vaquitita Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) Right start math seems like it would be perfect for a wiggily, social 5yo boy, but so far my guy doesn't seem that taken with it. He's often busy making up his own game and doesn't want to switch to the RS game. When I do get him interested in an activity, he takes it way beyond what's laid out in the lesson. For example, When we did the lesson on the number six in RS2 A, he immediately did all the building activities (tally sticks, tiles, abacus, cards, tally marks) with not just 6, but 7-8-9-10 too. So I've been covering 2-3 lessons at a time. Tuesday he refused to make stairs with the paper strips and the abacus (he made stairs and a hundred other patterns on the abacus the first day I brought it out). He has no interest in the finger card games (he could read them all easily from day one) but he does like go to the dump, I played this a lot last year with him and his older sister (no, she wasn't doing RS). Today he happily made stairs with c rods going all the way up to 50, so I'm wondering if Miquon might be more up his alley... He likes hands on and not a lot of writing, but i think he does better with spending more time on one activity, taking that one further, than touching on lots of different things. Are all the RS levels like this? Maybe I just have him in the wrong level? Should I try B? Or do some kids just not like RS? Edited February 20, 2016 by vaquitita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porridge Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I think is developmentally normal. My children, especially DS, did the same. DD was easier to redirect. Right Start was almost too fun, if there can be such a thing. I would suggest giving your son a month or two to just play with the manipulatives however he wants. When the curiosity and novelty have worn off, he may be able to focus on a scripted lesson better. In our case, I ultimately switched programs, though this was partly due to the amount of parent prep involved in RS. For my DS, I don't use any curriculum at all right now. It's a mix of RS math card games, board games, an occasional smattering of singapore workbook pages... whatever holds his interest. I do use the techniques and principles of RS to teach him, but I teach him on my own - not hard to do because I'd been through RSA with my DD before we moved to a different curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I feel RS moves slowly, so yeah, if he's getting all the stuff in A and moving ahead of it...move to B. There always tons of review at the beginning of each level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Or just keep flipping through the lessons. We used the first version of level A, but I never did it quite as scripted. I would read/skim several lessons, get the idea of what they were trying to teach and how, then just work with that on my daughter's terms. Sometimes we covered many lessons in one quick sitting. Sometimes we played a game with no lesson. Sometimes I would ask her a question and see if she could demonstrate a concept I hadn't yet formally taught to see if we could just skip over a chunk. Level B does move faster. I had switched to version 2 for this. Even so, for my naturally mathy kid, we ended up compressing lessons and accelerating quite a bit. It just doesn't take her three lessons, each with a different manipulative, to understand one concept. In retrospect, I could have just jumped in with B, slowing the review lessons down until she got those, then proceeding with the rest of the book. Eventually, in level C, she became annoyed with all the manipulatives, really wanting things to move along quite a bit faster. We ditched the program at that point. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) We used RS A, B, and C (1st edition). I've used A in part with all 4 of my kids. B was ((((((LOVE)))))) the best! C got old, and we stopped after 2/3 of it and switched to Beast Academy. I think A is unnecessary, and a year of B is rock solid amazing, and that's about all I needed from RS. I only own A, however (the others were taken back by umbrella school when we left it) and I used it (am using it) with my younger girls mixed with Miquon and SM. I also think, as mentioned above, that your situation sounds developmental. He's bright, and is catching on. But he's young, and not ready to sit very long for lessons or persist. That's fine. Kids at that age need to be able to engage and disengage with school work freely, IMO. Just wait until he is ready. You may have to try a lesson every so often to see if he is. And when he is He will catch on fast and won't be "behind" in any way. In the mean time I agree that playing with manipulatives is helpful. Though I would reserve some so they are novel when you pull them out later. Also, play with math in other ways. Develop an atmosphere of math in your home just as you would one of language. Have fun! Edited February 20, 2016 by Targhee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cake and Pi Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Part of it may be his age, but he sounds bored to me. He already did what the lesson is asking him to do! If he gets it and doesn't want to dwell on it, just move forward. My mathy kid did all of RS1 A in a single month. He did it all verbally (poor fine motor skills) and I rarely asked him to do the repetitive exercises for skills he'd already mastered. I did a lot of compressing (in all the levels), but RS was still awesome for him (he did 1st ed. A-E). Yes, RS does zig-zag around a lot, though more so in 2nd edition than 1st edition (IME). But, you know, as amazingly awesome as I think RS is, it's not going to be the best fit for every kid. You could try compressing and accelerating or jumping ahead a level, but you could always try Miquon too. You could also try just going with what your DS wants -- keep going deeper with the lesson material as it interests him. Then when RS gets around to actually doing the same, you can just skip that part and move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiara.I Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 It sounds like he's mastered the topics. I'd feel free to condense and do multiple lessons in a go, just making sure that he has the concepts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stine Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Can I ask what lesson number you are on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SevenDaisies Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I thought as you did that it would be perfect for my wiggly little ones, but neither of the two who tried it, liked it. They both preferred Essentials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 I love RS and it served Dd very well. She is now in MM5 and it was a smooth transition. Ds needs longer on each topic and more thorough review, so I am using a combo of RS and MM and he seems to be making good progress. The hands-on is great for him and we love the games, but RS sometimes makes jumps that he is not ready for. We are in C now and haven't decided for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess4879 Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 We tried RS B with my middle kiddo and it bombed here. She was very bored and didn't like the hands on aspect like I had expected. In RS's defense, if I had been more familiar with the program I could have probably figured out how to jump ahead, but I found it jumped around so much that I wasn't really sure how to fast track it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 (edited) He is young of course, and I only do school with him when he asks. But when he does ask, then he has always been able to focus on it for long stretches of time, much longer than I want to be doin it usually. Lol. So I don't think it's that he's not ready for it. It's got to be either boredom or just dislike for RS. He was doing Miquon orange, doing 2-4 pages per day, based on his interest, but we got to a spot where he just wasn't understanding it. So that's when I decided to try RS, since I had the TM and most of the manipulatives. We are on lesson 15 in RS2 A. I'm debating whether to try and move quickly through A and hopefully get to something more interesting to him OR just switch to RS2 B. I have that TM as well. However I don't have the number balance thingie. Edited February 20, 2016 by vaquitita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stine Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 He is young of course, and I only do school with him when he asks. But when he does ask, then he has always been able to focus on it for long stretches of time, much longer than I want to be doin it usually. Lol. So I don't think it's that he's not ready for it. It's got to be either boredom or just dislike for RS. He was doing Miquon orange, doing 2-4 pages per day, based on his interest, but we got to a spot where he just wasn't understanding it. So that's when I decided to try RS, since I had the TM and most of the manipulatives. We are on lesson 15 in RS2 A. I'm debating whether to try and move quickly through A and hopefully get to something more interesting to him OR just switch to RS2 B. I have that TM as well. However I don't have the number balance thingie. We had a similar issue. I think my son found things so simple that he found a way to overthink and complicate it and would do more than asked or do the next part without even being asked to. We started to mix in LOF Apples with RS, which he enjoyed. I think because he wanted to do "math problems". Now we are on lesson 40 (which coincidently just introduced the balance) and it has picked up a bit. We continued through the simpler lessons so that he had a good foundation and would become familiar with the RS style. It is definitely slow in the beginning for a child who is already very familiar with basic math concepts. We are continuing with A for now and may just jump ahead to B for the next school year even if we don't finish it. From what I am told, many even start with B to begin with for K but I feel more comfortable with saving B for 1st. I would give it more time though since you are only on 15. I definitely felt the same way in the beginning but feel much better about it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vaquitita Posted February 20, 2016 Author Share Posted February 20, 2016 We had a similar issue. I think my son found things so simple that he found a way to overthink and complicate it and would do more than asked or do the next part without even being asked to. We started to mix in LOF Apples with RS, which he enjoyed. I think because he wanted to do "math problems". Now we are on lesson 40 (which coincidently just introduced the balance) and it has picked up a bit. We continued through the simpler lessons so that he had a good foundation and would become familiar with the RS style. It is definitely slow in the beginning for a child who is already very familiar with basic math concepts. We are continuing with A for now and may just jump ahead to B for the next school year even if we don't finish it. From what I am told, many even start with B to begin with for K but I feel more comfortable with saving B for 1st. I would give it more time though since you are only on 15. I definitely felt the same way in the beginning but feel much better about it now. Good to know. He's young and I don't want to push too far ahead. Looking over the coming lessons, I'm thinking of skipping ahead to lesson 31: assessment 1, even the lessons right after that is stuff he knows but it's stuff that he could use a little practice on, or at least that I'd like to double check that he's mastered it. That means we would soon get t the lessons requiring the number balance and I don't have one. It seems to me I could teach those lessons with c rods. It wouldn't be exactly the same of course, but the main concept would be taught. I don't feel like rushing out and buying the thing because I'm using these next few months to try out RS and see if we like it and want to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 You can certainly use manipulatives other then the number balance. For my DD, the balance was the least useful of all the manipulatives. She just never quite "got" that one, though she could understand all the concepts just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 My son loved it, my daughter hated it. RS is exactly the opposite of what works for her, it took 2 failed attempts at RS and working with MiF and MEP to finally admit that. She is a get 'r done kind of girl, she likes books that are written to her. She enjoys review. She is on Horizons Math now, it has been a much better fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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