Hello Amy,

I agree with Nancy, and she is always full of excellent ideas and encouragement.

But I would like to address two main points.

The first, that you may want to limit the time you are spending each day in math with her. Some parents are so glued to the curriculum and feel the driving force of having to “finish” each lesson each day, that they may lose sight of the need for the child to slow down and stop and “smell the numbers” :))

Since this program requires more one-on-one critical thinking and dialogue, more than your child would ever receive in most programs—public or private—I recommend doing a math session for no longer than 30min each day. Of course you may need to shorten it for those with less attention spans. Be stay tuned in and watch for signs of her mind drifting off. For one of my kids I had to stop after 15 min and finish the last 15 with a game—this lasted for months until I noticed his attention span was growing, but to this day we rarely finish a lesson in one day.


My second point is, you were wondering if she should be switched to a more concrete program. Honestly, this is the most concrete program out there for homeschoolers and I would venture to say for public-schoolers too. This program trains the child’s mind to think abstract concepts in concrete terms, like using the abacus, and the place value cards, and so on.

The other programs you may have been thinking about are not concrete, but are formulalic or procedure based. Those programs believe children are not capable of high concepts, so rather than teach them to understand what they are doing, they “train” them to repeat the procedure—this is called behaviorism. Teaching them that way will produce fine worksheet scores, because children are excellent at finding the patterns, thus they can pass the worksheets. The only time it becomes a problem is when you want them to use it in real life situations, or to apply critical thinking in higher math levels. They will not have the understanding as how to solve problems that are not set up in the way the were trained/drilled. This is why many of our college admissions report that high schoolers (homeschooled and public schooled) test two years below college level standards in mathematics when entering college. They can’t perform outside of their set-up worksheets.

Let me encourage you to remember, there is no perfect math program that is going to be a perfect match for any of our children and for every lesson; it is the teacher that perfects the program. She (or he) will need to observe when the child is paying attention, and when they are fading away.

It is true that some children will not “get it” at first, but that is usually because we are moving too fast, or not teaching to the way they learn, or are not playing the games 2-4 times a week. I have three children and find I have to teach to each child differently. Some I do more games with then the other. Some I spend less time talking, more time on the white board. One of them I can just say “today day we…” and he knows everything we are doing. I have one that we took SIX WEEKS on Level B Lesson 30-35. If it hadn’t been my third time teaching Level B I would have thought I must be doing this wrong… but I shortened my time even more, played games throughout the day, and we got through it. She has no problems with it today. We are now in Level C and she recalls no problems, even though she had her fair share of tears. She does not remember...but I do :)

So hang in there! It can be done. Once it is understood it goes faster.

Please let me know if you have any more questions. You can email me directly at Carissa@alabacus.com .

Thank you for giving your child a RightStart in Math,

Carissa
RightStart™ Mathematics by Activities for Learning, Inc.

For program questions: 888.272.3291
To place an order: 888.RS.5.MATH (888.775.6284)
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Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics