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Rightstart math…too much!
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Ok, I am stuck in a rut! I have a 5 year old and a 7 year old and I am all over the place with the math. The curriculum recommended is just way too much money for us right now. So what do I do? My boys need a stable math curriculum ASAP!
Math Mammoth is inexpensive and can be done is small spurts. I am using Level 1 and just doing the problems with manipulatives right now with ds5 instead of doing them on paper. That way he works through the concepts with the hands on focus.
Have you looked for it used? Check e-bay or homeschoolclassifieds.com
If you can’t get the whole set, maybe start with the AL Abacus (different than other abacus because of 5 yellow and 5 blue beads) and the math games kit.
Perhaps this discussion may help you:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/rightstart-level-b-question
Kitchen Table Math might be another option.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=kitchen+table+math
I really like Math Mammoth. We use Right Start as our main math, but last year I needed to some days have something he could do on his own. MM fit the bill perfectly – it is also mastery based like RS.
You could contact Book Samaritan – they might be able to get it for you….
RightStart sometimes has books etc for sale at that are gently used (ie, returned and not really used, or looked at during conferences…)
If YOU are good at math – you can do the following, which works for up to about grade 4 or 5… use the “Activities for AlAbacus” and the Worksheets for AlAbacus. It is the “original program” and has a lot of good stuff in it – but isn’t nearly as scripted, so you wwould be making more descisions about when to do what….
So – what you would need
AlAbacus (1 per student…) – I actually made some for my kids with popcicle sticks, bamboo skewers, and pony beads…
“Activities for AlAbacus”
“Worksheets for Activities for AlAbacus”
“Math Card Games Book”
“Math Cards”
Probably best bought in kits… like this http://store.rightstartmath.com/mathcardgames.aspx and then http://store.rightstartmath.com/activitiesforalabacus.aspx and http://store.rightstartmath.com/worksheetsforthealabacus.aspx
I think that comes up to $90…. which I know is still a lot – but it will easily work for Kindergarten all the way up to Grade 4 or 5…. As long as you don’t need the lessons totally scripted. And maybe you can get discounted ones or used ones….
btw – if you want something good that is FREE…. look up MEP Math on google. It is also a GREAT program. (we did switch because of some problems – but it was great and I know many people that use it.)
If you decide to use it, let me know, and I’ll give you some links of resources
MEP is great! I finally figured out how to use it when I printed two weeks worth of the teacher’s guide and the student pages. Dd learned a lot the short time we used it. For a bit we used just the student pages but I realized that she was missing a lot not doing the oral exercises in the teacher material.
Waaa…makes me want to go back to it. But something teacher intensive had to give. But I LOVED how well dd did. Off to relook at our schedule.
Yes – you MUST do all the activities on the teachers page in MEP…. that is where concepts are learned….
Yes – you MUST do all the activities on the teachers page in MEP…. that is where concepts are learned….
Plus math time was way more fun when we were interacting doing the exercises! It’s really subtle though. Just looking at it all you can easily think that the TG is okay to skip.
I like RightStart but we use Math on the Level as our spine. I did what SuzukiMom said and bought the Al Abacus (2 b/c I bought one for each 1st grader) and the Al Abacus book. I also bought a kit that had the fraction board, math card games, the balance and a few other things. It was all right under $100 and I feel a good investment.
I will say though you can buy the balance, fraction board and a couple other RigthStart manipulative on Amazon for a much cheaper price. But I wanted the book and something else that wasn’t available elsewhere plus I got it at Homeschool Expo at a discount and the rep. spent a lot of time helping me to understand how best to use it.
I was able to find the whole set used for $75.00 including the manipulatives. It took a little digging and looking around…..posting on used curriculum boards but I finally nabbed it when I found it. The workbook only had two or three pages used in it but just erased it because it was written in pencil so it was a lifesaver to find it so cheap.
I bought a brand new set of RightStart Level A, Deluxe package – minus the balance – on homeschoolclassifieds.com for about half price. I kept a lot of the manipulatives, but passed the teacher’s manual, student workbook, card games, etc. on to the Book Samaritan a few months back. It didn’t work for us at all, but I know a lot of people love it.
MEP math is free, with the exception of printing costs. It may be worth printing off a few weeks of teacher’s instructions and lessons and looking through them before investing money into any other curriculum.
April
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