Multiplication

I have been dreading the day Alea would start multiplication for about six months now. Turns out I had more to fear that I even realized. With the new Common Core State Standards the students are expected to know by memory their multiplication facts of a single digit number up to 100. This means that tonight we had to start doing problems like 46 X 2 and 23 X 4. Do you know the answers to these problems off of the top of your head?! Memorization is not Alea's strong suit. We are in for a long, rough path. Oh yeah, they start the timed test on this this week and they started multiplication like this TODAY.

Alea just finished working on her spelling list for the week, her multiplication of 5s and 2s up to 100, and read her fluency passage about 4 times. Great! The only homework we have left now is to work on 10s and 4s up to 100, read the fluency passage about 10 more times this week, read 30 minutes a night, study spelling some more, continue working on 5s and 2s to 100, and write a four square summary on the books she reads.

I laughed out loud when Alea came home on the first day of school and told me they would never have homework in 3rd grade unless they didn't finish their work in class or if had something they needed to work on at home. Her teacher had her fooled. Little did she know that she would have to work on spelling, math, reading, and writing every night. At least she had one day of happiness before all of the work kicked in.