Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Update and long division

Hi,
We're soooo excited DS7 is in the first grade and is switching schools to a program that (according to other parents) actually delivers on differentiated education.

I have always done a modest amount (10 or so minutes per day) of after schooling that has added up to huge returns over the years. We're entirely finished with multiplication (yea!), and have completed division up through the 12s.
Now, we're going to long division--not fun because long division is a bit obtuse and nitpicky about how one reaches the solution. DS likes to "short cut" but it won't work for bigger problems or meeting school expectations.

I haven't done long division in a donkey years without a calculator or software. Any good apps or online to help? Best programs? I just want to get through it quickly, as the problems/frustrations will be more mechanical than mathematical.

Next after long division--graphs and tables. I discovered over break that DS7 does not "get" how to read graphs and tables and is not picking it up as quickly as other concepts. It's the first stumbling block in comprehension we've ever hit. It will be interesting to see how we handle it:)

i just did long division with DD because she wanted to know how to deal with really big numbers, and while i'm not sure what mechanical issues your DS might have, the plain old pencil and paper was really helpful for us. you could try scribing for him a bit as you talk it through, if that might work?

i don't know if this will be at all helpful since every kid's learning style is so different, but i started by asking DD to think about what the number we were dividing really meant (just verbally expanding it.) then i framed the entire process as simply breaking that big number down into a lot of easy little divisions - and that she could keep on going until she had dealt with the entire number.

we started with one she already knew (64/8), so that she could think about the meaning of place values as she went along, next we added an easy remainder-type problem (42/5), and then all bets were off - suddenly she was flying through stuff into the hundreds and thousands. that shocked me a bit, because from my own experience, i remember thinking long division was an interminable series of finicky steps... i feel pretty lucky that i happened to hit on the right approach for DD!

i'll be eager to hear about apps, too, though. nothing like a digital carrot to get in some practice (which she hates!)

Is he solid on his multiplication facts? I think that makes a big difference.

I was worried about long division for my DD, only because I remember it being the first thing that tripped me up in math in school. To my surprise, she picked it up in a day or two with zero issues. However, she was much older than your DS.

Thanks for the websites/apps.

By mechanical, I mean just the pen and paper process of finding the answer in traditional long division. If I asked him what is 525 divided by 25, he could do it fairly quickly in his head with remainder. If I said "show your work" not so much.

doubtfulguest, I love your process of thinking the problem through before setting pencil to paper. I'm continually reinforcing comprehension- this may be helpful. I think online has worked well for math practice (I may use it for demonstration but don't rely on it for basic comprehension).

ultramarina, I absolutely agree on the multiplication tables. We made the mistake of starting long multiplication before DS was solid on the table memorization-not good. We had to abandon ship for awhile until he had the tables "cold." He knows his division tables well (we learned it as we did multiplication tables).

Just be aware that division by a 1-digit number is much easier than division by (arbitrary) multidigit numbers, so
7665982694048374912765/7
is much easier than
827364/587
and the former doesn't require the multi-line method.

Long division is primarily a mechanical set of rules so you don't need any online apps to generate problems. Just pick some random numbers to generate the initial number and then afterwards the divisor. When I was teaching it to my son, I had him pick a digit and then I did the next one until we generated a large enough practice number.

To do multi-digit divisors one should be comfortable with ballpark estimating multiples and if not that should be practiced first as a standalone activity.

That being said, I think you'd be best off doing an explanation of why the std algorithm works as well and build up to it. A digression into the associate/commutative and distributive properties are useful here.

Ben

my boys have watched the khan academy loooonnnnngggg division video many, many times (partly because they find it so funny), I agree with it being a mechanical process to arrive at a solution (assuming you understand the concept of division in general... that's the biggie). best of luck at your new school!

Thanks for the suggestions. We're doing it pen and paper for now, but may need something online for demonstration and to break it up a bit.

Today, we did an easy one to get started 333 divided by 3. I had to say several times during the process, "pretend like you don't already know the answer." So, obviously, we're moving to something harder:)

Yes, he absolutely understands division. We've been doing it a long time to parse numbers. Khan Academy has some humor qualities. I think the narrator explains things like "Bob" from PBS (the paint by numbers guy).

First day at the new school went great.