Math-U-See vs. Rightstart for first grade

[meg-momto2]

i was hoping to get some input on which program would work best for us. DS is homeschooling for first grade this year. it was a last minute decision and i haven't had much time to research curriculum. i spent the last few days reading countless reviews and looking at Sinapore, Saxon, Rightstart and Math-U-See. DS is a visual learner and gifted in some areas and i felt that Rightstart or Math-U-See would fit his needs best.

has anyone used either of these with their visual spacial gifted learner? did it work for them? it looks like he would be just on the cusp of Alpha-Beta for MUS. for financial reason i think i may go with Beta and spend extra time reviewing concepts he has quite mastered. for Rightstart he would be level B. what's the difference between the standard and classic set? is it just the abacas?

[sbgrace]

It's the abascus and the red one is fine here.

I've used RightStart and looked at both in person. Math-U-See has less variety in both manipulatives and lessons. It is more worksheet based. I didn't feel it fit my son and I have a friend who ended up switching from Math-U-See to RightStart for similar reasons. But I know a lot of people love Math-U-See.

[susienjay]

I'm going to use Right Start B with my 6 year old twins this year. We've only done 4 lessons but I like the format of it and I think we will like it. I got it for my son because he seems somewhat advanced for math and I wanted something that would challenge him. The only part I'm not liking is the first 15 or so lessons look very simple and I think they are to get the kids up to speed using Right Start techniques. It looks more challenging after that but I can tell my son thinks the lessons so far are too easy but he needs to get used to Right Start techniques if we are going to use the program.

I have done MUS with my older two girls and it has it's own good points. It did work wonders with my dylexic dd. It is very dry though and most of Alpha especially is doing addition with the blocks. That is really the only manipulative that is used. I knew for my son who can do most addition facts already it would have been boring for him.

[rainbringer]

We used Math U See Alpha last year and have started Right Start B this year. I like Right Start better - it has a lot more lessons than Math U See, has more variety of materials (songs, abacus, others we haven't used yet), and I find it easier so far to pick up without much preparation. We have only done a few lessons.

Math U see is a lot less expensive so you could start with that and see if it was working well, then switch to Right Start if needed.