RightStart Math Kit - Question

[KathleenSLP]

I am planning on buying the level A starter kit in a few weeks. I was just curious how well made the manipulatives are - for those who have them, are you please with their quality? I plan to buy the kit with the wooden abacus.

TIA!

[sleet76]

We use RightStart Math, and I have liked all the manipulatives. They have all been well-made enough--I don't leave them around as toys, and use them only in "appropriate" ways during lessons. But, I have a very impulsive and rowdy 4-yo boy who uses them very successfully, without breaking anything.

I also got the wooden abacus, and it has been fine, even with being stepped on, dropped, used as a weapon, etc...

Do get all the cards sets used in the program. We use those all the time. (Level B)

[tankgirl73]

I don't know about ALL the level A manipulatives (we started with level E, we're now using level A with my daughter but anything we didn't have for my older son we're using our own materials... some detailed below) but I can comment on much of it.

The plastic toys are just that -- plastic toys. You get what you get. Not to say that they're BAD, they're certainly not crap. We have the balance scale and we LOVE LOVE LOVE it. The clock I think is like any other cheap plastic learning clock. I'm just getting a similar clock from a Canadian company (saves shipping for me), if I were in the US I'd probably buy it from RS.

The abacus is nice. We have the Junior (plastic) and the Classic (wooden). I love the wooden one... We did have a problem with it, where some of the beads kind of stick to the wire... apparently this is a fairly common issue, they need to be worked for a bit and then they loosen up. I think it's from the paint inside the little hole...

The place value cards - I never got those. I think they're typical plastic-coated cards. I splurged and got some wooden Montessori place value cards from elsewhere... durable, beautiful, more tactile, etc.

The abacus tiles weren't great, I'll be honest. They were a LOT of work for me to put them together, then within the first lesson using them, my ADHD son had totally squashed them. Yeah.... Once again, I splurged and got wooden Montessori 100's tiles. The RS ones are inexpensive and handy, but they're just cardstock - not even laminated. A rough child will wreck them pretty quick.

The math games cards are great. Again, they're just laminated cardstock, but they're as heavy as typical playing cards. And they won't squash like the abacus tiles lol... We did lose a few, and so I bought a second set... it's nice having extras.

I can't comment on their geoboards. They didn't come with level E, and for my daughter I'm buying different ones from Canada, like with the clock.

The coloured tiles -- have been great! The package comes with LOTS of them. I'm sure we've lost some, but there's still plenty to go around. They're solid plastic and fun, lots of things we use them for. DD loves making patterns with them, we used them for the first counting activities in level A, DS still uses them sometimes when he needs a reminder of how area works, etc.

Geometry reflector -- same as the geoboards and clock, we're getting a different one, solely because of shipping to Canada.

Tally sticks -- they're just popsicle sticks. They work great, of course, but if you can find them cheaper go for it. $2 for 50 isn't bad, of course. Again, we didn't get any with the level E kit, so we used craft sticks we already had. And then I actually bought some more, specifically for math (both for tally sticks and for spindles for a Montessori spindle box) -- these ones are narrower, and are squared off at the ends. I like them even better for tally sticks than "regular" popsicle/craft sticks.

I think that covers everything... So in general, I was pleased with the quality for the price... some things are just cardstock, but that's what you're paying for. Any other questions?

[sleet76]

Oooh! Wooden abacus tiles! I think I will need those when my ADHD son gets to those in a few months. The cardstock constructed ones were fine for my 6-yo docile girl, but he's a different story. Must go shop for those.

[tankgirl73]

These are the ones I bought:
http://www.montessoriequipment.ca/Hu...-p/m.140.1.htm

I got the whole set of 45. You can also get a set of just 9:

http://www.montessoriequipment.ca/9-...-p/m.140.3.htm

As you can see, they don't have the distinction of where the 5's are like the RS abacus does. But I think that's less relevant when you're at the point of counting 100's. They already understand from the abacus that 100 is made up of all those groups of 5s and groups of 10s. This still represents that WHOLE concept of 100.

You can also get the 'real' golden bead 100 squares: http://www.montessoriequipment.ca/Be...-p/m.160.1.htm

The wooden tiles are actually intended as a cheaper alternative to the golden bead squares. I think they're cool, but I actually prefer the tiles. I like the beads for dealing with smaller amounts, and I'm in the process of making my own set (that uses the RS 5's patterns) of 1-10 bead bars. The thousand bead cube is also pretty darned cool lol...

Ooh, golden bead 100 squares using wooden beads:
http://www.montessoriequipment.ca/Hu...p/m.160.1w.htm

I'd splurge for those if I didn't want to use the tiles. And could afford it heh... I definitely prefer the wooden beads. My hand-made bead bars are using wooden beads.

[MissRubyandKen]

tankgirl73-

Thanks for posting about the Montessori Math manipulatives. I want some of those wooden place value cards!

[tankgirl73]

No problem! For those who may not have found them, these are the ones I bought:
http://www.montessoriequipment.com/L...-p/m.115.1.htm

There are also smaller ones, though I'm not sure of the exact size difference. They're the same price.
http://www.montessoriequipment.com/S...-p/m.114.1.htm

I got the larger ones because I planned on using them with my younger daughter down the line as well (she already enjoys them in fact).

I did try making my own cardstock-laminated place value cards at one point, but it was such tedious work, and when I could get such nice wooden ones, complete with display/holder box, for under $20, it just wasn't worth the trouble!

There are also smaller sets available, just up to 1000 or 3000. But I think that if you're really going to use them to practice place value, you need up to 9000. And there are of course other shops you can get the same sort of thing, any online montessori shop should have them.

Of course, the advantage of the cardstock versions is that when you stack them, the resulting multi-digit number is all at pretty much the same horizontal level. The wooden ones are very thin (I think about 1/8"?) but if you stack a 4-digit number, you do end up with a 3-d effect. I don't think this is a HUGE problem at all, just for some kids it MIGHT interfere a bit with the idea of how the 4 separate numbers end up making one distinct 4-digit number as a whole... the stacked-ness of it, the separate-ness of the individual elements is more obvious.