When Did Homework Get So Hard?

Ok, Jeff Foxworthy...I'm turning to the camera and admitting to America...I am NOT smarter than a 6th grader!

Man! 6th grade homework is HARD! When did homework get so hard? Last night, Bailey, her PhD Dad, and I worked together for hours on a Taxonomy key for math. Well - it was math-related, but because a taxonomy key is generally a science tool....she'll be getting a grade in BOTH subjects. (lazy on the teacher's part if you ask me.) The directions were lame -- not enough given and no examples. If you are unfamiliar with a taxonomy key (and who isn't?) - you have a pool of words. From those words you have a series of clues. So let's say you have the number 25 (in Bailey's math example) in your word/number pool. Your first clue is...if divisible by 5, go to 2. And then you proceed to number 2 and answer another question to proceed to figure out which number in the pool you are talking about. Bailey had to develop the numbers in the pool and the clues and put them in a certain form. AND you couldn't use anythign twice....so if you said "divisible by" once...you couldn't say it again....and we had to do this 16 times and there were 8 numbers. So after the obvious....if an even number, go to....if greater than whatever..go to...you begin to run out of mathematical ideas. So we had to pull out greatest common factor, least common multiple, etc....and STILL it was a challenge. Bailey worked independently on this for hours before coming to us for help...and then we worked together for hours. Finally at 10:30 she went to bed, setting her alarm for 6 a.m. to start working on it again before school today.

I won't say it in front of Bailey - but MATH SUCKS!!!!