Lindsay's Math

Updated to include another YouTube Video! This one's fun and you will TOTALLY UNDERSTAND what they're teaching my daughter!

Let me clarify the problem with Lindsay's math curriculum. The problem does not lie in the actual math itself, but in the way the school, or district, is teaching it. They use something called Everyday Math, or Chicago Math, that provides students with an alternative way of adding and subtracting. It's confusing for parents and lots of students but they introduced it in order to give the kids who struggle with traditional methods new ways to figure simple math problems.

Sounds helpful for those who struggle in math, doesn't it? Sure it is, but not if your kid has had a firm grasp on traditional math since pre-school. Lindsay loves math, but she cannot figure out how to use the new methods.

I'll do my best to illustrate here, but this is a blog and I'm limited in what I can do. For example, 36+84 = ?

When you put 36 on top of 84, you and I add the 4 and 6... follow me? The answer is 10 so we put the 0 on the bottom under the 4 and the 1 on top of the 3. Then we add 1 + 3 + 8 = 12, we put 12 under the 8. The answer is 120. In Everyday Math, they put the 10 under the 4 and 11 under the 8 and SOMEHOW come up with the correct answer. I'm confused, I don't get it and Lindsay doesn't get it. Check the YouTube videos, they explain it much better!

I'm simply trying to get the school to STOP confusing my daughter and let her learn math that she will actually use in her checkbook when she's in her 20's. I've included a link to Everyday Math reviews that you should check out if your child's school is using this program. It was given a C- and has created serious problems for graduating high school seniors in the state of New York.

I found the greatest YouTube video describing just how confusing the program is - and it turns out that our school district is requiring both of these... Could you do multiplication this way? I doubt it.

I'm done with my rant now. Thanks for being patient.