Mom looks at her 6-year-old’s math homework and has no idea what she’s looking at, what she had to do next was humiliating

Amanda Sarno thought she was good at math. She enjoyed it and felt confident helping her daughter with schoolwork. But when her 6-year-old daughter Mackenzie brought home a math worksheet, Sarno was completely lost. She had no idea what she was looking at.

According to People, Sarno shared her experience in a TikTok video. The video quickly went viral as parents everywhere felt the same frustration. When Sarno first saw the math sheet, she thought it was fractions. She panicked, thinking her first grader was doing complicated math problems.

But Mackenzie wasn’t doing advanced math. The homework used Common Core methods for simple addition and subtraction. Sarno just couldn’t understand how it worked. She realized she couldn’t help her daughter and had to do something embarrassing.

Even parents who love math struggle with Common Core homework

“I just had to have the most embarrassing conversation with Mackenzie’s teacher because at 6 years old, she’s now at the point where I don’t understand the homework that she’s doing anymore,” Sarno said in her video. She had to ask the teacher to teach her the method so she could then teach Mackenzie. Many parents face humiliating situations at work too, showing how embarrassing moments happen everywhere.

Sarno showed the confusing worksheet in her video. Even after seeing the explanation, she still felt lost. “Why can’t I just say 7 + 5 is 12? I don’t understand,” she said.

The situation was unique because Mackenzie had major surgery in October. She was on homebound instruction, meaning her teacher came to their house every day after school for two hours. Mackenzie usually works independently and doesn’t need much help with homework.

But because of homebound instruction, Sarno had to work with Mackenzie during the day and review what the teacher taught the day before. That’s when she came face-to-face with Common Core math and realized she was completely stuck. Similar to how some neighborhoods create embarrassing rules, schools sometimes implement policies that confuse parents.

Once the teacher explained the method, Sarno understood it quickly. She sees how it could help students later when they learn algebra and more advanced subjects. However, she still has a major problem with when this method is being taught. She doesn’t understand why a 6-year-old needs to learn math this way. 

She believes this type of method should be taught when kids are working with double digits at the earliest. Single-digit addition and subtraction should be automatic before students learn the more complex Common Core style.