I recently heard of this curriculum and liked what I read, so I downloaded the sample pages for Level E. Lesson 1 is on Magic Squares. I found this lesson to be extremely confusing and I've had math all the way through Calculus. What was confusing to me is there were no directions given regarding number sets to use in the squares. On the one with -2, 4, and 3, I worked and worked using 1-9 and only when I eliminated all of those possibilities, did I discover the answer contained 0 and 10. How is a student to know they can use any numbers at all? I just don't understand how this lesson would be accessible to a typical 4th or 5th grade student. What am I missing?? Thanks.

Susan,

Thank you for your message and your interest in RightStart. I do understand the confusion (in light of Sudoku) on the magic square lesson. There are no rules as to what numbers can be used. We have found that this lesson (like most of the RightStart lessons) asks the student to think "outside the box". Which in turn creates a challenge to make sure that all the numbers work together accordingly.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Make it a great day,

Cassie
Activities for Learning-RightStart™ Mathematics
Cassie@ALabacus.com
www.ALabacus.com

Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics.

Just to let you know and put your mind at ease, this lesson was my child's (age 11) most favorite out of the whole book! He even made birthday cards for the entire family with their numbers. They do get it. ;)

Thank you, Cassie, and Cate, for your responses. I did decide to use Life of Fred instead of Right Start. It just seemed clear to me that if I myself had such a hard time with that first lesson, my daughter would end up in tears in trying to do it. I will still try to introduce some magic squares during the year, and do some other things to encourage her to think outside the box, but this doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for us to start with Level E. Probably works much better doing the earlier levels as well. Thanks again.
Susan