Measuring Up for 1st Grade

These are pictures of Gage doing his homework. Every week (lately) he comes home with a weekly homework packet, due at the end of the week or the following Monday. All of this, I'm told, is to prepare him for 1st grade, when they will start to have homework on a more regular basis.

In the above assignment, he's supposed to jump, and then measure the distance in some randomly assigned unit of measurement, such as: the length of a pencil, or the # of "steps" it would take him to traverse the same distance... 

Now, I'm not a black & white thinker. My husband: very black & white. Something "is" or it "isn't." I live in shades of gray. But, the above assignment: who measures something in the length of a pencil!? Is it a sharpened pencil? Is it a brand new unsharpened pencil? Is it one of the nubbin' pencils that Gage loves and the erasers are worn down out of existence? This is why we have standard units of measurement, people.

On the other hand: I have no degrees in education, and at this age, maybe this is what they do to keep the kids interested, familiarize them with measuring things at all...etc.

I dunno.

But Gage, don't measure things in the future with the length of your pencil, ok? Stick with things like inches and feet and millimeters, etc. The standard has already been set there. No need to reinvent the wheel.... "Work smarter, not harder" as your Daddy would say.