[baddspellar]

I have an 11 year old daughter who I help with math homework every week. Some of the new methods work for her, and some are terribly confusing to her. I think it's good to expose kids to a variety of methods in math. I am concerned, however, and the near-complete lack of emphasis on memorizing the basic math tables and doing calculations in your head. Doing that at a young age really helped me to understand numbers. Many of the techniques they teach in school are techniques I figured out on my own by exposing myself to large numbers of calculations.