Is Rightstart A appropriate for the pre-k/young K crowd?

[happynurse]

My son will be 4 1/2 when we start some gentle pre-k this fall. He absolutely loves games so I have been specifically searching for a game-based curriculum that we can do together (same reason I've also chosen LoE Foundations). I had planned to begin RS A (2nd ed.) with him as a fun, game-based intro to math. I have hopes to continue on to RS B (2nd ed.) for kindergarten (or whenever we get through A). 

 

After reading some other threads, RS A seems to be most often used in kindy, with RS B more on a first grader's level. Has anyone successfully used RS A with a pre-k'er or young k'er? He LOVES songs and games and I think that ultimately Rightstart will be an excellent fit for him. 

 

I'd love to hear your experiences with the program. Thanks!

[Jackie]

DD used Level A for her preschool year with no problems, then B in kindergarten.

[Squawky Acres]

Oh yes, Level A is very gentle.  I would not hesitate to use it for Pre-K.  My daughter started it in K, which is when we discovered RS, and she absolutely loved it.  She would keep the manipulatives out and continue to "play math" even after the lessons were over.  I am starting my 4-year-old Pre-K kid on it this fall.

[kesmom]

I used level A with my 4.5 year old last year and it worked very well. You can go as slow or fast as you like with it.

 

Another bonus is that I was doing level B with another child and they could do the card games etc together. He picked up a lot just being in the same room when I taught the level B lessons too.

 

 

[AndyJoy]

I would say yes. I started it for offical K when my son was nearly 6 but ended up jumping to B because I discovered we had covered it all through our informal math play. He is a math/game lover and would have liked A at 4.5, but I didn't know about it then.

 

BTW, Sum Swamp is a great beginning math board game. It focuses on recognizing odd/even numbers, counting, and adding and subtracting up to 6+6/6-6. We definitely got our money's worth out of it when my son was 4.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

My PKer is using both programs & we love them! Very fun, hands-on choices.

[kirstenhill]

My experience is with First Edition, so I don't know how comparable it is with 2nd. With my oldest, we didn't find Right Start until half way through Kindy, and she completed A in half a year. Given that she had done other K level math in the first half of the year, I think in retrospect I could have started her in B even though math isn't her greatest strength. In first edition there is a lot of repeat from A to B.

 

With DS9, we did RS A activities informally in PreK and he started B in Kindy. DS7 hated the abacus with a passion when he was 4 and 5, so I did Singapore and Miquon for him in Kindy, and then flew through B in the first little-over-half of first grade, and we made it through a great deal of C as well. My boys are defintiely strong in math though.

 

With DS4.5 we will start RS A in the fall, but if he doesn't gel with it, I won't hesitate to pull out Miquon. We are already "playing" math quite a bit. Yesterday we were making various piles of ten Pokemon cards and then counting the tens with their "math names" and their traditional names. :-)

Edited June 22, 2016 by kirstenhill

[Cake and Pi]

I prefer 1st edition level A for pre-k over 2nd edition A because it is more gentle.  (You can move from 1st edition A to 2nd ed B no without issue.)