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Parenting
If you have a first grader:
Could your child do these math problems?
1. This even number has the same amount of ones and tens. It is more than 60 but less than 80. Find the mystery number.
2. This number is odd. It is more than 93 and less than 97. Find the mystery number.
3. A family dines in a restaurant. Their drinks cost together $9 and their meals cost together $59. Estimate the total cost of the meal using rounded numbers.
4. I have more whole tens than 81 but the same amount of ones. What number am I?
These are all three taken directly off of ds' math assignment for the day and to say that he's struggling is an understatement! He just does not get it and I sure don't remember that level of difficulty when in math when I was a 1st grader!
I'm just wondering if these are things that other 1st graders could solve without too much difficulty or if the math curriculum we're using is just crazy.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: If you have a first grader:
I'm struggling with them!!! I do not think my 1st grader (or 2nd grader) would get them....I am going to quiz them when they get home from school though now because I'm curious!!! LOL
Whew! Judging from the few responses so far I'm glad to see that it's not just ds.
FWIW, he was able to do them all BUT I had to absolutely walk him through each and every step very slowly, and basically spell it out for him. There were also some tears and crying involved...
....um.....
That's how it would happen with DD too...
I think I can get them
1. This even number has the same amount of ones and tens. It is more than 60 but less than 80. Find the mystery number. 66
2. This number is odd. It is more than 93 and less than 97. Find the mystery number. 95
3. A family dines in a restaurant. Their drinks cost together $9 and their meals cost together $59. Estimate the total cost of the meal using rounded numbers. $70
4. I have more whole tens than 81 but the same amount of ones. What number am I? 91
I think it takes a certain type of person/mind for these types of questions to come natural. I had to read them very carefully and think slowly. None just came to me. Maybe its "Sheldon Math"
::stupid question:: why can't number 1 be 77? Other than that I agree. But damn that would be very difficult for lots of kids and adults, lol. Thank goodness dh is an engineer, I'll let him teach ds math, lol.
It has to be an even number.
Also, FWIW, there was a 1-100 number chart on the page for those who need the visual reinforcement.
And no, not Sheldon Math. It's called Math Mammoth. It's pretty popular in the homeschooling community and I think it's also being used by more small, private schools now. It is considered a rigorous math program, but to be honest we've found it pretty easy up until today and WHAM. Hardest lesson he's had to do by far.
Lol thanks! I always suffered in reading comprehension lol!
DD, 1/7/05 * DS #1, 1/25/07 * DS #2, 11/11/09
Baby #4, EDD 11/11/12
m/c 7/30/08 at 12 weeks (blighted ovum, emergency D&C)
This was me. And my browser doesn't let me make the faces, but you can guess which one it was.
I was lost at number 1.
Seriously I do not know the answer to the first one.
Matthew hasn't had homework like that yet but I just read him the problems and he got 3 of them right (all but the last one) without writing anything down. That being said he has been able to do math in his head for a while now.
I'm pretty sure most of his class would not be able to do it
Ok, I quized the girls.
Tay (2nd grade) figured it out without my help. She declared "this is SOOOO 1st grade math, mom."
Audrey (1st grade) struggled and needed some assistance to get it..I sort of got her started on how to figure it out and then she got it on her own. whatever it is that has "clicked" with Taylor has a 2nd grader just hasn't "clicked" with Audrey yet.
I'm confused. Your dh tutors a school administrator in math?
Your curriculum friend should re-read the question. It specifies an even number. ;-)
Oops, my bad. The directions stated that the answers were not greater than 100.
Funny you should mention that. The local public schools used Everyday Math until last year and now they've switched to EnVisions. The one charter school in town uses TERC Investigations. I was not happy with ANY of those choices in math curricula and it's one of the reasons we decided to homeschool this year. The curriculum we use is more similar to an Asian-style mastery based program. I did TONS of research on math curricula and bought several different programs to review before choosing this one.
Nope. See my response above to Auntie. ;-)
Our first grader last year had problems like these, but all kids had a number grid as part of their math supplies.
Does he have a number grid? Just the numbers 1-100 in grid form, so 1,11,21 etc. are in the first column, first row is 1-10. That sounds like it would make this assignment so much easier.
Very interesting.
We're actually a couple months ahead in math. The work we're doing would normally be done in the second semester. That would explain why it was so easy for Tay but foreign for Audrey, maybe?
It also makes me wonder if I posted this again at the end of the school year if the kids who were all "huh?" (my ds included) in December would suddenly be be all "well, duh, this is easy."
Yeah, this was the actual lesson (right click to make bigger):
That makes more sense.
lol! I was referencing the big bang theory- sorry. I always forget that not everyone watches the same shows I do! Sheldon is the 'genius' on the show but doesn't get sarcasm or idioms, etc. Not sure how else to put it.
In my opinion homework should be easy enough for ALL students to do it independently. That is because some students don't have parents that will sit down and do it with them and some will. I hate giving homework for this very reason. I teach first and second grade.
And those problems are nothing like what is going home in our school! I would think maybe one or two of my kids could do it indepdendently, more could do it with parental help and a good majority would be kicking and screaming by the end of their homework session!
Typical first graders would not be able to do these problems, because they are not developmentally able to think so abstractly. Problems like these, along with more advanced time problems ("quarter to" the hour, elapsed time) are best saved for 8-9 year olds because they have the capacity to comprehend without frustration.
IMO, Everyday Math is second worst only to TERC. The group/discovery learning just doesn't lead to mastery in any one concept. I actually that NYC did away it around 2005? In favor of EM, no less, which is just a nightmare for any child who needs structure.
Ds got a coveted spot at a charter school this year and we turned it down. One of the biggest reasons I decided against the school? They use TERC. There were other reasons as well, but the math curriculum was a BIG one for me. I had no desire to make him spend 8+ hours in school each day (the charter school has a really long day) for him to come home and have me supplement his math with another program of my choosing in addition to his homework.
If, for instance, the charter school happened to use something like maybe Singapore Math? I would've sucked up the longer school day and some more minor issues and happily enrolled him.
I have an engineering degree, and it took me a while to even figure out what question 1 and 4 were asking. The way the problems were worded, the concept of 10s and 1s wasn't immediately apparent to me. I remember math being much more practical when I was in school.
Out of curiosity, why is everyday math disliked so much? That's the program DD has for her kindergarten math homework.
Charlotte Ella 07.16.10
Emmeline Grace 03.27.13
This is long, but interesting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI
The Asian style math works for bright kids, but doesn't accommodate different learning styles at all. Also, they are typically not as language-based, meaning it's more computation than critical thinking skills.
Angela, the 'idea' of EM sounds good, but it just doesn't work. It's a spiraling program, which means that topics are introduced (and oftentimes not expected to be mastered, which is often frustrating) and revisited. The same games are played over and over again = boring. There is an over reliance on calculators, beginning in first grade! Kids never memorize/learn their addition/multiplication tables, which is really helpful for more advanced and mental math. Plus the constant jumping from topic to topic is difficult. A unit could look like this: lesson 1 pennies, l.2 nickels, l.3 dimes, l.4 quarters, l.5 telling time to the hour, l.6 telling time to the half hour, l.7 exchanging coins for dollars, etc, etc. Meanwhile each lesson is one day.
Sorry, I'm very negative tonight!
EDM is not a perfect program, although I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a perfect math program.
With that being said it tends to be disliked by parents more than the research/professionals because it was not how they were taught.
We are in our fourth year of implementation with EDM and my students are light years ahead of where they were prior to adopting this curriculum. Their concept and understanding of place-value and number sense has grown tremendously. It's definitely not perfect, but it's not anywhere close to being as terrible as parents make it out to be.
Joenali, which grade do you teach? They play basically the same games in each grade, and most third graders in my school will roll their eyes in the back of their head if you mention 'top-it' in any form.
And the sad part is that many educators adopt programs in their purest form. Supplement is acknowledging that a program is not fitting your needs, and in that case I can't promote a specific program.
This. My kids enjoy the games and the games are where they get the practice and mastery of basic facts.
I teach it in small groups which works very nicely for the differentiation pieces. I can do the readiness activity with the group that needs it, the middle ones and the enrichment for the kids that can take the concept further. This is all based on the results of the pretest so the groups change daily in order to keep up with the spiral concept.
Like I said, there is not program that is perfect but it's not horrible either.