Rightstart and MUS

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  • Marsha
    Participant

    Why is Rightstart recommended and then recommeneded to move to MUS at the end of Rightstart?

     

    sheraz
    Participant

    I think it is because RightStart doesn’t go all the way through the higher maths right now.

    Marsha
    Participant

    Sorry, I mean is there any other reason other than Rightstart does not go higher.

    I need to be convinced. 🙂

     

    suzukimom
    Participant

    Rightstart is a fantastic program for teaching how math really works. I haven’t used MUS so can’t comment on it. RS uses various manipulatives to let you really see math.

    I assume that the person who made the recommendations…

    a) prefered RS over MUS for the years that RS exists…

    B) prefered MUS over Videotext (which RS recommends to swirch too) for the years that RS doesn’t exist.

    HiddenJewel
    Participant

    Perhaps because it is one hands on program to another?

    MUS and RS are different approaches. Are you trying to decide which fits your family better? 

    mtnmama
    Participant

    I know a few people who have made this switch around 5th grade, and they say it flows pretty seemlessly. I think the tend to go from RS D or E to MUS Fractions. For some reason, I don’t know anyone who has done RightStart G, which is geometry for middle school.

    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    While both Right Start and Math-U-See are excellent math curricula, we think that Right Start math has some advantages over Math-U-See in that it

    • Uses an abacus with individual beads in two colors, like the fingers on your hands, for a manipulative, rather than different sized whole blocks of varying shades of color;
    • Uses card games to teach and reinforce math skills;
    • Implements worksheets sparingly.

    Unfortunately, Right Start goes through only middle school level; so at that point we change to Math-U-See. We haven’t had any trouble making the transition between the two curricula, but if you would prefer, feel free to use Math-U-See in all grades.

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hello,

    Thanks – Great insight with Right Start on this post. I am looking into the Video TExt Interactive which Right Start sells/recommands for High School. Has anyone looked into this? Is there a reason CM does not advocate this over MUS? It appears as though the VTI runs modueles A-F. Any thoughts will help!

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Is Right Start a mastery style program like MUS?

    suzukimom
    Participant

    I’d say that Right Start is a lot more spiral than MUS….  although there are programs that are more spiral in nature.

    1st edition info…

    Level A (roughly K) – focuses on basic number sense, identifying quantities, writing numbers.  Adding 1, 2, or 5 to a number (or a number to 1, 2, or 5), Money with pennies, nickles, and I think dimes.  Time to the 1/2 hour.  Basic geometry shapes (and some not-so basic…)  a few simple subtraction (done as an addition problem where one of the first numbers is missing)

    Level B (roughly 1 – can start here) – focuses on basic number sense, identifying quantities, writing numbers.  Adding – up to 4 digit addition, including 2 digit addition mentally.  Money.  Time to the minute.  Basic geometry shapes (and some not so basic) Introduction to subtraction.  Skip counting.

    Level C – Review of the addition strategies, review of money, time.  Subtraction up to 4 digits, including 2 digit mentally.  Geometry including drawing various shapes (pentagons, stars, triangles, etc.)  and work with fractions within that geometry.  Multiplication   – well – that is up to about 1/2 of level C, which is where we are….

    Level D – I think – review – more focus on multiplication – intro to division ….  ?

    Level E – I think – review – Division, Fractions & Decimals ?

    (no level F in edition 1)

    Level G – Geometry for middle school – includes review of everything through practical use of geometry….

    HiddenJewel
    Participant

    We use VideoText Algebra in high school.

    Marsha
    Participant

    Is Rightstart doable with 3 or more kids doing Rightstart?  I have 8 children, will be 9 in the fall.

    suzukimom
    Participant

    Hm – as much as I love RightStart, and think it is worth making time for – I don’t know if I’d want to be doing it with 9 children in the house!   But in short, it would depend a bit on your priorities….

    Right now, I’m doing it with 3 children (and another tagging along.)  2 of the children are at the same spot in the program and I do them together.    Do any of your kids “place” into the same level??

     

    My 5yo is near the beginning of Level B (finished Level A a month or so ago…) 

    My 7yo and 9yo are 1/2 way through Level C.  Most days I do them together, occasionally I’ll make time for a seperate lesson if one is having problems with a concept.

    One thing I have to keep reminding myself with RS (Edition 1 anyway) is that it is COMMON for some of the levels to take a year and a half or 2 years…  (learned this from the RS Yahoo group).  If they did each level in a year, they would be ready for algebra very early.  So if you aimed for about a year and a half for each level, you could do a lesson for 2 kids each day (rotating through the kids)  On a “no lesson” day, they could play one of the solitaire math games.  (And make sure you make time to play the games too!)

    One thing nice about RS with many kids is they can play the games together.  

     

    I do admit that MUS looks like it would be easier with many kids… Tristan has explained what she did – but basically because a child does a lesson one day, then spends a few days doing worksheets, it works nicely for her because each day she teaches a lesson to a different child, and the others are doing their worksheets….

    Marsha
    Participant

    I’m wondering if I could do the lessons with them and let them play math games with one of the older children.  They will soon be in grades 12, 9, 7,5,2, and K, plus a 3.5 year old, 18 month old, and a newborn in the fall.  I think I could put the 5 and 7 year old together.  I’m not sure about the 5th grader. 

     

    HiddenJewel
    Participant

    “I’m wondering if I could do the lessons with them and let them play math games with one of the older children.”

    This is exactly what RS enocurages parents to do! 

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