Neue Stifte, neues Maeppchen: new German school thread

[finknottle]

Am starting in positive manner as we're 7 weeks into the new school year and all 3 of mine are settled and happy.
Well, d won't be if she does have head lice and has to stay off because she loves school so much.
S1 is in the second year of secondary & still thriving. Is class prefect for the first time which was a great ego boost.
S2 is in Y4 & has been doing better in class but his test results are still lousy (unfortunate choice of phrase if we are lice-ridden) and his teacher is convinced it's the language issue. He's trying harder which is a good sign. He lost the prefect election by 1 vote to his best friend and was chuffed to bits to be his "deputy" and that so many voted for him.

Had forgotten how wonderful the "erste Klasse" is.

ok she divides both by 6 and has to remember to write g and the Euro sign and comma. THink that's the tricky bit.

It's such a stupid question though,isn't it? I mean the Birnen are obviously all different in size. It's also maths you'd never need. I mean when do you need to go from the weight of 7 pears to figuring out what the weight of 1 might be?

Ahh I love ripping into maths, I do really. Thank goodness WE don't have to sit these tests though

Right, she's left the firstone and is figuring out the Birnen one now.

Then, she has to do this :

Ein Anzug kostet 645Euro. Ratenzahlung sind 14 mal 53Euro

What is the question? She has to figure out _ I think, how much more she would pay in Raten.

If you pay in Raten you end up paying a bit more than if you bought and paid outright. So I think she has to work out how much more expensive the Ratenzahlung is.

How weird they give you information but don't pose a question. Is this usual?

I would do 10 x 53 and 4 x 53 and add the answers together. Then you need to subtract from that total the 645 to see what the difference is.

Bet her eyes are glazing over though. The American books I have do all this kind of thing but the questions are funny (aliens and UFOS and dragons and crazy recipes etc)

but you know if grown-ups have to think about it, I don't think it can be primary school maths, do you?

The worst part is, in Berlin ds didn't have as much of this to do in his tests and this test here will have atleast 4 to 6 of these which make up about 3 to 4 points each. You can imagine the results already can't you.

I think they'r etoo hard for 4th year. They should still be learning the basics.

I agree absolutely. What dp really need is some kind of device that allows your child to send you a copy of the page by handy and you then SMS back the answer. My dd would switch off and gaze off into space for the entire duration of that maths test I can tell you now. She can ´concentrate for hours on end on something like history or read for ages but she has zero interest/concentration span for maths

dd says her mobile make sbebp beep noises when she texts so she can't but she would love to!

You're right about the glazed over look. I think we could just drop this all and go out and do something else today.

well I get that glazed over look myself when I see dd's maths. Number of times I have groaned and gone off with a cup of coffee and in a foul mood to try and figure out just what the heck we're (note the WE) supposed to be doing next.

have you ever heard of Brainboy btw? It's supposed to train the brain and create links or some such things needed for maths. Have a look at their website. Ask dh what he thinks of it. Apparently you play with it like a Gameboy.

Arghhh what on earth...

Bilde mit den Ziffern 1 2 3 4 5 6 zwei dreistellige Zahlen und multipliziere sie. Finde die Aufgabe mit kleinsten Ergebnis und die Aufgabe mit dem größten Ergebnis

for crying out loud. You just don't WANT to do it, do you?

am I missing something here or would 111 x 111 not give you the smallest Ergebnis? And 666 x 666 the biggest?

Yes, but what are the rules ? Can you use the numbers morethan once? I'm thinking too much.

ooh 666 the number of the Beast etc.

has she learnt to multiply 3 digit numbers by 3 digit numbers admylin?

Where's finks, she would know she has been through this I'm sure.

I'm hoping she hasn't run amok at the school and been arrested. She mentioned some trouble there last time I saw her post. She's got a lot on her plate by the sounds of things.

I find these maths exercises unbelievably UNINTERESTING. Even if dc can do them and know how to tackle them, you wouldn't feel really motivated to do it, would you?

Yes she can multiply 3 didgit numbers. So far I reckon the smallest is 135 times 246 and largest is 642 times 531.

I see what you mean, using each digit only once.

Crumbs my dd would draw a total blank faced with that exercise.

I find these exercises unnecessarily contrived I really do.

I am fairly sure at her age it was just if Farmer A does this and Farmer B does that, who will earn more/get there faster.

(Not that I could be bothered with that either at the time)

They're too hard.Just asked ds and he didn't get it straight off and he's mathematically minded.

All that maths is making my brain hurt. I'm really bad at working out even simple sums now.

It sounds similar to the stuff dd gets although tbh I don't help her much with it. So far she's managed to work most of it out for herself although when she's doing her hw she sometimes gets very panicky about those kind of sums. I try to reassure her that she can do it, without admitting that my own brain is imploding with the effort of working it out!

Are these part of her hw or is it extra work you are giving her? How long do you spend on schoolwork each day?

This is one sheet of Aufgaben zum wiederholen und üben from the teacher to prepare for the test (it's next wendsday)

I would have just beendoing plain old long multiplication and division sums with her. These are too hard for her to figure out in a test with a timer on. She might get there eventually but the time would be up on the day.

sounds like she can do the maths but needs help with strategies to make sense of word problems. I know I have seen books that concentrate on that but it is no help to you atm. Perhaps longer term, you may need to look into something like that admylin.