I live in dread of my second and third graders math homework. Seriously. They are doing multiplication and division and addition and subtraction of two and three (or more) digit numbers.Sounds easy, right? Sadly, there are evenings when I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how they are supposed to do their work. I am not even kidding you with this. One night Sam had to use a certain strategy, I can't remember the name of it now, to solve two digit addition and subtraction. I followed the directions step by step but could not get the correct answer. I KNEW the correct answer because I solved it the good old fashioned way by carrying but I could NOT get it using the strategy he was supposed to use. How could I help him if I couldn't even do it? How frustrating to have the answer but not know how to get there.
Dad...I owe you a big apology. I never got what you were getting so upset about. I mean, it was MY homework. Boy, do I get it now. The math program the school uses wants the kids to know the theory behind the calculations. So instead of just having the kids memorize their times tables in second grade they learn all about arrays and do multiplication stories and draw out big long explanations of how they get to an answer. While I think this is admirable and important and has it's place, I think we are getting caught up in something most kids are not developmentally ready for at 7 and 8 years old. I learned my times tables in the third grade and I have such a distinct memory of that AHA! moment in grade five when I finally got what I was doing when I multiplied. Even though I didn't understand it in third grade or fourth grade, I still got 100's on my tests. I still could do the homework. When I was ready to understand, it all clicked and I went on to do just fine, all the way through Calculus II (with the exception of geometry).
Poor Sam can't even make an array because all his little dots or x's get all mashed up together and his 6 by 7 array gets out of control and isn't a 6 by 7 array in the end so he gets the problem wrong. Even though he can tell you 6 times 7 is 42 without missing a beat. I do the times table flash cards and they know their math facts but there is no getting around the fact that they must still demonstrate the knowledge behind the facts. And they still need to fill in their homework no matter how crazy it looks to me. I do my best. The other night I spent about fifteen minutes figuring out how Sam was supposed to complete his math homework. He had six problems of multi digit numbers he was multiplying together. I had to do the work "my way" so I knew the answer and then figure out how to fill in the worksheet so Sam could get the answer their way. I don't know that their way is easier or better than the way I was taught. Of course, my way is easier for me because it's the way I learned to do it. The way Sam is being taught looks like more work and is very confusing. But maybe I'm biased. You tell me.
4 comments:
Marie,
I could not agree with you more. When Patrick first came home with his Math, I was like you must have copied it wrong, beause there is no math like this. He too was positive he did not. So I taught him my way. Then wrote a loving note to his wonderful teacher and expressed that my child was not doing it the way she was teaching it.... I got my way... Fast forward to Tommy and same thing happened, but for some ungodly reason he got it... Of course he gets nothing else in life, maybe its the whole Stats thing, or maybehis ADD helps in this.... I am sad to say I more to go, thank god I have < God Help Me, Tommy to help her.... Oh boy!!!!! Maybe I got too much sun today,,,, Keep up the good work.. YOu keep me laughing!!!! Donna
Donna, I'm glad I'm not alone. For much of Sam's math I get my way too. But not always. Funny that Tommy had not trouble w/it at all. I'm on my own here, Joe can't help me out...it makes him dizzy just to think about it. LOL! Soak up some sun for us! :)
I would fail 3rd grade math. I still haven't quite figured out what I am looking at.
Thank you Karen!!! I knew it couldn't just be me!
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