Alternatives to RightStart A: Singapore Earlybird, Essentials, or Minquon

[TheAttachedMama]

Hi Everyone,

I could use some help with my kindergarten aged son and what to use to teach him math.   

NOTE:   I do best when I have some type of plan to follow because our life is a bit crazy at the moment.  (Too many "beings" needing my attention if you know what I mean!  hahaha)   So, I'm not really great at flying by the seat of my pants and thinking up fun learning games at a moments notice.   I really want some type of program to follow.

I've been using RightStart A with him, but he just doesn't seem to get subitizing the numbers 4-10.   He is very different from my older two kids who just seemed to get it.   We've been reviewing the concept for awhile, but he just was sort of guessing more than  showing understanding.   So we put it aside for a few months, and did some fun-game-like math--then recently pulled it back out.   Well, he is still not getting subitizing numbers.  (He still sees 5 + 1 on the abacus or my fingers and might guess it is 4.  So he is really not getting it.)  If you have ever taught right start A, you will know that you really can't move too far ahead without getting that concept down because everything builds on visualizing numbers and being able to subitize vs count.    I am thinking about putting it aside for a few months again (or maybe forever with this kid!) and trying something else for awhile.  I don't want him to get frustrated with math at this age. 

SO----I am looking at the following options:

• Singapore Early Bird
• Singapore Essentials 
• Or Minquon Math
• Or Something else?

 

My questions:   

1)  Tell me about Minquon.   Everyone also recommends Minquon math to me, but I am not sure I fully understand what is so great about it.    What exactly would I need to buy?   What is taught in each color of book? 

2)  What is the difference between Early Bird and Singapore Essentials?   

 

[Angie in VA]

Maybe put Right Start aside for a while? And just play games like Sum Swamp and Yahtzee as your child is able/interested? How about invest in some skip counting tapes/cds for now? Do math w/ M & M's?

Miquon uses cuisenaire rods. IIRC a WTMer made these videos using rods. 

I'm sure more informed and experienced posters will give you good advice.

[Ellie]

He might be happier with a more traditional approach to arithmetic. That is, maybe something that does *not* use manipulatives. (FTR, I don't know what you mean by " but he just doesn't seem to get subitizing the numbers 4-10.") You could check out something more traditional, such as Rod and Staff Publishers math series. It doesn't have kindergarten; you'd start with the first grade books and work at his speed. You would spend about 10 or 15 minutes teaching, using the oral lessons in the very excellent teacher manual, and then give him the seatwork.

[nixpix5]

You have one like mine :)

My original plan was to use RS with both of my boys but one boy just couldn't seem to do it either. I thought maybe it was too jumpy for him with abacus/tiles/popsicle sticks etc. So I tried Singspore for a bit and he hated it. I eventually moved him to MUS thinking I was probably just making a mistake because it was a manipulative dependent curriculum but he LOVED it. I am not sure if it was just the use of one manipulative in many ways or the consistent repetition and predictability throughout the week but he just took off with it. He has a number sense that rivals his brother using RS at this point. 

Funny enough we were at a friends house who uses Miquon and he was able to burn through a couple of brain scratching worksheets and intuitively understood the cuisinare rods instantly. Even my RS guy and BJU girl were baffled by what the worksheets were asking. 

So my guy is 1st grade this year and a couple of months away from finishing Beta and will be on to Gamma next year :)

[domestic_engineer]

You have one like mine, too!

I chose to stick with RS A and use a lot of suggestions from here:  http://whatwordscannotexpress.weebly.com/blog/helping-a-struggling-learner-using-rightstart-math-level-a-adaptations-gathered-by-a-homeschool-mom

I did end up sticking with Ronit Bird's dot patterns that resembled Dice.  For some reason a linear arrangement of dots/beads ... or even fingers ... was a stumbling block, but if I arranged five like the 5 dots on a dice - boom - subitization!  Playing Tenzi was a hit here that helped with some of that subitization.  Playing Uno helped with recognizing the numerals.  And the Abacus War game suggested in that website was an opportunity to put it all together, albeit at a very slow pace.

Edited to Add:  I think some of my kiddo's problem was with the language/recall aspect, not necessarily with the mathematical concepts.   Hugs!  It's very frustrating, I know!

 

[Targhee]

My thought is Singapore Earlybird. Miquon is great but doesn’t have a neat plan like you’re asking for.  Singapore explicitly teaches number bonds like RS (I even pulled out the RS number bond page with the large circle and two small circles when doing Earlybird).  Singapore also teaches kids to see numbers 6-10 as 5 and another number (not exactly how RS does, but they are complimentary).  Earlybird has colorful pictures (something RS is lacking - you go from concrete to abstract, whereas the Singapore way is concrete-pictorial-abstract).

best wishes!

eta: I can’t speak to the differences between Earlybird and Essentials, but we have used Earlybird. Miquon covers a wide variety of topics in each color book. Technically the first book (Orange) is for 1st graders.  There are some explanations in the Lab Sheet Annotations and the First Grade Diary, but it isn’t laid out in an easy-to-execute manner. The sheets are self-directed- give the sheet and the C-rods and student explores the concept.  I think the linked video above is for the gal behind EducationUnboxed.com which teaches all sorts of math with C-rods, showing videos of activities and games. My kids loved playing games from EducationUnboxed and I often pulled the C-rods out to help clarify things for one child who really got “C-rods.”

[greenfields]

We used RightStart and added Singapore.  But now I use Mortensen Math (blocks from Anna's Math Page and video lessons from Crewton Ramone) and supplement with geometry and word problems.  I learned that workbooks and worksheets are not critical for younger ages.  Concrete manipulatives like blocks are more helpful.

The blocks (Mortensen or similar MathUSee) have demarcations to denote quantity.  Crewton Ramone shows how to build a number wall which is easy and fun.

RightStart was useful for the geometry elements, but the Mortensen blocks made math simpler such that a little child can add exponents : x^2 + x^2 = 2x^2. 

Put the blocks in the bathtub for fun math.

 

[ExcitedMama]

Miquon did a great job breaking down concepts and teaching them to DS. It taught multiplication and division way earlier then I expected and made it seem just as easy as addition. When we encountered them in MIF he was shocked at how much time was spent on something so easy. I had read great reviews about it here but I was really intimidated by it in person. The TM is not very straightforward and some of the pages looked really weird to me. When I finally got around to using it DS just got it but considered himself too old for rods and refused to use them. I’m starting earlier with DD and she’s really enjoying it. I just use it as open and go and we bounce between the topics but I know others follow topics between books.

[underthebridge]

I used Miquon with my now 3rd grader (entire series) and my current K’er is using the first two books now (Orange and Red). Even though they do MIF at school, I still consider Miquon their primary curriculum for K-2 because they learned all the concepts through Miquon first.

Miquon is visually a bit strange - the worksheets have sparse directions and some look like a 5 year old drew them. It is not organized by chapter. There is no textbook. It’s odd!

Miquon is similar to RightStart in that that it encourages your child to think about numbers flexibly. However, instead of explicitly instructing your child to think of 6 as 5+1, Miquon leads your child to discover the relationship on their own through the worksheets. There are no mnemonics or songs and few games. 

Cuisenaire rods are used with almost every worksheet. They are not demarcated. Although it might seem more instructive to have the rods demarcated or marked with a value, keeping them unmarked adds flexibility in how they can be used in fractions and ratios. The 10 cm rod can represent “1” and the 2 cm rod can represent “1/5”. 

Miquon assumes that your child can recognize and write numbers. In my opinion, it moves more quickly than MIF and Singapore Earlybirds; as mentioned by PP, it was originally written as a first grade curriculum. The first 24 worksheets involve counting and putting numbers in sequence up to 30. The next 11 sheets introduce adding, starting with number bonds for 4, then 5, then 7, and then 9. Multiplication is introduced a little more than halfway through Orange, followed by division. 

I had RightStart A, but I never used it because it was too scripted for me and had so many pieces. There were also very few worksheets. If you like the schedule and explicit teaching instructions of RightStart, Miquon will seem too unstructured. There are teaching notes available in a separate book, but it takes a bit of work to plan it out. Each worksheet has a page number that corresponds to its topic, and you can dismantle the book and teach in your own order if you like. 

One downside of Miquon is that if your child is stuck on a page, you have to figure out for yourself what to move on to instead or how to reinforce the concept. Both my kids stalled at multiplication in the first book (Orange), so we moved on to the second book (Red) and learned about odds and evens and came back. Another downside is that there are very few word problems. And finally, the rods take a little time to get used to for both students and parents. In order for students to really benefit, they need to be very familiar with manipulating and comparing rods.

There are not very many problems on each worksheet, so your child can get through several at a time, but I would not describe it as an incremental program. It does promote a truly deep number sense and the ability to visually represent math. Using cuisenaire rods also encourages understanding relationships beyond the basic operations. We now use the rods with fractions, ratios, area, relationships between perfect squares, etc.