Hello Sarah,

Welcome to homeschooling.

First, I will tell you that it is an “awesome” program, and though it too has its various problems for each family, which every program has, combined with a good teacher this program is near perfect for any student.

In regards to multi-level teaching I am not sure what your question is.
IF you are asking can you teach the same lesson to multiple levels at the same time? The answer would be, no; though you could play games with multiple levels.
If you are asking, can one teacher teach multiple levels in one homeschool household? The answer is yes.

We have many mothers who have 4-7 children teaching this program. They do it using different teaching methods. Some alternate days they teach children, some have the older teach the younger, some do time limits on each child and more. If you go the yahoo forum and do a search of teaching with a big family, and use different key words you can find many others who have found ways to make it work.

I personally have 3 kids all two years apart and I teach them 15 days of school each month all year long, and I limit my math time to 30min per child and stop at the timer, or else I would do math endlessly. Plus I find that Bible, phonics/reading, math, a second language, and research, wrapped in constant conversation and reading aloud is all the curriculum they need at this time of their life. History, art, grammar, science, etc, does not need to have a structured program as children naturally want to learn those things, and your talking to them and researching their questions about those things will produce a better knowledge of those things. So limit the amount of structured “curriculum” to take on, that will help you to adjust to this wonderful, yet laborious adventure of homeschooling we have been called to do.

And just on the subject of first time homeschooling. My personal observation is that the first three years are the hardest, once you get through that things start to come more naturally. So don’t despair, just keep doing it and tweak where you need to tweak, it is well worth the effort.

Finally, no matter what program you choose, make sure it teaches critical thinking skills, that it focuses on place value, and that the program teaches place value early on, make sure it uses multi-sensory. the goal is for children to UNDERSTAND and ENJOY math not to rote memorize, and then grow up with a phobia of math, and to quit their college major because they are afraid of all the math classes they will have to take. With a good foundation of math they will be ready for those challenges.


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