Shiller Math vs Right Start?

[Janeway]

Any opinions on these? What about for the fast learner? Or the slow learner?

[HomeAgain]

We did a few levels of Right Start.  Some of our drawbacks were:

-long lessons with lots of moving parts and writing

-poor fractions lessons.  If you ever want to see a child scream, ask them to circle a THIRD of a single bead in a larger group.  He couldn't do it exactly and it resulted in a large meltdown.  Math U See teaches fractions so much better, so after a while we ditched the Right Start instructions and taught using MUS's way, then doing the RS worksheets (except the pictures of the beads).

-it's not readily adaptable for a fast learner.  We were finishing entire levels in 6 months, which meant I was spending a lot on math those years.

 

Some of the benefits:

-division was well done and thorough

-some of the games quickly became favorites

-the materials were intriguing and interesting

 

I'd recommend getting a piece of thick felt for Right Start if you do use it.  It helped to keep the plastic tiles from shifting around, and there's a lot of plastic tiles at some points.

[Paige]

I like Shiller. I think it should get more love. I don’t know how it compares to the more popular Right Start but I purchased Shiller when DS (19) was going into K and he still offers us free support and downloads if I want it. He seems like a good guy. 
 

I think it’s easy to accelerate Shiller if you want. We just skipped some lessons when it seemed unnecessary. It’s fun for a wiggly, easily bored kid  but wasn’t great for my anxious kids who just wanted to do the same thing every day! With Shiller, it’s spiral and they have a lot of activities. Some of my kids wanted to know what to expect every day and didn’t like variety. Shiller kind of felt like a game to my wiggly kid but my anxious kids didn’t want to play that game- lol! They didn’t like games. 
 

I think it goes slow enough but if you felt it was too slow you could just repeat a lesson. It’s very parent intensive either way, however. There’s no hand it to the kids and walk away here! There is a workbook but we did everything orally. I can’t remember if we were told to do it orally (it’s scripted) or if I chose to minimize the workbook use. 
 

Your child would have a hard time entering PS after Shiller, however. It has a different scope and sequence and most likely your child will be far ahead of his classmates but lack the shared vocabulary  and calculator skills that are expected. 

[Janeway]

19 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

We did a few levels of Right Start.  Some of our drawbacks were:

-long lessons with lots of moving parts and writing

-poor fractions lessons.  If you ever want to see a child scream, ask them to circle a THIRD of a single bead in a larger group.  He couldn't do it exactly and it resulted in a large meltdown.  Math U See teaches fractions so much better, so after a while we ditched the Right Start instructions and taught using MUS's way, then doing the RS worksheets (except the pictures of the beads).

-it's not readily adaptable for a fast learner.  We were finishing entire levels in 6 months, which meant I was spending a lot on math those years.

 

Some of the benefits:

-division was well done and thorough

-some of the games quickly became favorites

-the materials were intriguing and interesting

 

I'd recommend getting a piece of thick felt for Right Start if you do use it.  It helped to keep the plastic tiles from shifting around, and there's a lot of plastic tiles at some points.

It sounds like it would not work for us then. I was thinking of it for my fast learner. And I have always found fractions were the toughest as far as really knowing them inside and out.

[Janeway]

20 minutes ago, Paige said:

I like Shiller. I think it should get more love. I don’t know how it compares to the more popular Right Start but I purchased Shiller when DS (19) was going into K and he still offers us free support and downloads if I want it. He seems like a good guy. 
 

I think it’s easy to accelerate Shiller if you want. We just skipped some lessons when it seemed unnecessary. It’s fun for a wiggly, easily bored kid  but wasn’t great for my anxious kids who just wanted to do the same thing every day! With Shiller, it’s spiral and they have a lot of activities. Some of my kids wanted to know what to expect every day and didn’t like variety. Shiller kind of felt like a game to my wiggly kid but my anxious kids didn’t want to play that game- lol! They didn’t like games. 
 

I think it goes slow enough but if you felt it was too slow you could just repeat a lesson. It’s very parent intensive either way, however. There’s no hand it to the kids and walk away here! There is a workbook but we did everything orally. I can’t remember if we were told to do it orally (it’s scripted) or if I chose to minimize the workbook use. 
 

Your child would have a hard time entering PS after Shiller, however. It has a different scope and sequence and most likely your child will be far ahead of his classmates but lack the shared vocabulary  and calculator skills that are expected. 

No intent of sending to public school in the future. And he has the wiggles so much. But he is also a fast learner. He loves building with my MUS blocks (I do not use MUS, I just have the blocks). His older sister struggles a lot with things so I had kind of hoped that as she interacted with him as he learns, as in, even though she is beyond the lessons, she likes to "teach" him, it would solidify her skills, which are weak.