Hi,
We have been sitting for several days now on the lesson "Days in a Year and Dishes in the Cupboard" level B. DS (age 7) is having a frustrating time on side 2 of the abacus. Trading seems to be the biggest problem. if he is adding say 7 ones to 5 ones, he loses his place when he has to put the 10 yellow beads down to make a trade to the 10's. He'll forget he had 2 more beads left as ones, or he'll try to make the 7 all over again after the trade.
Today was our third day where math consisted of "How many stuffed animals in your room? Broken down into dogs, bears and whats left or Silverware in the draw" ect. I haven't seen much progress, any other suggestions, or can I let this slide a while and continue on? BTW, I also find trading a bit cumbersome, perhaps I am doing it wrong myself, I try and hold in my mind where we were in counting when I trade. Is there a better way?
thanks, Wendy

Dear Wendy,

Thanks for your post. I did notice that you posted on the RS Yahoo board, which is great because there as you know, you will find a wealth of experience and good guidance. The post by Lisa says much of what I would say to you. ex: How does your child do with trading base 10 cards? Does he understand and "see" trading on the front side of the abacus? Does he recognize the numbers on side two?

When working on the back of the abacus, have him count by twos. When he counts out the 10 ones for a trade, again have him count by two from the bottom so he definitely sees the 2 left at the top during the trade. Another suggestion is if you do have a second abacus do the trading on the front with one and on the back with the other so he can see the relationship between the two. With both trading on the front and back he will see that there is still one ten and two ones.

Also, it is perfectly fine and even good to just give it a rest for a little bit. As in, take a few days off and play some math card games. Come back to this lesson or even move on to the next lesson. Often children, as well as adults, just need time to process what is going on in their learning experience. His brain is trying to make sense of what trading is and how it fits into his math understanding.

Does this make sense? Let me know if this helps and, always feel free to email, call or post any questions you have regarding RS.

Thanks for giving your child a RightStart in math.

Sincerely, Rosine

I need some clarification on page 93 (lesson 46) for Level B. The written text is confusing to me.

"show him also how to find the answer on side 2." Is this done by using two separate abacus', the 1st one with the stairs, the 2nd one on side 2 starting at square 1?

I'm also fuzzy on what do with the columns between the different place values on side 2. Is there somewhere that explains this more.

Thank you.

Valerie

Valerie,
First of all, I am not an official rightstart rep, just a parent using rightstart.

You can either use a second abacus or erase side one, and proceed to do the problem on side 2.

As far as the columns between the place values on side 2, you don't really have to "do" anything with them. They are mostly there just to give a little space between the different units (ones, tens, hundreds, etc.)

Hope that helps some.

Lisa

Thanks Lisa.

After reading a few things on the forum, it became clearer to me.

thanks for taking the time to reply.

Valerie