Hi, Heather. My name is Rachel and I am happy to help you today.

Thank you for your post. I am sorry for the delay in responding. With the holidays, we have been a little behind. ;-)

I spoke with Kathleen and she did not receive a voice message. Not sure what happened there, but I will see if I can help you on this one.

The way I explained this one to my children (my daughter most recently), is not in negative number terms.

87 - 49

First of all, this looks like a hard subtraction equation. Let's make it much easier. We will first look at the tens: What is the difference between 80 and 40? 40.

Now, let's look at the ones place. 7 - 9. What is the difference between the 7 and the 9? 2. Now, is the first number bigger than the second number? No. The number '7' is less than the number '9' (I used the term 'less than' to help my children think 'subtraction'). Because it is less than, we need to subtract the '2' from the 40.

So our new problem is 40 - 2 which gives us 38.

Also, as far as reading the explanation, the Lesson tells you to have the student read the explanation on the worksheet several times before working through the worksheet - making sure they understand the process. It is not referring to the explanations in the Lessons Manual.

I hope that helps! Of course, please do not hesitate to repost here if you have any further questions. Or you can email us at info@rightstartmath.com or call us at (888)272-3291.

Have a fabulous day!
Rachel