I went to DS6's school this morning to ask about what I could do for his birthday, and happened to be standing in the doorway when he told the teacher that he had brought extra homework that he did last night. The look on her face was hilarious as she said, "you have extra homework?" He said yes, and told her he had a page on money and a page on simplifying fractions. She said "what am I going to do with that brain? Am I going to have to put you in 5th grade math? Because that's where they do simplifying fractions!" I'm not sure what he said then, but she told him "I'm going to have my work cut out for me with you--and do you know what that means? That means you're going to have your work cut out for you!"
I was standing there laughing at the whole thing, but the more I think about it, I think it's frightening that simplifying fractions is considered 5th grade math!
Well, at least he brought home three pages of homework tonight, and one of them claims to be third grade level. However, it is a bunch of "number search" puzzles where it gives you a number such as 11 and then you circle three number pairs that add up to that number. Third grade? Sigh.
