Agreed.

The 7 year old has to integrate many concepts to get down to what is actually need to solve the equation. Again, a parent sees this fairly quickly-I can't comment on the comedian-but that's alot of info to wade through to get down to the essentials for a 7 year old.

Excellent post. This precisely lays out developmental curriculum relative to age.

I think you are making this harder than it is. The first problem is find two numbers from the list whose difference is 15. That can only be 63 and 48. The second problem is find two numbers from the list that sum to 62. That can only be 45 and 17. It does not require a two variable equation, just a little quick addition and subtractiion, which I think most 7 years should be able to do.

I didn't see what was wrong with it. It looked like something a 7 year old could do. It was pretty straightforward, although the answer for problem 2 was wrong.

I agree the directions and the way the problem is set up is obtuse

The problem I see with this is that in order to mathematically solve this, here are the steps one has to perform:

1) Create a two-variable equation that describes the problem, ie x - y = 15 for the first and a + b = 62 for the second one. If you aren't familiar, this is the formula for a line in the common format ax + by = c.

2) Solve the equation repeatedly for the second variable by using one of the values from the list (generates a table of value pairs).

3) Identify the value pair solution that exclusively matches to the available numbers defined.

I have had five children in first grade already and another in kindergarten this year. Single-variable math doesn't get introduced until first grade and even then it is simple addition and subtraction like 15 - 5 = __. Lines as equation solutions don't get introduced until fourth grade for most kids. Second grade starts on multiplication and division and third grade starts into fractions. Story problems aren't introduced until very late first grade at the earliest - usually second grade, and even then are explicitly worded like this: "Sammy has 25 cents and wants to buy an ice cream cone for 20 cents. How much will Sammy have left over?"

The goal of teaching - especially math - is to make it easy for the kids to build on the concepts they already know. I have a mother-in-law who teaches kindergarten and a father who teaches college algebra and neither one of them would write a workbook question so obtuse - especially for a first grader!

The object of crap like this isn't to teach the kids math, it's to dissuade the parents from helping their kids with their homework. And maybe to turn kids off from learning math at all. Maybe I'll give this question to my second grader and see what she does with it and post the results.

cg, you have a a child around that age? I'm having a hard time remembering what they are doing at that age.

It seems fine to me too. It's nothing amazing, but as a math worksheet goes, it's about what I'd expect.

I think most 7 year olds would need parental help. Primarily due to solving 2 unknowns. According to this source:
http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopm...