Reply to Is this problem too hard for a second grader?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
OP here - Let me be clear - this was NOT homework.  This was done in class, with no assistance (30 kids in class), and she did not finish it, so it was sent home for her to finish.

I disagree with you that it is OK to struggle - if a child is asked to do a problem and doesn't have the tools to do it, it only leads to frustration.  My DD did not feel good about getting the right answers.  She said it was hard, and by hard she meant tedious and boring.  She now hates math.  So she isn't getting any pride from this at all.  [/quote]

OP, i haven't read all the responses, but I have a second grader, fourth, and sixth. I also have a background in education. I think this problem is entirely appropriate for class and/or homework--and all your child's struggle means is that she needs a little more practice. At this age, most kids intuitively find working with multiples of ten to be fairly easy. Again, if your child does not, she needs some more practice. I would work with her at home using manipulatives. Get a hundred MnMs and have her divide them up in many different ways. Or use an abacus. Or pennies and her dolls. If the teacher sent this classwork home, it probably means you child was having more trouble than expected.

For what it's worth, my problem with common core is not that it starts with the concepts--i think most people would agree that that is the way to go--but that it refuses to let them go once the child has mastered them. The ridiculous division algorithm that gets taught these days is the perfect example of how something straightforward and simple can get turned into something tedious and unnecessarily labored, all in the name of reiterating the concept. I think that especially kids who are talented at math are done a disservice  by a lot of what the common core teaches--but NOT by OP's example, which I see as a perfectly sound way to work with a second grader.[/quote]

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