An honest review of Right Start Math
Our favorite hands-on curriculum for learning math at home using a mastery-based approach
For families who shy away from screen time, Right Start Math* is an ideal choice for kinesthetic learners, combining games, visuals and its famous two-sided abacus to help cultivate deep understanding in students, rather than rote memorization. Developed by Montessori Teacher and Curriculum Developer Dr. Joan Cotter, Right Start is a favorite among families with gifted students, and can be a great choice for kids with ADHD due to its strong emphasis on hands-on activities. The multi-sensory, self-paced approach makes it an ideal choice for children with dyscalculia, who may have trouble learning in other approaches. Right Start Math is designed for kids to navigate with the support of a parent or caregiver, and it’s highly recommended that parents purchase the home instructor’s guide to accompany lessons.
About Right Start Math
Over the past three years, we’ve talked to hundreds of parents and meticulously pored over tens of thousands of reviews from families who’ve tried various math programs to support children learning at home. Our teachers reviewed the most recommended programs for accuracy and pedagogical approach, and then tested our favorites with our own students at Modulo.
With its hands-on materials that appeal to different learning archetypes, mastery-based approach and easy-to-follow parent/caregiver instructions, Right Start Math is our favorite rigorous, but fun, non-digital math program to enrich or replace math learning at school.
Right Start Math was developed by Dr. Joan Cotter, a former Montessori teacher with a P.H.D. in mathematics education. She originally created Right Start Math for her own children, creating games to help them make math more engaging for them. Families appreciate the multi-sensory approach to math. Since Right Start has both visual and hands-on components, it appeals to a wide variety of learning styles. Families with gifted children appreciate the mastery-based approach, allowing their children to move ahead as fast as possible. The spiral components allow enough review for children to maintain their understanding and not forget what they’v learned before. Families with children on the spectrum and with ADHD have found that this program is able to engage their children much better than most, due to its hands-on, multi-sensory approach.
Some things to know about Right Start:
It is highly recommended that families purchase the parent/teacher guides to go along with the curriculum. This will make the process much clearer and enjoyable for all.
The main critiques of Right Start is that it is expensive. Families can expect to spend $309 the first year and then an additional $90-100 every subsequent year or level. (The complete set of materials for all levels costs $209 and the textbooks for each individual level costs $90-100). E-books are an additional $10. However, families looking to save money may can often find discounted or free curricula in homeschool groups or on sites like eBay or the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op.
Right Start also has a grant program for under-resourced families (Please contact the company to apply for scholarship if cost is a concern for you).
A teacher or caregiver is required to give the lessons, but they do not have to have any prior teaching experience of specific knowledge of math as the lessons are easy to follow. If there is no one available to give classes to the child, online classes can be purchased for an additional fee.
The website can also be a little complex to navigate since there are different kits available for each level - as well as the option to purchase materials individually. Right Starts includes a placement test to help parents determine the right level for their child, but we’ve also provided recommendations below that correlate approximately with grade level.
What parents like
Encourages deep conceptual understanding over rote memorization.
Appeals to a wide variety of learning profiles. Families with children diagnosed as gifted and profoundly gifted, with dyscalculia, autism, dysgraphia, dyslexia, ADHD, dyslexia and/or auditory processing challenges all mentioned that this program was a great fit for their kids when nothing else worked.
Each level of Right Start Math gets progressively more challenging
Has spiral components with built in review.
Worksheets are short and to the point.
Largely games-based, and also uses lots of geometry to teach a side range of concepts
The next concept starts getting introduced toward the end of the current concept so they more linked.
Lots of games and few worksheets
What parents feel could be improved
Some parents prefer a more straightforward program, with fewer “moving parts.” Due to it’s multi-sensory approach, navigating worksheets, games and hands-on materials can feel overly complex for some parents.
The worksheets can be dry and repetitive for some kids, and they prefer the games.
It can be challenging to switch to Right Start Math after several years in a more traditional school program, because it’s such a different approach to learning math. Also, children starting in 3rd or 4th grade may miss the foundations. Some families recommend starting at a lower level, which students will likely complete in a few months with daily lessons.
It may not be the best choice for highly independent learners since Right Start Math requires parent/caregiver involvement.
Who it’s a great fit for
This is a terrific option for kinesthetic learners and kids with ADHD. Children who thrive with hands-on, project-based learning do very well with this program.
Right Start is a great fit for gifted students who crave and enjoy challenging problems.
Right Start is one of the only programs we recommend for children with dyscalculia, as it has a multi-sensory approach and children can learn at their own pace.
Families who like being involved and enjoy guiding their children’s learning (whether or not they consider themselves a math person) will likely find a lot of gratification in using Right Start with their kids.
Who it’s not typically a good fit for
Children who don’t respond well to lots of hand-on learning
Families who don’t have time or patience to spend 20 minutes to an hour a day guiding their children with the Right Start Math Curriculum.
Right Start does take more patience than other programs, but the result is deep, enriched learning.
Kids who get easily bored if games aren’t highly entertaining.
Right Start Math only goes through eighth grade. The site does provide recommendations for high school (which we’ve included below). Families can also find recommendations for high school math in our guide to the “Best PreK-12th Grade Math Curriculum of 2023”
Details
Grades: PreK-8th + Recommendations for 8th-12th
Teaching Time: 1 hour a day
Teacher Prep Time: None
Screen-free: No screens, but video option and apps are available.
Academic Readiness: Aligned with state standards for math
Special needs: Gifted and talented, Autism, ADHD
Parent/teacher involvement: 1 hour a day (but online classes are available.
Cost: $309 for year 1 and $90-100 for each subsequent year.
What to purchase*
Right Start has levels, rather than grades. They suggest each student take a placement test to determine the best level for them. We’ve provided approximate equivalents for each grade, we also recommend you take a placement test here
Materials
Materials for every level (you only need to purchase this once)
Levels
Level A (Approximately kindergarten/1st grade)
High School (Algebra through Calculus)
Right Start does not have their own high school math curriculum, but three they recommend.
Note that high school has three different programs, Video Text, which is a good choice for self-directed, visual learners who love youtube and learning through videos, Art of Problem Solving which is a great option for independent students who prefer more of an interactive approach. They start with the problems, encouraging students to figure it out on their own and then provide step-by-step solutions with pictures. These can be done independently without a teacher. Finally, Jacob’s includes Geometry and Algebra only, includes a teacher script and requires support from a teacher/caregiver.
For more recommendations on math programs, see our in-depth post on the best PreK-12th grade math curricula of 2023. There’s something here for every learner and every age.
We hope you found this review helpful. If you’ve tried Right Start Math and have feedback you’d like to share, please include it in the comments so other families can benefit! If you have questions about Right Start or other curriculum, please don’t hesitate to comment on this post! We do our best to respond to every comment.
*About affiliate links: We chose to recommend Right Start Math because we’ve done extensive research on their program, and genuinely believe it’s one of the most exceptional homeschool math curricula available today. After we selected Right Start as one of our favorite math curriculums, we discovered there was an option to join an affiliate program which gives Modulo a percentage of sales when families follow the links in our post and purchase the curriculum which helps support our programs and the development of our content. This means that Modulo receives an affiliate commission when families reading this review purchase Right Start Math. We’ve done our best to write an un-biased review, but we wanted to disclose this information to you as you make informed choices about how to best support your children’s learning.