09 May 2007

RightStart Geometry

The continuing saga of our adventures using RightStart Geometry and RightStart B. I have an 11yo and a 7yo who have average math ability.The 11yo has done Miquon, Singapore, RightStart Transitions, Level D and Level E; RightStart has saved her from a life a math phobia.

I try to update our adventures on Tuesdays, although sometimes it doesn’t get done until Wednesday. And sometimes we really haven’t done that much math, so I skip it entirely.


RightStart Geometry:

Lesson 124 Pick’s Theorem

A geoboard is optional for this lesson, although it certainly makes life easier, since Pick’s theorem has to do with using a grid. We have geoboards because we’ve done so many levels of RightStart. And I’d like to pause here and say that I really, really do not like the geoboards: I bought a geoboard directly from RightStart, and it doesn’t match the pictures in the RightStart books (the grid has fewer pegs, which sometime makes the problems in the RightStart book impossible to replicate). Also, the rubber bands drive me nuts; this is not RightStart's fault, though, as it is simply a function of geoboards and the deterioration of rubber bands.

Kid1 reported, though, that the size of the geoboard does not matter for this lesson. Frankly, she breezed through it so quickly that I’m not sure much of anything mattered. The lesson also requires remembering how to find the area of polygons, with references given to previous lessons for those who don’t remember how. Kid1 obviously remembers how.

This is the only RightStart lesson she’s done all week because we’ve been working on Challenge Math, in which we’ve worked with decimals. For the record, Kid1 reports that she will never, ever forget how to do long division with decimals now, having slogged through all of those problems (by the way, for those who have never looked at Challenge Math, it is mainly story problems).

2 comments:

Pensguys said...

Remind me how many lessons do you have so far?

I'm trying to figure out whether to buy this now or wait until closer to the fall and hope they have all the lessons completed and not in the preliminary stages.

GailV said...

We have 149 lessons. I think they said when the next batch would be done, but I really don't remember. They've been really good about mailing stuff out -- every so often I find a package in my mailbox, with absolutely no effort on my part (although sometimes I sort of panic when I see the envelope that they're sending me a big, fat letter that says "Will you please shut up already! Stop the blogging!" since I have no approval from RightStart whatsoever to yammer on endlessly about their program).

I will say our binder is starting to look sort of ratty from use, and I wonder if the final edition will hold up better through 2 kids if you typically plan on one copy to last through both boys. Plus I assume they will have a lot of the errata edited (although it hasn't been too bad in this preliminary edition, it is there).