Second Grade Math & Etc

Nathaniel was in Europe last week, and then was home for 2 days and then off again out of town, so it's been not so fun around here.  The kids and I did attend a nice wedding last Saturday, and they even behaved.  OK, I may have threatened throwing away all Halloween candy if they gave me any grief during the ceremony, but whatever, it worked.  And the younger three came away with some fun favors: dowel rods with colored ribbons on one end, that they can swing around like wands, swords, or streamers, depending on mood.

The weather continues to act more like summer than fall.  It does get cooler at night, but yesterday it was 68 degrees here!  Just two years ago we had a snow day in early November, but this year, we still have some leaves on the trees and there are still 4 tomato plants alive in the garden (two cherries, two regular).

A look at Lydia's math homework:

I then asked her to do a couple of math problems for me.  Do you see the second one?  She wrote the 30 out to the side, then completed the rest in her head.  So it appears that they are being taught to add the tens column first, then the ones, then add those 2 numbers together.

I knew they don't teach math the same way we learned, but I can't figure out the logic in teaching to add the tens first.  Anyway, I thought you may be interested.  All of my school-age kids do very well in math, which is good because I don't know if I could handle teaching the way they are learning!