All summer, I kept hearing about this awesome math curriculum that had some math games that families and math students were having a blast with. Naturally I had to check it out, so I ordered RightStart Level A. It sat for about a month, but recently we started in!
RightStart Mathematics Level A
WOW. I had NO idea of exactly how cool this program was… I read the first 10 lessons and realized this program will rock in getting to understand math in your head. No counting on hands to do math. How is that? They break up numbers in chunks of 5 and 10. It’s easy to visualize with all their manipulatives and extra activities.
First off, your hand naturally has 5 fingers, both hands have 10. So you always have a “handy” way to see the numbers in the chunks of 5! Next, tally marks are grouped by 5. Here is the number 8:
Tally Marks - 8
This concept of chunks of 5 is so important, they even have a song for it! It’s easy to memorize and helps you remember your “chunks”. Here’s the first verse, included in a CD in their Right Start A Starter Kit.
Yellow is the sun, SIX is FIVE and ONE.
Finally, the manipulative they are most famous for, is their special AL Abacus (not sure what the AL stands for). Specially marked beads designate groups of 5. A row is 10. A half board is 50. Then they swap the colors to mark 51, and the full board is 100. See for yourself.
RS Abacus
Students do not have to count at all, it is easy to visualize 5 + 3 is 8, so they slide over 8 all at the same time. No more slow and erroneous counting of 1… 2… 3… and so on. Just simply 8.
AL Abacus - quantity of 8
Soon, Satori will be able to do addition and subtraction in her head! Not only that, but each lesson is very interesting and covers multiple concepts and so far in the first 7 lessons, we are learning days of the week, parallel, and so much more. You won’t be doing an entire year of just addition, now you’ve got fun, games, and an intuitive way to think of math so you “get it”.
I got RightStart for the games, I almost forgot about that in my excitement about the actual curriculum. I really think Satori is going to rock in math because of their approach. Instead of boring worksheet/flash card drills, these games will help reinforce what she’s learned. I cannot wait.
Here’s what we ordered – the Right Start Starter Kit Level A. Includes most of the manipulatives and materials we’ll need, we already have some of the extras at home. It came in a big box:
RightStart Level A Starter Kit
Here is a sample page out of a lesson, the manual/workbook are included in the above kit. As you can see, it uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities to help with the lessons. And it’s fun!
Lesson page
PDF No related posts.
Comments