Having trouble with Right Start Math

Is he having problems with the concepts?  How long are your lessons?  Are you playing the games?  (what lesson are you on?)

I would keep with it, it really is the best math our there….

So, without the answers to the questions I’ve asked… here is my advice.

Sit where you are in the lessons for a while, especially if he is struggling with the concepts.  Play the games – go to the easier games to give him a break.  (If you don’t have the game book, I’d buy it if I could – there are many many more games than are given in the lesson, so you have options… if he doesn’t like a game, you can pick another game that teaches the same concepts.

Keep the lessons short – don’t worry about finishing the complete lesson.  Here (my kids are enjoying rightstart) we set the timer for 30 minutes – if the lesson is done before we play one of the math games…  if we aren’t done (and have more than a minute or so of work left) we stop and do the rest the next day (and use remaining time for a math game.)   Note that some of the lessons are designed to take a couple of days.   For a child that is hating it at this point, I’d make that more like 20 minutes to begin with, after a month or so make it 25 minutes, then another month move it to 30.

Don’t worry about finishing a book/level each year.  Go at the pace of your son.  (We just switched to RS this year, so my 8yo son is in Level B…. and there are even older kids starting there… so don’t think “we are getting behind”.)

If you answer the questions at the top, I might be able to give you more specific advice.  Also there is a RS Yahoo group, and a discussion forum on the RS website.

Most kids love rightstart, a few don’t…. but I think my suggestions will help.

Glad the suggestions help.  How often are you playing the games?  You need to play them more often than the lessons say to… how often varies for each child of course.  With my kids (who had already done a different math, so can cover it fast) we generally do lessons 4 days a week, and play games the 5th day (and as I said, we play games if there is time left in the lesson…)  But when they get into material that is quite new for them, we will probably work on lessons about 3 times a week and games the other 2.   For a 6yo, I would do lessons maybe 3 times a week, card games the other 2 times….. and when they get into harder concepts, lower the number of lessons and increase the game play…   This is a marathon, not a race.

Definitely stop the lesson while he is still enjoying it.  (a CM type principle, and also a Suzuki (as in Suzuki violin) principle.  That takes observation on your part, although the easiest way is with the timer and a bit of observation.  If you stop the lesson while they still enjoy it, you will get the most of the learning, they will enjoy the math, and never get into the mindset of “I hate math” or “math is boring”.

Also, just a warning… there is a spot in level B (I think about lesson 37ish) where a LOT of studnets start having a really hard time and need to “sit” for a while (or “camp out”) is another phrase…   Basically there is a jump in difficulty… don’t panic when it happens, just take it nice and slow.  So work on getting the lessons short, enjoyable, lots of game play, and your mindset that you don’t need to finish a lesson each day – get that already in place and you will be better prepared when that rush of harder lessons come.  (I can’t remember the exact lesson number that people mention on the yahoo group… I think it is about lesson 37… which is where they start doing 4 digit addition with the place 10 cards….)

You might find the book “Better late than Early” by Moore helpful. It might be best to back off Math until he is a little older. I wish I had read this book many years ago. I think it is a lot like potty training…you can start a little one at 1 year old to potty train and you can work and work for a year or two stressing trying to get them potty trained…or you can wait until they are ready and they will “get it” in a weeks time because they were *ready*. I’ve only been homeschooling for 3 years though and am just learning as I go…so this is just my opinion based on my own experiences…not trying to sound like an expert but just wanted to share with you what would have been helpful for me to hear a few years ago when I was struggling with the same issue. 🙂

Welcome. I am no expert, but I have tried my share of math books and manipulatives. Here is one of many math posts Joanna left us with. She is a former math teacher for ps and spent her time sharing a lot of her math knowledge with us. There are more of her math posts if you look under her profile. She is not on here anymore, but does answer private messages. She needed to spend more time with her family and less time on the computer. She highly recommends RS math.

http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/straight-math-advice-cont-rs-and-other

I have a ds7 who also struggles with math. He is strong in all other subjects. His dad struggles with math and they are just alike in so many ways. I realized that the important thing is him understanding the math concepts and not getting through so many lessons or books in so much time. We are focusing on addition for as long as it takes now. I started with Saxon a year ago and it was the most frustrating for us. Then I tried MUS and also some RS games mixed. DS understands the MUS lesson on the AL Abacus, but really struggles with the MUS blocks, so we are switching to all RS now at level B. Also Joanna recommended math wrap ups to learn the facts instead of lots of worksheets.

http://www.christianbook.com/wrap-ups-addition-math-revised/pd/595101?event=BB&bookbag=1&item_code=WW They are also at Amazon. I am ordering them, but have not tried them yet.

So I ordered the RS level B lessons and set the MUS worksheets aside and we played math games for a few weeks until the RS level b books arrive. We actually had FUN with math for the first time in a while with the doubles matching game. It is like any other matching game, but with two of the same numbers cards together face down and the corresponding answer from the multiplication card deck face down. It was 10 matches to make with double facts 1 to 10. We used the abacus to find the answer to the double cards. It was funny because there were certain cards my kids kept picking and then they learned those particular facts really well that day. We also play Money Bags and Pizza Fractions by Learning Resources. Another favorite is the dvd set called Mathtacular we purchased from Sonlight. We watch it for about 10 minutes once or twice a week, just picking up where we left off. Sometimes we’ll play a math type game we learn from it or sometimes just talk about it. The lessons and worksheets do need to be done, but I see more and more that the real learning happens in applying the concepts to the games played. I am considering 4 days games and one day lessons and worksheets. Feel free to pm me. What lesson are you on?

“Go at the pace of your son.” I would have to agree with suzukimom on that. Short lessons (yes, give yourself permission to do that!) and at his pace. We started with level B (two boys) and as we moved into Level C, and it has been even easier and more enjoyable as we progress! I am amazed now as I watch them “think” about mathematics! The games, in my opinion, are very important in solidifying concepts. They are engaging and hands-on as well. I would even spend the $5 and get the dvd – I love seeing the games played – my boys watch and we learn together.

Oh, I’m glad that things are going so much better.  It is so easy to try to rush through the lessons, and RS really works best taking your time and playing lots of games.