So we're nearing the end of book C, and we're getting into fractions a tad. I looked at our lesson today and saw that we were going to divide fractions. I thought, well, that's just odd, because we've only just touched on division with whole numbers in the last lesson.

But somehow, it's working. My daughter just cheerfully got that 3 divided by 4 would be 3/4, and then when I asked what if there were four more friends, she said, 3/8, without even hesitating. I had to think about it, but she didn't!

We were talking about a book she's reading a few days ago, and she said she was "a quarter and a half" the way through it. I told her that didn't make sense, and asked her to think it through. What's half of a quarter? She knew it was an eighth, and then just cheerfully said, "Oh, three-eighths." Like it was nothing.

This is the same child who stares blankly at me for up to five minutes if I ask her to do 100-63. I can't get her to use subtraction strategies without help for love or money, but fractions? No problem.

Hello StoryBookmum,

I too have been amazed at how easy fractions have been for all of my children.

The horror and terror I was put through with fractions and word problems I could not have enough time to go into the porblems I faced. But here with this program not a problem, which attribute to the fact that it is visually laid out in a way that is common sense to the child in a linear format rather then the abstract concept of the pie charts.

As far as her subtraction you should find out which way she thinks of them and focus on that way of doing them, and then do more subtraction games like Subtraction War.

You ask "Which way she thinks of subtraction?"
Yes, some people see subtraction as counting backwards, some see it as the missing addition, some see it as adding. How she sees subtraction using the strategies in the program will help you to tune in to how her brain organizes that concept and you can work on teaching her that way.

Please let me know if you have any more questions. You can email me directly at Carissa@alabacus.com .

Thank you for giving your child a RightStart in Math,

Carissa
RightStart™ Mathematics by Activities for Learning, Inc.

For program questions: 888.272.3291
To place an order: 888.RS.5.MATH (888.775.6284)
www.RightStartMath.com

Our Mission: To help children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics

I wish I knew how to figure out how she sees things like that. She doesn't communicate well in math. She never knows what's wanting if she's told to "show her work," and she can't explain how she got solutions most of the time. I don't think she adds up to get the difference, though - she can't add up to make change, I've seen that.

I'll work on decoding her and see where we get. She cheats badly at war, just recognising the overall pattern of bigger and smaller numbers and trying to get away without saying the sums or differences.