Having trouble with Right Start Math

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  • billandmegan
    Participant

    Hi! I’m new to the forum, and very thankful to have a group of homeschoolers to come to for help!

    My son is 6 years old, and we started CM this year. I bought Right Start Level B because all the reviews I read said how much the kids love it. So many said Math was the best part of their day. 

    Our experience has been very different. My son really despises math, and I’m not sure what to do. My instinct is to keep pressing on and hoping he’ll start to enjoy it, but it seems to be getting worse, not better. By the time we’re finished with the lesson each day, we’re both frustrated and feeling very unhappy. 

    Am I starting him too young? Is there anything I can do? I’d love to hear suggestions.

    Thanks so much!

    suzukimom
    Participant

    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.

    billandmegan
    Participant

    Thanks! Your suggestions seem like they’ll be a great help, I think, and very free-ing for me. I tend to fall into putting a lot of pressure on myself.

    Our lessons have been pretty long, and I haven’t felt the freedom to cut them in half, although I really have noticed that he’s on board and willing to work with me for a little while, and about half way through, he starts to fall to pieces.

    He is getting the concepts, for the  most part, but it’s not all coming quickly and easily. We just finished lesson 24 today, and he understands the main concepts, but overall he doesn’t have a strong command of the material – not sure if that makes sense.

    We didn’t get the games book, so I will look into that.

    Thank you so much!

    suzukimom
    Participant

    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….)

    sixtimemom
    Member

    Just jumping in to say ditto to the excellent advice suzukimom gave you!!  Especially slowing down to doing fewer lessons a week and increasing the days you play math games. 

    Keep the lessons enjoyable!!

    I’ve taken my children through RS and my biggest regret is not taking the time to play the games….at least having one game day a week…I thought I had to push through the lessons.  I finally realized when I got to Level E with my youngest that it’s ok to slow down….he needed me to as he was at a point he was not enjoying the math.  Once I slowed it down he was fine.  And now we are in The Geometric Approach and I still have one day a week we just play a math game.

     

    kimofthesavages
    Participant

    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. 🙂

    billandmegan
    Participant

    Thank you all for your helpful advice! I really think that as I pray through this and evaluate my own motives, I’m seeing more and more that much of what motivates me is my own and other’s assessment of our success as a homeschool family. My extended family is very against homeschooling (almost all of my family are not believers, and there are several PS teachers), so I feel a strong need to prove myself. It’s very helpful to hear you all say that it’s OK to back off a little and take it more slowly. I need to remember the real reasons why I decdied to homeschool in the first place, and it had nothing to do with pleasing my family.

    Kimofthesavages, my experiences with potty training have been exactly as you described – it makes a lot of sense to wait until they’re ready and then it’s enjoyable for all instead of hard and stressful.

    Thanks again to all of you!

    Wings2fly
    Participant

    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?

    mtnmama
    Participant

    My 6 yr. old son usually loves Right Start Math Level B but when he gets tired of it (or when I do– it is very hands on for parents) we switch to Kumon workbooks. We have done “Telling Time” and “Counting Coins.” It is not CM at all, but it is a good mental break and builds confidence in those skill areas. After a few days we are ready to get back to RS math.

    Also, We are on lesson 70 and I have noticed a lot more games/fun activities than we did in the first 60 lessons or so. I guess they had to build skills and now they can play and experiment with those concepts.

    mfurnell
    Participant

    “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.

    billandmegan
    Participant

    Wow! I really feel so much better. Thank you all. I started applying some of the suggestions on here right away – I set a timer for 20 min and he feels so much better knowing that there’s a limit to how long math will be. I’ve also seen that he’s really willing to work with me for just about what it takes us to do half of a lesson, so thanks to all these wonderful moms advice, I’ve felt perfectly comfortable just two one half of a lesson per day and only moving on when I feel he’s ready. Also, we ordered the math games book, so I’m really excited to get that – he loves the few games we play already!

    suzukimom
    Participant

    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.

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