I originally purchased Level A of Right Start Math for my 2nd child. He has a kinesthetic learning lean so I figured the manipulatives would be so helpful. However, once the package was delivered, I realized it was not the season for me to be using such a teacher intensive program.
Struggle with Right Start Math
That is one thing you should know. It is teacher intensive. So much so, that I have never used this curriculum with more than one child at a time. I imagine it would be a difficult juggle if you would like to use this math program daily with multiple children. If you’re in a busy season of life, like I was, it may not feel like a great fit. Although not impossible.
Strengths of Right Start Math
When my 3rd child was of school age, I wanted to give Right Start another try. Third times a charm? Yes! It has been my favorite math curriculum ever since. It uses a hands on, problem solving, and visual strategy approach. My daughter enjoys these short lessons, and experiences success with it.
Supplemental Resources
If you plan to use this for a few years, the manipulative set may be worth investing in, as it is used pretty often across the levels. It proved valuable to us as it helped us visually understand so many different concepts. We used the suggested worksheets for review. They were designed to reinforce the hands on lessons. There are many card games that we played in Level A, which provided great practice.
What Level Should You Begin With
I appreciate that this homeschool curriculum does not label student books by grade, but by level. As we know, many homeschoolers are on their own path and pace. Right Start has placement tests and sample lessons on their site to help you find the appropriate level for your child.
Now that we have completed Level C, and have stayed with this same curriculum for 3 years, I can enthusiastically recommend this. I feel like my daughter understands concepts more thoroughly than my other children. Seeing her grow in confidence with math has been such a blessing!
Thanks for this review! I have been looking into this program for awhile, but my kids are in 3rd grade and have used another curriculum up until this point. In your experience, would it be doable to switch from another curriculum? Or would you recommend only using it if you used it from the beginning? Thanks!
In general, math is a hard subject to switch. Is what you’re using working okay for your family? If so, it may be nice to stay with it. Right Start Math does have a manipulative set that is an investment, and feels worth it after using with multiple kids over many levels. While I love that Right Start is great for teaching the why behind math concepts and foundation, I still like to supplement with some math skills and drills practice for retention and repetition of the processes.