I've just read through the transitions lessons and most of the level E lessons. I notice that there are some things in level E that are not covered in the transitions, that seem to expect a certain degree of familiarity.

For instance, negative numbers are used right at the beginning with no real explanation. As it happens, my son is already familiar with negative numbers, but I imagine some kids might not be.

Also, when it comes to the geometry drawing tools... "have the child draw a line to divide the equilateral triangle in half". Have they done this before? The line down the middle is obvious enough, but the 'diagonal' lines aren't obvious unless you already know that your triangle tool has the right angle for doing that. I don't think he'd have a clue about doing that.

Even drawing an equilateral triangle to begin with... it says "this has been done many times before in level D", if I recall correctly... but it hasn't been done in the transition lessons! Once again, it's only obvious how to do it if you already know that your triangle tool is the right angle for it.

I thought it was a little odd that the transition lessons only have *2* lessons extra for level E as compared to level D. Do you think a couple more could be useful for some of these concepts?

Dear Heather,
Thank you for your comments about the transition lessons. We will look into it.

FYI. In America we tend to tell the children too much. In other countries they let them discover more for themselves. This discovery learning is what we are all about. We want children to find out for themselves by exploring the geometry tools. Through deductive reasoning they discover what they have to work with and how it works. Even if they use trial and error, they are learning significantly more than if we just tell them how to do it. As you work with RightStart you will find that this kind of learning leads to more abstract mathematical thinking in the long run.
Nancy