My daughter has been working through GA this year, and I have been impressed with the content. One issue I have is that the worksheets were reproduced at a slightly different scale than originally intended. I realize this can be a difficult issue to correct, but it is very frustrating when the intended measurement produces a a "clean" calculation problem, but the acutal measurement leads to a much "messier" calculation that doesn't match the answer key. At first, the issue wasn't that big a deal, but in the last week she has had several worksheets with tables where some of the measurements were filled in....and her frustration is running high. I just wanted you to be aware of the issue, and would love any ideas about how to help alleviate the frustration. As it is, I have to look at the answer key, figure out what the differences are, determine whether she should use her actual measurements or just give her the number to use. In the middle of all that, the joy of the concept gets lost.

Also, when we moved from Level E to GA, I had concerns that she had not been sufficiently exposed to the concepts for multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals. She has certainly had practice with the decimals in the GA worksheets, but in worksheet 67 yesterday there was an assumption in one of the problems that she understood multiplication of fractions, and I don't feel like she has covered it beyond a simple introduction. Is there somewhere in the curriculum where there is more specific teaching and skill building on multiplication and division of fractions? It seems essential to me that she learn how to manipulate these kinds of numbers as a pre-algebra skill and I need to know if I should be supplementing with something else to get some more practice in this area.

Thanks for your help!
Jennifer

Hello Jennifer,

I can understand a child’s frustration about the shapes not measuring exactly. You are correct it can be due to our printing, but we make the best effort to ensure they are as accurate as possible.

With that said, and as someone who is using it with my child, this is what we have concluded, that either it is slightly mis-measured in printing, or the lines are too thick and we are off, either way, we have finally stopped trying to get exactly the same answers that are in the book.

Let me explain that better. If I know my son did the problem correctly and he can reproduce the results, and we see that the answers are different because the measurements are different, I count his as correct.
If I see that the measurements are the same and he is not correct then we work on that problem until we find the mistake (we work on it with in a reasonable amount of time for each session, and if it takes several math sessions then we take that time). This has helped him to become more dependent on his own math skills because if his measurements are different then he has to come up with the correct answer, and the solutions won’t tell him if he did the problem correctly. So in that since, I don’t mind. But when I want math to be done quickly, and we have to do more figuring to find out if he is correct, then I too am tested on my patience.

I would add, though, that the measurements should not be off by too much. So if you are finding they are off by more then two tenths I would call our customer service 888-272-3291 and see if you have a problem printing.

As far as the multiplying fractions, I, too, agree that it seems to require more knowledge of the concept than recollected from Level E, but she does go into in the GA so he will get a better concept of multiplying and dividing fractions. Which he will use later in the book.

I agree this has great concepts, and math skills required. I really have loved the challenge this book has given us.


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
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