Hi Melissa,
Wow, these are really great questions as well and, you are right, I need to clarify. I called Ray’s “oral” in the sense that the student would not be filling out pages of worksheets, which is standard today, but would be presented with oral exercises – first worked with concrete objects before moving on to mental images and then abstract thinking. It would be better to call Ray’s a “mental arithmetic,” meaning that children are learning to think mathematically rather than merely doing math. Indeed, Ray’s “Intellectual Arithmetic” was originally called Ray’s “Mental Arithmetic” as problems were given in applied situations and the child is taught to “reason, to analyze, to think for himself…”
With Ray’s Primary or New Primary, children are learning to read and write numerals up to 100 but not before receiving the idea of what a number symbol represents. They are not thrown directly into abstract numbers and a workbook or worksheets which is the popular method of today. Ray’s is not a writing-heavy curriculum.
Charlotte’s philosophy maintains that atmosphere, ideas, and habits are so important, culminating into these many relations the child makes. Thus, her methods, or her ways to the means, meant oral narration came before written narration – though children had both handwriting and reading lessons. And, so, in arithmetic oral and mental work are given in order to impart ideas and secure those habits such as attention, exactness and steadfast thinking. Reading and writing of numerals does take place but not in such a way as to overshadow the ideas found in arithmetic.
Also, please remember that Ray’s Primary or Ray’s New Primary is taken incredibly slowly and steadily with those 90-something pages taking up about two years of careful work. For placement, I would suggest going way back with your son – we won’t think in terms of “behind” or “ahead” but rather where is he comfortable and really thinking mathematically? Relax, now relax some more. With Ray’s by your side and a bag of pennies and dimes, give him some money, shopping exercises, or problems that pertain specifically to him and see how that goes. Maybe it will just be five minutes today and tomorrow and then ten minutes the day after. If he flips his lid at the mere mention of math, maybe do some sweet math using m&m’s or organic SunSpires and let him have some success in that area – though remember, “its in his own power” he must go. Don’t worry if you go back to the beginning with him. With each successive step on the rungs of a ladder, one eventually reaches the top. As the ground feels more secure under his feet and he gains a comfort with numbers, he’ll start finding the joy in working with them and making discoveries for himself as well.
I do hope this helps you. I have to run now but I’ll check back to see if you have follow-up questions.
Warmly,
Richele
