Right Start Math Teaching Tips

After teaching the Right Start Math program for six years, I’ve come across a few tips that help our math lessons go more smoothly. We’ve had our fair share of tears and frustration, along with joys and successes. (Sometimes I forget how hard it is to learn something new!)

Teaching Tips

As you likely know, Right Start Math is teacher intensive. It takes a large chunk of my instructional time each day, with a student in level D and in level E currently. I find this to be well worth the investment of time. I think that math is critical to my kids’ education, so I prioritize the time for such a solid program. If you’ve stumbled upon this post but are on the fence or curious about this curriculum, I have a thorough review here.

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I often save the games for a separate day. I keep a post-it note as my bookmark and write any games that are assigned or suggested during the week, and then we play them one after another on a Gameschool Day, when we do not do a lesson. Many of the games can be combined for my kids by having one player on Mom’s team, or modifying in some way for the younger player (or allowing them to hold cards/be a score keeper, etc.).

I keep this curriculum about math, not writing or spelling. If my kids are tired out and/or don’t want to write, I scribe for them. We can work on number formation in handwriting, and spelling of numbers/math words separately. Oral answers are acceptable in my book, or writing on a white board instead of on the worksheet. We’ve found that some of the small spaces provided on the worksheets are an extra challenge for my writing adverse boys.

my 3rd grader started strong with writing and then I took over

We cap lessons at a time that is reasonable for the child. When my child is showing a great grasp of a concept and wants to move along, we will double up on lessons (usually in that case skipping the warm ups). However, more often we reach a mental block after focusing for a set amount of time. I never feel beholden to my curriculum that I have to complete a lesson in a day! The curriculum is there to serve me, not the other way around (Pretty sure Sarah Mackenzie taught me that. Have you read Teaching from Rest?)

Provide choices when possible. I allow my students to choose what order they complete worksheet problems in if the sequence is not required/progressive. This is especially true on review pages. Other general homeschool choices I provide are where we complete lessons (on the floor in front of the heating vent is a popular choice in the winter months! ha!), and what writing implement they use.

my second grader chose the order of problems and who would write the answer (himself or Mom)

Offer chewing gum. Research (here: NIH) shows that chewing gum promotes attention and cognitive performance. My kids appreciate the simple act of autonomy to choose when they need it, and the little walk/break to fetch it helps too. We enjoy this sugar free gum, sweetened with xylitol (aspartame free).

We complete warm-ups independently when their brain is fresh and relaxed, not as part of our math block. I don’t prefer to spend our one-on-one time on the warm-up sections which inevitably just eat into their attention span time. At our levels, the warm ups are often written problems. At lower levels, we would conversationally do them, or I would write them out on a white board.

A tip for your own sanity if you’re questioning your curriculum decision (“the grass is greener” certainly applies to homeschool curriculum, doesn’t it?): read the customer testimonials here, or join the Facebook support group (in this post I share a list of helpful resources for RSM users, including lots of facebook group options). I’ve been encouraged by the insight of moms down the road who have used the program with children older than my own. This program works, and I’m so glad we’ve kept with it. We are reaping the harvest of true mathematical thinking!

I wrote a whole roundup of Right Start Math teaching resources & supports. I didn’t know until recently how many supports are out there to help us as teachers!

You might be interested in this related post: How We Homeschool: Schedule & Rhythm

Hope that helps!