Common core has been a HUGE debate all throughout the country. Just bringing up the idea causes many people cringe. Parents are struggling to help their children work through homework because they don’t understand the concepts of this new approach any more than their kids do.

Kids are struggling through a multi-step process to solve even the simplest of mathematical problems, while parents seem lost as to why it takes 5, 6, 7, or more steps to complete what should be a rather simple equation.

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I’ve seen countless accounts where parents have posted questions to their friends on social media asking for help with problems in order to help their child with homework; and even more accounts of frustrated parents taking matters into their own hands by writing a response back to the teacher about why common core is utter nonsense.

Common Core is here to stay

Whether you agree with it or not, it is here to stay…for now anyway. So if you want your child to do well in school you should probably brush up on some of the concepts, or enroll them in a private school or maybe even choose to home school if that is an option. With that said, it may be easier for many parents to acquire a bit of understanding about how the concepts of common core math and other subjects actually work versus uprooting their child out of school.

Sites like Cram.com offer help to frustrated students and parents. On Cram you can use flashcards to help your child (and yourself) learn. You can use pre-made flashcards or create your own; and categories such as common core mathematics are already available in the pre-made cards. You can also find numerous other sources for additional help, like Khan Academy to name one.

My kids and Common Core

My eldest child is in first grade and while I’ve understood pretty much all of the concepts he has brought home so far, I wonder when I will soon be just as confused as he is. The problem pictured above was from a different first grade class and I had to read the explanation as to what all the circling was for. Considering I have a degree in Physics and Chemistry — to be confused by first grade math kind of makes me scratch my head at the whole concept.

 

Here are a couple more problems I came across why browsing around online. You tell me if they make any sense:

 

Huh?  Aren’t you doing MORE math in this one?

 

So tell us….

What has been your experience with common core? Do you feel that it is beneficial to our students?

 

 This was brought to you by Cram, all opinions are my own.