Those weird words and procedures are taught to the students. My kids understand them just fine. It's the parents who aren't in the classroom getting the instruction that goes along with the homework that are complaining.
I simply ask my kids, on those occasions where I can't suss it out on my own, what concept the teacher was teaching them about. I don't expect a perfect answer to that question - their teachers are instructing learners and not teachers after all - but the responses to my question usually give me enough context to recognize that they are just a new vernacular for the way my mind does math anyway.
I simply ask my kids, on those occasions where I can't suss it out on my own, what concept the teacher was teaching them about. I don't expect a perfect answer to that question - their teachers are instructing learners and not teachers after all - but the responses to my question usually give me enough context to recognize that they are just a new vernacular for the way my mind does math anyway.