Our second grade math curriculum is actually meaningful because the kids are graduating from Montessori math into Singapore math.
For a challenge, I recommend getting the Singapore word problem books (Amazon). There are some tricky problems, even in the lower grades. My DS is no slouch and he is finding quite a few of the 3rd grade Singapore word problems to be difficult.
I get your point- I think at least a few first graders are ready to go straight into multiplication, and wonder if much of the year is waiting for most/all the rest to catch up.
