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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

In thinking this homework is too hard?

39 replies

WimpleOfTheBallet · 17/01/2011 17:50

Or is my 6 year old DD totally behind?

She's in year two... one of the youngest in the class...but I suppose that should be leveling out about now right?

She's come home with a homework sheet which is based on Handling Data...she managed the block graph work but was befuddled by this question

There are 21 crayons 4 of them are red, 6 of them are blue, 3 are green and the remainder are pink. Write this infrmation in the table.

Then there is a table with the colours written in boxes

blue, pink,red, green in that order and she was meant to fill the numbers in elow..she couldn't compute it at all...couldn't work out that it was a sum...

WHY are they sending things home which she doesn't know how to do? Don't they KNOW she does not understand the maths of it? Isn't ia bit useless if she doesn't understand it?

I wouldn't mind but it's a class of 15 kids with anassistant! Private prep. Is she behind where she should be iyo?

AIBU to go in and ask about this?

OP posts:

friedtoacrisp · 17/01/2011 17:55

So - errm - she had to find the 'red' column, check the information and enter '4'?? Is that it?

AgentZigzag · 17/01/2011 17:55

I thought the general idea was that she learns how to do it?

If she's anything like my DD1, she might have been thinking about other things when they were giving the explanation.

If you're able to get your head round what she's got to do, perhaps you could pass it on to her?

winnybella · 17/01/2011 17:57

Was it this concept that she doesn't get or doesn't she know how to do additions?

Bucharest · 17/01/2011 17:59

It looks to me as if the activity is easy, but it's one of those things where the actual instructions are harder to follow than the activity itself.

PaisleyLeaf · 17/01/2011 18:00

Do you mean she didn't know how to fill in the table, or how to find out how many pink crayons there are, or both?

Bucharest · 17/01/2011 18:00

She hasn't actually got to do any maths with it though has she? All she's got to do is match numbers and colours? Or have I understood it wrong?

Original poster

WimpleOfTheBallet · 17/01/2011 18:01

No....fried..she had to work out the sum...with the 21 crayons..it as bascally a subtraction but I didnt eplain well...eiter way she couldnt do it....

Agent....people on here are always saying that they shoud not be give homewor they don't know how to do...it's for practice.

tried to explain but I'm not a bloody teacher! I'm sick of exxlaining maths to her or other things...support is one thing but spending an hour of our family time nightly over maths is ridiulous...she's only 6!

OP posts:

Bucharest · 17/01/2011 18:01

Ok, yes the pink ones.

gingernutlover · 17/01/2011 18:03

yes, too many instructions but not a hard concept if you do it with her in a visual/practical way. Most of my year 2's could do this, with varying levels of help, alot of them would need actual visual aids.

draw 21 crayons for her and get her to use the info to colour in the right number of red blue and green ones, then explain that the rest must be pink, get her to count all the crayons so she understands there are def 21 together.

Original poster

WimpleOfTheBallet · 17/01/2011 18:03

So she had to work out how many pink ones were remaining...and writ that number in.

OP posts:

zukiecat · 17/01/2011 18:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

WimpleOfTheBallet · 17/01/2011 18:04

I should hav thought of drawing the crayons...I used real money for her other questions but even then she struggled a bit.

OP posts:

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 17/01/2011 18:04

I wouldn't say she was behind (children all learn at different rates and all that) DD, currently in yr2 but one of the oldest, would have no problems with that. I vaguely remember her doing something similar on the Matheletes website. DS1 at the same age would have been the same. DS2 on the other hand would have been totally lost, not because he couldn't do the sum itself, but because he found it very very hard to understand that sort of maths problem.

mutznutz · 17/01/2011 18:04

There's no way that should have taken an hour and sounds about normal for a year 1 student, let alone year 2.

If she's struggling, it's probably best to have a word with the teacher and see if she can have some additional help.

gingernutlover · 17/01/2011 18:05

oh and probably better to explain to her that it's problem solving, rather than "a sum". They do start doing simple word problems at that age

Sirzy · 17/01/2011 18:05

I don't think that is to hard for a 6 year old, and the work would be pointless if it didnt pose a challenge.

If she really can't grasp it send it in with a note explaining that she struggled then the teacher can look at it again

AgentZigzag · 17/01/2011 18:06

Yeah, I can see what you're saying.

Spending an hour doing it is a bit OTT.

It's a good time to be brushing up on your maths

But there are things my 10 YO has learnt about that we didn't cover until secondary school, and most I didn't understand then let alone remember however many decades years on.

Goblinchild · 17/01/2011 18:06

It sounds an average activity for a Y2 child at this time of the year. I think you need to talk to the teacher and ask her if your child is really struggling with maths.
4+6+3= 13 and then counting on to 21 to work out how many pink ones there were shouldn't have flummoxed her. She could have counted on using her fingers.
Did she attempt to fill in the values for the 3 that were obvious?

Original poster

WimpleOfTheBallet · 17/01/2011 18:12

I would have hoped the teacher would tell me if there were some problems..blnking fees cost enough to HOPE for sme support!

OP posts:

juneybean · 17/01/2011 18:14

She's got to work out how many pinks there are.

Goblinchild · 17/01/2011 18:14

The delights and joys of a private education. You get to be as pissed off as State school parents and pay through the nose for it as well.

Sirzy · 17/01/2011 18:16

A problem understanding one area, or even just one question doesn't mean there is a problem in general

juneybean · 17/01/2011 18:18

Ignore me btw, I answered after leaving the page open haha

mutznutz · 17/01/2011 18:19

Would you not notice yourself if you daughter had a problem with maths though? I mean do you do many activities at home...does she talk about school and how easy/hard she finds it?

Goblinchild · 17/01/2011 18:19

That's why more detail about exactly how much she attempted would be helpful. It could also be that she just didn't feel like doing homework at that time.

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