My 3rd grade daughter has done well with Level C, but I am feeling the need to post about the fraction lessons at the end of Level C. Some of the activities are great - like building the fraction stairs, and laying out the cut apart pieces. But at that point I was shocked to see her dividing fractions and doing more complicated problems without reinforcing more basic concepts. The division of 3 by 4 did not happen here without me just telling her the answer and how I got it, and then she still didn't get it, because she isn't firm yet on the concept of adding fractions and doing more simple work with fractions.

I struggled with explaining these new concepts to her, since they came out of the blue and now I'm used to such a scripted program. We just kind of moved on.

Is this just an intro to fractions? I assume that we will be doing a lot more fraction work in level D. I just felt that there was a huge jump in the intro work at this level, to the types of problem solving that the student was asked to do in the lessons. Unlike the other problem solving in other lessons, I felt that my daughter truly did not have the tools yet to solve these fraction problems.

And while I'm at it ( we've loved RS, don't get me wrong!) have y'all run across all the typos in this level? There are misprints scattered throughout the program, a couple are entire pages of review lessons that are flip flopped or not there.

Thank you Marianne,

First of all, yes this is an introduction to fractions, there will be much more in the coming books.

I am assuming you are talking about Lesson's 135 to 141.

In regards to the actual Lesson 135, she was introduced to dividing the fractions in Lesson 133 and with an intro in 132. Basically, she should be able to see that a 3 whole granola bars can each be broken into fours pieces and distributed evenly to four people. And each person would receive ¾ of the granola bars.
I would suggest doing more of the fraction games like F10 (Fractions of 12) or F11, F12. It might help her to see how the granola bars were divided evenly using different fractions.

The Lesson 135, 3 divided by 4, is intended to have the child use her critical thinking skill. In other words to your daughter it was a true math problem.

Real math requires the skill for critical thinking. Math is not just a bunch of dead information to memorize, instead it is to know “how” and “when” to use the information. So this lesson was one of those lessons...that is why I love this program so much. It makes our children THINK. And this thinking skill will aid them throughout their whole life. When your child gets into higher math they will be glad that they have this skill. They will be problem solvers.

The trick is we, as parents, aren't use to being taught this way so when we see it we either are not sure it is useful or we think something is wrong. But I as I have found the higher up in math the more these problems stand out as necessary, and is what is worse is most math programs avoid it! They know the hesitations we as parents have about them.

I am always thankful that Dr. Cotter always keeps the full math scope of our children in this math program. She is fully aware of where our children are headed in higher math and is continually preparing them for it.

So there will be times when you scratch your head and wonder where a Lesson is coming from, and wonder how your child is suppose to know it--I did the same in the Level B & C, until I saw the big picture. But when you work through them and you see your child able to think through unknown problems you will be so pleased.

I think if you gave her time to figure the problem out using the manipulatives and if she still was struggling and you walked her through it giving her different approaches on how she could have solved it, you did fine. I would just encourage you to reminder her that these are thinking problems and she should not be afraid to think. We need thinkers!


Keep up the good work, you are on the right track.
Let me know if you have any more questions

Thank you for giving your child a RightStart in math!
Carissa
Customer Service Rep