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January 11, 2011
Homework
We are entering the fifth month of the first grade. Here is a question on Monkey's homework:
There are 2 classes in the first grade. There are 14 children in each class. Both first grade classes go to the book fair. Each child gets 2 books at the book fair. How many books do they get in all?
We are dumbfound. How exactly do they expect us to help them?
Right now, they just barely learn how to add single digits. Just this week, they started to learn to count by two.
It was obvious to us that it might be possible to teach a six-year-old how to add 14+14. But to get to 28+28 is virtually impossible for the addition would involve carrying over. Yes, we explained to Monkey how carrying over works, but why pushing so much information onto the kids when they can barely add 2+1?
Another solution would be draw pictures of 28 children and count by two from the first child to the last. They might as well ask the children to simply count by two without tortuous word problems. They can do word problems when they read on their own.
This school year has not been fun for us. It is quite stressful. Her teacher emphasizes reading. We focus on math. There is no instant click between us and the teacher. She is a great teacher; Monkey can read on her own. We just wish the math assignments could make more sense. But this is not really the teacher's fault, as she didn't get to pick curriculum. It makes you wonder who decided on the materials. Ed.D? Homeschooling is looking appealing.
Posted by Mike at January 11, 2011 08:36 PM
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