Can RightStart still be used if a child already knows how to count?

[Ellyndria]

DS will be 4 next month, and I've been thinking of using RightStart A with him when he gets to be kindergarten age around a year and a half later (or whenever he's ready for it).

 

But, I think because I counted to him as a baby (it calmed him, he was fascinated), he picked up counting and recognizing numbers to 100 very early. This was long before I ever knew RightStart existed.

 

I know RS uses a different way of counting, and focuses on recognizing groups of objects instead of counting... since he already knows the traditional way of counting, will this be a problem? A couple times I wondered if he could recognize small groups (three, four, five) without counting, and while he could recognize groups of three easily without counting, he tends to want to count groups of four or five.

 

Were you able to use RS easily if your child already knew counting?

[Christine]

Well. . .

 

I was using RS A with my younger guys, and had planned to use it by the time they were 2, so had put a ban in the house on teaching them to count.

 

We were going along swimmingly, and then my sister-in-law came to visit, and was shocked to discover my kids couldn't count, and took it upon herself to teach them. (I still love her though.)

 

They want to count everything! And, I can tell you, it really does slow the process WAY down. (See, I was able to verify that point. . .)

 

My 7 yo (then 6) was able to go back to the "math way", but my then 5 yo wasn't -- oh, no wait, it was 5 and 4 (they have late birthdays).

 

That said, yes, you can still use RS even if your child knows how to count. But, expect to use extra time trying to rid him of that habit, OR you'll need extra time for him to continue his habit.

[StephanieF]

I started when ds was 5 and he could already count and it was fine. You still need to beable to count just not count when you are doing addition as you need to "see" the answers. I wouldn't let the ability to count put you off.

Stephanie

[KAM]

Mine could both count and I think it still works great. They still learned to recognize quantities without counting, though I did have to point out many times that they should try not to count.

[prairiegirl]

My two oldest could count the 'normal way' when we started RS. It wasn't an issue. They could slide back and forth between the two counting ways very easily.

[Aurelia]

Ditto the previous posts. Ariel knew how to count when we started RS A, and we had a couple of discussions that went something like "I know you know that 12 is twelve, but for now, when we do math we will call it one-ten-two." After a few days practice she got it down and can now count both ways. I wouldn't be terribly worried about it.

[Haiku]

Being able to count is not a problem for RS. In fact, I think it would be very rare to find a four or five year old who can't count just from having lived for 4 or 5 years. With RS, it's just a matter of learning what we call "the math way" of naming numbers, such as 15 being "one-ten-five," not "fifteen."

 

Think of it this way: RS's terminology is based on Asian languages, where the words for numbers are "one-ten-five" and "three-ten-eight," etc. I don't think that anyone expects young Asian kids not to learn to count until they start math. The idea is just that the kids understand that the numbers correspond to place value. I was able to teach that to my kids very easily even though they already knew how to count.

 

Tara

[Ellyndria]

Ok, I'll just plan on it taking longer then. Thank you all!

[PeterPan]

RS has no problem with counting per se, lol. The issue is counting as a strategy for addition or subtraction. You'll spend some lessons learning to visualize quantities rather than counting them, then you'll develop strategies for addition that use visualization, rather than counting up and down. But counting with a little isn't going to hinder that process or hurt anything. :)