I thank you for writing the AL Abacus program. Our daughter, who was already doing well in the math program we had last year, really likes the abacus, and now understands the math she was doing in her previous work. Our son is doing well also, and the abacus provides a ready manipulative that is so natural – flowing so easily from the finger counting. I’m glad you spend the time developing the base ten concept.
I have a degree in math. I have always enjoyed math, to me it has always been so logical and natural. I really want to develop a love for math in my children, too. With your program I have already seen in my daughter the “ah-hah, I get it!”, light bulb going on, repeatedly. That’s what makes teaching and learning so much fun. Thank you.
I never learned to subtract left to right until I taught my son the method from RightStart. I have to say that I love it and I think it’s brilliant. What better and faster way than moving slowly one digit at a time from right to left (with the crossing out and trading, etc.)! My 10 yr old son can subtract faster than his father, who is still stuck on the old-fashioned way.
I wanted to thank you for your awesome products and sessions at the recent California Homeschool Network Conference. I had a great time talking with you and am excited to use the products I purchased. As a previous elementary school teacher I am so familiar with the mental roadblocks that can come up in math and I just know your math games will go far with my children to help them have fun.
RightStart Math is PERFECT for boys. Dr. Cotter, the author and founder of RightStart, has them discover and learn math by using various manipulatives. And when I say they ‘learn’ math, I mean they understand it. They don’t just memorize a bunch of facts!
I am a homeschool mom to my son, age 6, and we just started RightStart Math Level B and we love it!!! Yesterday was our first day and in his prayer at dinner time he gave thanks for mama getting his new math because it is so fun. Your program excites me not only as a homeschool mom, but as a mom with a B.S. degree in Early Childhood Education. This program just fits…it’s soo exciting! Even my almost 2 1/2 year old is interested in what we are doing. He is listening and trying to do “Yellow is the Sun” with us and today sat at the table with his tally sticks and was making his own tally marks like we were doing. Amazing.
Thank you for all your hard work and research into this program! I will recommend it any chance I get.
I homeschool five of my children. Each one of them is excelling in this math program. When I pulled them from public school, one had been held back and one is dyslexic. Two of them are now ahead of their “grade” levels. The manipulatives help my dyslexic child visualize the concepts. I love the way the program teaches them to think about numbers. The games enable them to grasp the concepts while enjoying the practice. The younger ones can play the same games the older ones are playing, simply by allowing them to use the abacus. I am amazed and astonished at how much they are learning and how quickly they understand the concepts. I would highly recommend this program to everyone. I bought all of the manipulatives and are finding them a great help.
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love your program. My daughter did not do Level A but has completed Level B and almost all of Level C. We absolutely love this curriculum. Her addition and subtraction are effortless and she does these things better than most kids older than her. In addition, while she doesn’t fully have all of her multiplication table down pat yet, I am sure she will by the end of the year. She loves the games and begs to do math first every day. Math is her favorite subject!
And my son is in Kindergarten this year. We started with Level A but he had some trouble in every subject as he had not yet commit to the idea of “learning” as a whole. He has now committed to learning and is flying right through his math lessons too. I do love each of the Levels so far and can’t recommend this curriculum highly enough. Any child that excels in math will soar with this curriculum. Any child that struggles will gain much confidence and understanding and will struggle no more. This curriculum is so fun for my kids and they have learned so much that I would never switch.
I will say thought -one thing I would love to see is a summer curriculum – kind of a bridging the gap from one level to the next. I work part time from home and homeschool 3 kids. I find my time is fairly limited to doing a significant amount of planning. Last year, I copied all of the practice sheets in the back through out the year and then over the summer had my daughter physically write in the book and complete them. In addition, we randomly would select a game or two each week to play. But I wasn’t as consistent with my schedule as I would have like because I found I didn’t have near the amount of time to do much planning. If you ever come up with a program for kids to do over the summer – just to keep their memories fresh – hands down, I would buy it. I hate how much information my kids lose over the summer and would like to have them do a light summer schedule from here on out.
Right Start is ideal for young gifted children who want to learn mathematical concepts early but feel limited by their fine-motor skills. It accomplishes this by teaching through games and meaningful manipulatives thereby internalizing concepts rather than resorting to repetitive written exercises.
The color-coded abacus teaches number sense much more effectively than cuisenaire rods because the colors carry meaning. The abacus also teaches the concept of the place values.
Right Start extends mathematical concepts to other areas of life to help children understand the importance of math outside the classroom. Examples include rounding gasoline prices, exposure to taxes, and applying fractions to musical notes.
The individual practices are sufficient but not overly repetitive.
GREAT product!!! Worth every penny! We loooove this program!
Seriously must say GOD BLESS YOU for posting the Fractions webinar. I had to miss part of it, and I am so thankful to see it up and available. I cannot tell you what a difference these make for me as an instructor to my boys. I was a public school teacher before homeschooling my children. However, teaching them math the RS way was so different from the way I learned and the way I had taught in the school system. I knew this was a better method/approach for my children and for me. So, to have the support of the webinars is a huge blessing! It’s the best “In-service” I’ve ever invested my time in!
I’m a homeschooling parent to a 6 year old 1st grader. We started Level A last year for Kindergarten a couple of months before she turned 5 and started Level B this past September. We’re currently somewhere around lesson 80 and I am simply amazed at my daughter’s math skills. She wows everyone by adding any two 2-digit numbers you give her in her head…numbers like 89+94 or 73+68. It’s AMAZING! She’s 6! I can’t believe she can add numbers like that in her head. My husband said tonight that he was completely shocked at how well she’s doing with math. I told him RightStart works! When we started Level A last year she didn’t even know what “addition” was and wasn’t able to add any numbers together…now look at her.
Thanks so much for such a great product. I recommend it to all the homeschooling parents that I know. We’ve switched around with various curriculum for every other subject but I doubt we’ll ever switch to a different math curriculum. We’re so very pleased with it and I just wanted to let you know.
Oh, by the way, before we started Kindergarten I was pretty set on Singapore Math, but then saw you guys at the homeschool convention in Puyallup, WA and someone at your booth sold me on RightStart and I bought it right then and there. So glad I stopped by your booth!
