_engineer]

Another vote for 40 min - forever .... We've done levels A, B, and are currently in C .... and that doesn't include playing the games.  Warm ups take us 5-10 min.  The teaching portion might take 30 min on a really good day, but on a day when all cylinders aren't firing, it could take 40-60 min.  *sigh*  I, too, don't know how people get the lesson done in 20 min, even in A.

 

[FromA2Z]

I've done A and we're about 1/3 of the way through B.  We've spent 20-30 minutes max on math.  On occasion we divide up lessons (esp. when it says too.) but we usually finish a lesson a day.  I am also not a stickler on doing every last thing in a lesson if I don't need to.Sometimes we play games with the lesson, sometimes as a family after dinner and sometimes we take the whole lesson time just playing games.

[Jackie]

We did A in 15 minutes per lesson and are doing B in 20-30 minutes per lesson. We do almost always skip the warm-up stuff; it has never been useful for us. For A, that was 5 minutes teaching, 10 minutes reinforcement through games. For B, it has been 10-15 minutes teaching and 10-20 minutes reinforcement and practice through games. I break up the "teaching time" and the "games time" so we do the math in two 10-20 minute chunks.

[Marie131]

I set the timer and quit when the bell rings whether we've completed the lesson or not.  Sometimes we can complete more than a lesson.  I just try to find a good end point.

In K I set it for 15 min

In 1st I set it for 20

In 2nd-3rd I set it for 30

That is all the math I can handle.

 

We easily finished A and B by doing this.  C is still to be determined as I dropped it w/ my oldest as it was no longer a good fit.  I'm still hoping to go through it w/ my up and comers.

 

[arcara]

That's a good idea! Thanks!

[Soror]

BTW I didn't mention but I did B, C, D and 1/2 of E with ds. I did part of A with dd. The lessons in A were pretty short and they were short in B, to start with but they became very long about 1/3-2/3rds through Level B.

[ChrisB]

I am currently teaching Levels A and B (and I was teaching C also until last week when my dd finished it-I still need to order D)

I spend only 15-20 min on A. If we don't quite finish a lesson we just pick up where we left off the next day.

I spend about 30 with ds on B and about 30 with dd on C.

I stop after that length of time because I'm tired of math by that point. We usually complete a lesson unless they are struggling with the concept.

I'll be honest-I'm not great at doing the games all the time. But my kids are picking up on all the concepts with the manipulatives so I haven't felt that playing the games every day was necessary.

I do give my Level B and C kids worksheets from math mammoth for extra practice especially for math facts. They do this on their own.

So far I'm thrilled with their understanding of math concepts. Right Start has been one of my favorite homeschool finds.

It has been worth all my time and effort so far!

 

This about sums up our experience with RS at those levels except we're using Beast Academy as a "fun" supplement to reinforce some of the concepts.  Occasionally there have been the 45 minute lesson as the program progresses, but even these vary depending on each of my children's capabilities.  There is no harm in breaking a long lesson into two days (RS encourages this if needed), and I have done so on some occasions where I wanted to really "sit" on a topic.  I've found that after the drawing lessons in C the teacher time required slowly lessens.  At that point, there are more worksheets that they must complete on their own.  

 

I have one in A, two almost finished with C, and one half-way through E.   We never skip warm-up because I feel like it really helps with the mental dexterity that drew me to RS from the beginning.  We infrequently play the games;we play when it is the lesson.  Sometimes the kids will play the games on their own.

 

ETA:  I wanted to add that when we complete a level, instead of immediately moving on to the next, I have the children spend a few weeks doing practice sheets and playing the games.  It gives us all a nice little break.

[Momofeat]

I set the timer and quit when the bell rings whether we've completed the lesson or not.  Sometimes we can complete more than a lesson.  I just try to find a good end point.

In K I set it for 15 min

In 1st I set it for 20

In 2nd-3rd I set it for 30

That is all the math I can handle.

 

We easily finished A and B by doing this.  C is still to be determined as I dropped it w/ my oldest as it was no longer a good fit.  I'm still hoping to go through it w/ my up and comers.

 

This is exactly what we do, too. I do usually finish the section of the lesson we're on, and then we pick up with the next section during the next lesson.

 

My 5th-grade dd is in Level E, which we combine with Singapore Math. I usually only spend about 10 minutes on the actual teaching part of the lesson, and then I turn her loose to do the worksheet(s) independently.

[Kidlit]

I have one dd in level C and one in level E.  I've used RS with both girls from the beginning.  I usually spend a couple of hours a day on math combined for both of them.  (I'd say 1 1/2 hours, anyway.)  I've mostly used MM to supplement for extra practice, but I finally concluded that it was too much for us.  I was having to teach both RS and MM, and that's not what I wanted out of MM.  Anyway, for the past couple of weeks I've just made a concerted effort to play a math game, too, with both girls at least four days a week.  That has worked better than giving them MM, too--the frustration factor for them is much, much less, and we're still getting in some good practice. (They LOVE the math games.)   I've also been using Beast Academy with my fourth grader (using the 3A book so far) for more thinking practice.  

[arcara]

I really do appreciate all these detailed replies!!  They are giving me a good idea, I think, about whether or not it will be doable for us.  I like the idea of setting a timer for lessons. 

 

Thanks again!

 

[EKS]

It took us at least 30-45 minutes to do a RS lesson.  30 if we didn't do games, and 45 if we did.

 

However, I think that RS is an excellent program for young children.  I'd recommend using it for your K and 1st grade level children and then switching to Singapore for 2nd grade and beyond.

[greyseal]

Another vote for the 30-45 minute range. I won't go much longer than that for a math lesson -- if it's not clicking, we'll just revisit again the next day to finish.  We're using 2nd edition level B and I often break up the lesson. We begin with the "warm-up" section for 10-15 minutes, and then work on something else for a bit. I return again for the main portion of the lesson, including any new instruction, which might take 15-20 minutes. We also save math games to play with dad separately, since my DD likes to play with more than 2 players. My DD loves math, but is a young 1st grader still learning to focus. RS has been a perfect program for her, really playing to her hands-on, active learning nature.