Most kids love numbers, counting, and simple addition operations and only really begin to struggle with math when abstract, complex concepts like fractions are introduced. Fractions are especially tricky for kids because they require kids to break individual numbers down into pieces and kids often don’t understand the concrete operations that fractions represent. Understanding why fractions are challenging for kids, though, can help you be more sympathetic. Your child doesn’t have to struggle with math homework forever, and here are some simple ways to teach kids fractions:
Start With the Basics
It can be difficult to explain things to children that are second nature to adults, so sometimes teachers and parents rush through lessons on fractions without teaching kids what fractions are. Help your child learn the very basics by using the simplest language possible. Your child needs to learn these basic concepts:
1. A fraction is less than one (of course, this isn’t true if a fraction is, say, one thousand hundredths, but your child isn’t going to be working with these kinds of fractions yet; for the time being, he just needs to understand that a fraction is less than a whole number)
2. The bottom number (denominator) represents the total number of pieces that are available.
3. The top number (numerator) represents the total number of pieces we are talking about or that we have.
4. Fractions can be added and subtracted just like other numbers. I can have a half piece of cake and then another half piece later, for example.
Make Fractions Concrete
The next step to help your child learn fractions is to help her actually see what fractions represent. You can buy toys that teach fractions at educational supply stores, but it’s just as easy to do it at home. Try using a large circular cake. Cut it up into ten pieces and then try doing a few of these exercises:
1. Ask your child how many cake pieces there are and then explain that that number (10) is the denominator.
2. Give your child one piece of cake. Ask her how many tenths she has. Have her write that down.
3. Give your child one more piece of cake. Ask her how many tenths she has now. Explain that she has now done 1/10 + 1/10= 2/10.
To add complexity, you can try adding a second cake. Cut that cake into ten pieces as well and show your child how fractions can add into whole numbers. 10/10+10/10= 20/10, which is really two cakes! Have her do a few operations with these cakes. Remember, there are now twenty pieces. Give her one piece of cake and ask her how many twentieths she has. Then give her one piece from the other cake. She now has two twentieths. But this can be reduced to two tenths. Using the two cake model can help your child begin to understand reducing fractions, which is often challenging for kids.
Practice
While homework is important, your child is much more likely to really master the concepts of fractions if she uses them in every day life. Money can be a great tool for this. Four quarters equal a whole dollar, and you can remind your child of this every time you are purchasing things. When you see torn objects or half-eaten cake, ask your child to turn them into fractions. The important thing is not that your child get the exact right answer every time but that she begins to understand the concept and incorporate fractions into her every day life. The real obstacle posed by fractions is that they seem foreign from every day life, but when your child can begin to think of the world as one big whole with many fractions, the concept of fractions won’t seem so foreign or scary!
