I am a quilt designer. I’ve made over 250 quilts in my lifetime, 98% of my own design. I’m currently working on my sixth quilt from someone else’s pattern.I have the directions in front of me as I’m approaching on the final steps of Bonnie Hunter’s Allietare quilt design. I find myself struggling to understand how
Listen to Dr. Cotter discuss her new book, Start Math Right: The Journey to Mathematics Excellence! Start Math Right will equip you with practical tools and innovative methods that will foster lasting mathematical understanding. The book discusses how to think, not just what to think. Here is a sample of the book that includes
I recently got to chatting with Kate. She and her son are in RS2 Level E and she wondered how to help her son with the puzzle numbers. He was uninterested in the challenge and was rapidly losing interest in math altogether. I thought this would be a fantastic topic to share with you all.
Fractions have a bad reputation as being incomprehensible and unpredictable. Cartoons and jokes exploit this fear of fractions for amusement. Believe or not, it’s all a huge misunderstanding. Fractions are amazing. Fractions are necessary. Fractions are needed, among other things, for telling time, for counting money, and for cooking. The word fraction comes from Latin “frangere” meaning
There are ways a grandparent, family member, or friend can help a child with math. Here’s a list of seven things that will help teach math to your favorite young person. 1. Value math and show a positive attitude toward math. Sadly, about 50% of Americans are afflicted with a strong distaste for math. Unfortunately,
Flash cards are not a good way to drill the facts. Many adults, because they could not respond fast enough to flash cards or time tests as a child, became convinced that they have no math “ability.” These people are the ones with math anxiety – sometimes even life-altering math anxiety. The only people who
I’d like to take some time to discuss the science and art of teaching math. I call it a science because much research has been done into how children learn in general and especially math. I call it an art because each child is different, requiring the instructor to tweak the lesson to help each individual child. The teacher’s
Math anxiety can be thought of as a learned fear of numbers or anything to do with math. It results in feelings of tension and fear at the sight of numbers or math symbols, causing poor performance in math, especially on tests. Sadly, in the U.S., over 50 percent of people have math anxiety. I
Approximately one in ten children has a learning disability. For most of these children, traditional methods of teaching math are a source of frustration and failure. Memorizing counting words, then facts, algorithms, and vocabulary is way too much for the struggling brain that cannot easily memorize. Children with learning challenges generally find rote memorization to
A few years ago while on a shuttle to speak at a math convention, I started talking to a young man next to me. When he found out I was involved in math, he said he could solve story problems as long as someone told him what operation to use. The young man didn’t realize
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September 2025 Newsletter We want to remind you of the many free resources available to you as a school that uses RightStart Math. 1. Year-Round Continue Reading
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We are excited to announce the release of Dr. Joan Cotter’s new book, Start Math Right—a valuable resource designed to empower educators and parentsContinue Reading
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We want to take a moment to say a special thank you for the incredible work you do. We see the dedication, the late nights, the creativity, and theContinue Reading
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Classical education is built on the foundation of strong reasoning, deep understanding, and mastery of fundamental skills. When it comes toContinue Reading
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January 2025 Newsletter Welcome to the New Year 2025! We hope everyone had a fabulous winter break! As you start the new year, here are someContinue Reading
I am a quilt designer. I’ve made over 250 quilts in my lifetime, 98% of my own design. I’m currently working on my sixth quilt from someone else’s pattern.I have the directions in front of me as I’m approaching on the final steps of Bonnie Hunter’s Allietare quilt design. I find myself struggling to understand how
How many different abacuses do you think Dr. Cotter has? Here’s a clue…. Dr. Cotter is holding one of her first abacuses: a Japanese abacus, purchased by a friend who had visited Japan. She became so efficient using this abacus that she was faster and more accurate than she was with a calculator!While you try
Kathleen is here to walk you through the Fractions chapter of the new Start Math Right: The Journey to Mathematics Excellence book. She begins with a story of fractions and confusion from 1972, then goes on to discuss what a fraction is and how to teach fractions. Kathleen also discusses how not to teach fractions!
Listen to how division is addressed in the new Start Math Right: The Journey to Mathematics Excellence book. Teresa Foltin talks about how division is the most challenging of the arithmetic operations, and shares that there are two distinct ways to think about division. One way is to find the size of a group; another
Are you curious how the new Start Math Right: The Journey to Mathematics Excellence book addresses multiplication? Listen to Allison Fitzgibbon share her discoveries from the new book. Allison admits that the multiplication chapter was packed with more information than she had time to cover! She chose to focus on patterns found in math. Multiplication
Rachel is here to give you a summary of the Addition and Subtraction chapters from the new Start Math Right: The Journey to Mathematics Excellence book! Rachel Anderson was one of the proofreaders for Dr. Cotter’s book and shares her insights during the January 2025 Online Conference. She begins with a quote from the book.
