Help! I'm a Math Failure...

I am not a "math person".  (Ironic that I am married to a math educator, I know...) I do very well when it comes to managing what I term "household math", which includes managing the checkbook, measurements for cooking, counting kids to make sure I haven't lost one of them, etc.

Obviously, I knew the day would come when my kids homework would surpass my talents in math. I'm okay with that, especially since we have a math guru in house. I just never suspected that day would come as early as 2ND  GRADE.

Matt is in Florida for business and so it was up to me to help Aaron with his homework this week.  They are adding 3 numbers together- pretty easy, something I should be able to do. As I was reviewing the worksheet however, I realized that the example they provided was different than anything I had ever seen before. I had to call my sister, then my husband for help. As I'm dialing, I can't help but feel a little chumpish, I mean after all, this is only 2ND GRADE MATH.

After reviewing the example with my sister- it hit me. These kids are not allowed to carry numbers, which is how I was taught to add.. They work the problem left to right- starting with the tens column, then moving to the ones. After totaling the tens, they total the ones and then add those two numbers together.  Not really hard- just completely backwards to everything I was ever taught. It seems so crazy, and I admit I had a hard time wrapping my mind around it.

Later that night Matt told me they do it this way so that the kids don't miss the concept of place value. Okay, um sure, if you say so- I am not the one with a Masters degree in Math Education.

Nevertheless, the experience left me feeling a bit peeved. I should be able to do 2ND GRADE math without a tutor. When did simple math change and evolve into something I didn't even recognize? I must be getting old. I'll just take my outdated, ancient methods and go sit between my floppy disks, leg warmers and cassette tapes. (sigh)