I agree that these problems could be harmful. But in most cases when DD11 was doing them it was in the context of an exemplar or problem solving and they would discuss options in class and were not necessarily graded on a correct answer. They would possibly know there was more than one solution and were encouraged to think about it. In some cases making a poster detailing the sections of their work. The criteria for the top mark in the problem solving was noticing the alternate relationships etc vs just solving the problem. Solving and writing down why might get you a 3 or 4 but seeing the alternatives or explaining a "rule" would get you the 5.
They also spent a lot of time coloring and making it neat or creative. (me groaning because mine spent longer on this art to get it just right).
Expectations for the explanations and calculations skills increased as they went from 3rd to 5th. I don't know that they actually counted for a grade until 5th but I was sort of clueless about the 4th grade grading process and DD11 skipped 3rd grade math at the school.
