Well, the new school year has kicked off here and I’m leading a first and fifth grader this year through the math jungle. For my younger daughter, we’re starting back near the beginning of the material on the site. This’ll be a good opportunity for me to tune up and improve some of the worksheets we haven’t looked at in a while here. Our fifth grader just started at BASIS Scottsdale, a local charter school with an outstanding reputation for rigorous academics. The organization runs schools at several locations in Arizona, and recently announced that former Intel chief Craig Barett has taken over as president and chairman of the board. We’re excited to be there… and just a little nervous. I just finished reading over the curriculum through high school graduation, and I can see differential calculus coming just a tad sooner than anticipated. Like 10th grade. Holy Liebniz, Batman! For fifth grade, BASIS uses Saxon Math 7/8 and we’re off to a good start there. The initial diagnostic tests for the basic math operations are 100 problem tests given with a two minute time limit. For practice, I built a set of new worksheets that mimic the 10 x 10 Saxon layout and we’ve been drilling these here over the weekend. Beyond the basic operations, it looks like the early part of the year covers a lot of percentages and ratios, so maybe my eagerness to get away from fraction-related content may be premature. Either way, we’ll have fun! Meanwhile you can find the new 100 problem, two minute timed tests at the links below… 100 Problem Two Minute Addition Tests 100 Problem Two Minute Subtraction Tests 100 Problem Two Minute Multiplication Tests 100 Problem Two Minute Division Tests Also, the ‘All Problems’ addition tests have been updated to include variants that don’t have the ‘X+0′ problems. This should create some more rigorous worksheets for memorizing the more difficult facts.