Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

It can be that they don't memorize enough. With little direct instruction, learning multiple algorithms but mastering none, and limited homework, many kids are not solid enough on their facts and procedures.

No, this is not an issue. The whole purpose of school is to memorize and regurgitate on tests. Schools heavily focus on following procedural steps and repetition of calculations. The kids have it down for the test but they have not really understood it, which is why they get in trouble later. Some have trouble in algebra class, some at later points, some during calculus, and some make it all the way to college but find out that their first year engineering classes are very different and require thinking and problem solving vs recalling facts. Trust me, this is not a memorization issue, it's an understanding issue.

Let's summarize the main criticisms of USA math education:

1. Too much rote memorization that doesn't teach conceptual understanding.

2. Too much conceptual teaching that parents don't understand, instead of rote memorization that builds fluency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

It can be that they don't memorize enough. With little direct instruction, learning multiple algorithms but mastering none, and limited homework, many kids are not solid enough on their facts and procedures.

No, this is not an issue. The whole purpose of school is to memorize and regurgitate on tests. Schools heavily focus on following procedural steps and repetition of calculations. The kids have it down for the test but they have not really understood it, which is why they get in trouble later. Some have trouble in algebra class, some at later points, some during calculus, and some make it all the way to college but find out that their first year engineering classes are very different and require thinking and problem solving vs recalling facts. Trust me, this is not a memorization issue, it's an understanding issue.

Let's summarize the main criticisms of USA math education:

1. Too much rote memorization that doesn't teach conceptual understanding.

2. Too much conceptual teaching that parents don't understand, instead of rote memorization that builds fluency.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

It can be that they don't memorize enough. With little direct instruction, learning multiple algorithms but mastering none, and limited homework, many kids are not solid enough on their facts and procedures.

No, this is not an issue. The whole purpose of school is to memorize and regurgitate on tests. Schools heavily focus on following procedural steps and repetition of calculations. The kids have it down for the test but they have not really understood it, which is why they get in trouble later. Some have trouble in algebra class, some at later points, some during calculus, and some make it all the way to college but find out that their first year engineering classes are very different and require thinking and problem solving vs recalling facts. Trust me, this is not a memorization issue, it's an understanding issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

It can be that they don't memorize enough. With little direct instruction, learning multiple algorithms but mastering none, and limited homework, many kids are not solid enough on their facts and procedures.

No, this is not an issue. The whole purpose of school is to memorize and regurgitate on tests. Schools heavily focus on following procedural steps and repetition of calculations. The kids have it down for the test but they have not really understood it, which is why they get in trouble later. Some have trouble in algebra class, some at later points, some during calculus, and some make it all the way to college but find out that their first year engineering classes are very different and require thinking and problem solving vs recalling facts. Trust me, this is not a memorization issue, it's an understanding issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

It can be that they don't memorize enough. With little direct instruction, learning multiple algorithms but mastering none, and limited homework, many kids are not solid enough on their facts and procedures.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Very true, this is why it's so important to carefully teach kids the ideas and concepts in elementary school. Right now we have an alarming number of students who are taking things like calculus in high school but struggle with basic algebraic operations, or even very fundamental things such as fractions. This suggests that they mainly memorized their way through math and did not really understand things. How do we fix this? I don't really know, because most teachers who teach elementary (or even middle) school don't really understand the ideas, they just teach procedural steps. This then propagates to the students, some of whom then become future teachers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Algebra is the main reason for students overall to not graduate HS! This is because it is so important to have a firm grasp on the basics and not rush yourself. (My brother went to MIT and now teaches MS math having retired).
The steps upward in math can leave your HS student taking something very advanced that they may never need unless going into a heavily math oriented career. Better to wait and fully understand math and not kill their interest in math in MS. Especially since it is required in HS.

I will be honest, I didn’t understand how kids could enjoy math enough to choose to participate in math enrichment and competitions until I had a kid that asks to take math classes and loves the competitions. Some kids like to practice and learn math the same way some kids love to read. DS asks, and confirms many times, to attend RSM. He asks to participate in the math competition program. He just likes math.

He is in 6th grade right now. I suspect that he will test into Algebra in 7th grade. He has passed advanced on every SOL so far, including last years Advanced Math SOL. He is used to timed tests because of competitions. He is taking pre-algebra at RSM this year. And Algebra in 7th will be the right fit for him. I would agree that it is not the right fit for most students but it will work for him.

We didn’t enroll in RSM until the year of distance learning when the math was plain awful. DS enjoys math too much to have an entire year of crap math instruction that was just plain basic. He has asked to continue every year since. I don’t expect schools to be able to meet every kids needs. His school does not offer Algebra in 6th and we were not going to send him to a MS for math or allow him to do online Algebra. Math at school is great practice that helps him solidify his foundational knowledge. Math at RSM challenges him. It works for us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

Are you kidding??? I have an undergraduate and professional degrees from Ivy League schools but I could not help at all once my kids were in 7th grade. I haven’t done any math since first year of college and I remember nothing, truly nothing.

Learning is not the same as remembering. Learning is using logic and reasoning to understand something. The fact that you seem to be almost proud of this, says a lot about what is wrong with the culture of education in this country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

Are you kidding??? I have an undergraduate and professional degrees from Ivy League schools but I could not help at all once my kids were in 7th grade. I haven’t done any math since first year of college and I remember nothing, truly nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are quickly finding out that many parents who enrich their children do so NOT because their child is a stand-out in math. Rather by the simple act of enriching they make their kid stand out relative to other children who do not enrich.

Math is peculiar, especially when you get to Alg.2, trig, pre-calc, Calc BC, that NO matter how bright the child, that child will not KNOW the math until it is taught to them. If it is taught earlier than the normal sequence, then presto, your child is somehow "gifted' in math.

Any child with a normal intellect working OUTSIDE of school for 2-3 hours per week will have zero problems with Algebra I. Zero. It is all about the effort you want to make as a parent. Some prioritize it; others do not.

You probably already know this, but unless your kid is hooked, eg, first-generation, low-income, staying in the accelerated track is necessary for top 20 colleges, and really top 50.

Ha ha. You don't know what you're talking about.

We see plenty of attempts by non-gifted children to take enrichment classes who fail. Your "normal intellect" child will not be successful, for instance, in AoPS Algebra in 4th or 5th grade the way my gifted child was. We know this because some parents try and end up with children who
- drop out of AoPS/RSM (and go to remedial shops like Kumon/Mathnasium)
- even if they don't drop out, do not do well in those classes
- even if they manage to finish can master, at best, the braindead school Algebra courses but would fail immediately at actual problem solving

No one is going from "AoPS Algebra in 5th grade" to "remedial".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are quickly finding out that many parents who enrich their children do so NOT because their child is a stand-out in math. Rather by the simple act of enriching they make their kid stand out relative to other children who do not enrich.

Math is peculiar, especially when you get to Alg.2, trig, pre-calc, Calc BC, that NO matter how bright the child, that child will not KNOW the math until it is taught to them. If it is taught earlier than the normal sequence, then presto, your child is somehow "gifted' in math.

Any child with a normal intellect working OUTSIDE of school for 2-3 hours per week will have zero problems with Algebra I. Zero. It is all about the effort you want to make as a parent. Some prioritize it; others do not.

You probably already know this, but unless your kid is hooked, eg, first-generation, low-income, staying in the accelerated track is necessary for top 20 colleges, and really top 50.

Ha ha. You don't know what you're talking about.

We see plenty of attempts by non-gifted children to take enrichment classes who fail. Your "normal intellect" child will not be successful, for instance, in AoPS Algebra in 4th or 5th grade the way my gifted child was. We know this because some parents try and end up with children who
- drop out of AoPS/RSM (and go to remedial shops like Kumon/Mathnasium)
- even if they don't drop out, do not do well in those classes
- even if they manage to finish can master, at best, the braindead school Algebra courses but would fail immediately at actual problem solving

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are quickly finding out that many parents who enrich their children do so NOT because their child is a stand-out in math. Rather by the simple act of enriching they make their kid stand out relative to other children who do not enrich.

Math is peculiar, especially when you get to Alg.2, trig, pre-calc, Calc BC, that NO matter how bright the child, that child will not KNOW the math until it is taught to them. If it is taught earlier than the normal sequence, then presto, your child is somehow "gifted' in math.

Any child with a normal intellect working OUTSIDE of school for 2-3 hours per week will have zero problems with Algebra I. Zero. It is all about the effort you want to make as a parent. Some prioritize it; others do not.

You probably already know this, but unless your kid is hooked, eg, first-generation, low-income, staying in the accelerated track is necessary for top 20 colleges, and really top 50.

Ha ha. You don't know what you're talking about.

We see plenty of attempts by non-gifted children to take enrichment classes who fail. Your "normal intellect" child will not be successful, for instance, in AoPS Algebra in 4th or 5th grade the way my gifted child was. We know this because some parents try and end up with children who
- drop out of AoPS/RSM (and go to remedial shops like Kumon/Mathnasium)
- even if they don't drop out, do not do well in those classes
- even if they manage to finish can master, at best, the braindead school Algebra courses but would fail immediately at actual problem solving

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's really quite early for your son to feel so overwhelmed by math. The beginning stuff should be review. Have you sat down with him and gone over the material they have covered, to see what exactly is bothering him?

OP here - DC got very frustrated with homework and got most of the problems wrong. This has not been the case in the past. MS itself has been a bit of a transition, so this has just compounded it. Unfortunately, I can’t really help as this level of math is many years behind me in memory. The teacher is being supportive and believes they are in the right place and urged patience.

Sorry if this is awkward.. but I have to wonder how is it possible that an adult cannot really help due to the math being "many years beyond"? They haven't started doing any remotely complicated algebra, and are likely doing basic word problems with variables, which should be... solvable for adults with common sense. Genuinely curious as to what topics and problems are assigned that it is beyond you and your child, because something doesn't make sense here. If you can give specific examples, we can help point you in the right direction in terms of what you or your child should study and/or how they should think about the problems.

One of the books that really did change my life was Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics". She asked a short series of questions covering relatively basic math to elementary school teachers selected as being highly interested in the subject. US teachers did badly. For example, half of them couldn't divide by fractions. Only one out of twenty-six or so could come up with a mathematically correct example illustrating the concept of division by fractions, and it wasn't even a good example. This suggests to me is that these "basic math" problems are, in fact, a *lot* more difficult than us mathy people realize. And also that the math instruction of anyone who grew up in the US is not likely to have been very good.