Y3 homework angst - 85x82 etc

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Ok, so I've had to teach myself the grid method to understand how ds is supposed to do his homework. Luckily I have the book Maths for Mum and Dads which really helped.

Ds then showed me how he should work this out but he's getting the basics wrong. There are easier questions I.e 49x5, which he wrote down and answered fine, when it comes to adding the larger sums up though he appears to be doing this in his head and getting some of the larger sums wrong.

I don't know how they're taught to add, I'd use the column method, carry across etc, I realise this may not be the right way for now, ds appears to be trying to add from left to right whereas I add from right to left.

We've left this for now as everyone was getting frustrated and ds ended up calling himself a loser. Not the way it should be at the weekend.

I've told him that I need him to write everything down as sometimes in maths you need to show your workings out. He can add hundreds, tens and units in his head, fine but when it comes to thousands and carrying across numbers not so.

He answered 37x81 great, but I suspect he added 2400, 560, 30, 7 in his head.

Perhaps we need to start afresh tomorrow. I also realise I'm going to have to pop in and see the teacher.

Sorry for the ramble. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Wow that is way above Y3 objectives! Some people clearly didn't get the memo
It sounds like he is using the expanded method but starting with the higher value digit. They add the hundreds together then drop down a line, add the tens then the units before finding the total.

e.g.
568+335

568
335
800
90
13
903

Format doesn't show properly on my phone but the value of the digits should line up to the right so the 90 falls in the tens and units column.

Ahh, thank you Wombat, I understand what you mean. I feel like I'm complicating things even further by showing my methods.
I don't want ds to become afraid of Maths like I did (still do) but this morning was a bit of a disaster.
In my mind as this is homework ds should have covered this in lessons already but the larger sums were testing to say the least.

He's in the top group for Maths so don't know if this reflects the Y3 homework he's recieved, not a bragging post, just wondering if this is above Y3 objectives?? Is this something Y3 should be covering yet then?

I feel awful actually, as I was a bit hard with him stating that surely he'd covered this in the classroom. I was frustrated really, feel rotten now.

The Y3 objectives is to multiply a two digit number by a one digit number. Moving on to three digit by one digit in Y4. It isn't until Y5 that they start multiplying by two digits. Even if he is in the top group I wouldn't expect him to be doing those types of calculations. I'd expect him to be consolidating his understanding not moving on to harder calculations. I love the grid method I think it's fab for teaching multiplication but they often can't cope with the mental side.

Honestly if it's a struggle don't do the homework. Send a note in on Mon to his teacher. I always much prefer that than the kids struggling at home and getting into a state about it. All it does is turn them off maths!

One of the key features of the new curriculum is that children should not just be given increasingly larger numbers to deal with as a means of differentiation, but that investigations and problem solving is used as a means of stretching the more able. so whilst conceivably a child might move onto the next years objectives this would only be AFTER they have shown complete understanding of the current year's objectives through a variety of means, looking at patterns in calculations, inverse operations, word problems etcn not just "oh well he can do 2x1 digit multiplication so give him 3x1, then 3x2 etc

This makes things much clearer, thank you Wombat. I honestly thought ds should be grasping the harder sums and felt frustrated, I feel better knowing that he can at least do the two digit by one digit sum, even managing a couple of the harder ones. I wonder why he's been given this homework then if it's not an objective at this stage. It has had a negative impact today.

I'm liking the grid method too, works really well.

I think he needs alot more work with the two digit problems Spanieleyes, he's got a good grasp of Maths but this stretched him a bit too much.

Would you expect this in Y3?

When my daughter didn't understand the method for her maths homework I just wrote in her book to say this. She somehow managed to end up with a smaller number than she'd started with when she was adding using the method taught. But in her head she could work it out and knew it was wrong.
To me homework is about consolidating it and I try not to teach her when she doesn't understand it so her teacher can see this. She's Y3 as well.