"That's Mathematics"

(by Tom Lehrer) That's



I'd like to add another verse to today's song:

Middle school homework
Drives me berserk
Staying up too late
Dividing 165 by 78
Exhausted now today
Trying to keep the ZZZZ's away
That's Mathematics!


OK, I know that's completely random, but seriously!! Baby girl's homework was absolute craziness yesterday! One side of the paper was multiplication, where she had to multiply 2 two-digit numbers with another one- or two-digit number. She has never had to multiply numbers that are quite that high & have several steps. She has also never been taught how to divide a 3-digit number by a 2-digit number, which was on the other side of the worksheet. There were about 40 math problems, which she started working on at about 5:00. She took a break for dinner at maybe 7:00, then Lauren sat down & helped her a little bit. I took over at 8 or 8:30, so Lauren could finish her homework. I finally sent her to bed at 11:00 (two hours past her normal school-night bedtime), because she was beyond exhausted & in tears! She didn't complete the last four math problems on her homework, but she felt like trying again this morning & was able to finish them in less than 10 minutes {& the last one didn't have the correct answer as a choice. This actually happens on a regular basis, but that's a whole other subject!}

I'm seriously not one of "those parents" who complains about homework! I have only contacted a teacher about it one time, and that was over a couple of random problems on her math homework. That time, I asked if I could meet with the teacher for her to show me how she taught long division, because Elly didn't know how to do it. I just figured she had somehow forgotten what the teacher taught, but it turned out that it was on the schedule to be taught the following week! Her teacher apologized for not having looked over the worksheet before sending it home. This time, I don't know what to do about it. Is she too old for me to write a note to the teacher? If I do, is she going to think I'm one of "those parents" & hate me/my child right from the start?

Welcome to middle school! {that was written in sarcastic font, just in case you couldn't tell!}

[Update: As it turns out, baby girl is in Pre-AP Math. Her class was assigned the entire worksheet while other classes only had to do half of it. Her teacher hadn't realized just how much of the subject matter hadn't been covered & said that homework shouldn't typically take that long. Yay!]

Amy

Comments

Brooke said…
reason # 265 why i don't have kids. i have no clue - what a hard situation. you certainly don't want to irritate the teacher straight away, but still if its too much...

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