Ken, as a Seattle School 3rd grade teacher I can empathize with your frustrations. Everyday Math is a new math curriculum that was implemented this year by the Seattle School District. It is a spiral curriculum that in theory cover material over and over throughout the elementary years and by the end of the 5th grade kids have mastered the material. What we have seen as teachers is that the curriculum is roughly a year or two more advanced than what we were used to.
You should be getting everyday math family letters that explain what the unit of study and it has the answers to all of the homework. If you are not getting this you can contact your child’s teacher or you can access it by going to everydaymathonline.com (I think that is address) You can also get there by going through the seattle school web page, but that can cumbersome.
As for homework we as teacher assign work based on grade level. All kids should be reading ind. each night at least 15-20 min. and other HW should be something that builds on what your child is learing in school and not some random WS. Everday math WS cover what was taught in math that same day so you know what the teacher covered or didn’t. Please know though that with this new curriculum and the all demands put on teachers and lack of prep time we are doing our best and we teach because we want all kids to succeed.
Hope that helps,
Sven