Fractions

Since starting Miquon math, Sparkle seems to have grasped the concept of multiplication as repeated addition. She struggled a little with the multiplication pages in Miquon orange, but flew through the pages that mixed multiplication with addition and subtraction. Next up was fractions. Oh dear.

It's not that Sparkle can't do fractions. When we're just talking she knows what one half, one third, and one fourth mean. Half is what she gets when sharing with her sister. One third is what she gets when sharing with sister and mom. One fourth is what she gets when sharing with sister, mom, and dad. When presented with cookies, carrots, paper, etc., she can figure out the math just fine.

However connecting symbols and pictures to fractions is a different matter. Sparkle likes making Mac'n'Cheese for lunch, but every time she makes it, she needs me to read and explain to her what "1/4 cup" means. You'd think that after making Mac'n'Cheese a few times she'd simply remember how much butter to use, but no. Every time she reads the instructions and encounters that "1/4 cup", I have to explain the whole process again. I've come to the conclusion that she is not a visual thinker. She can mentally work word problems that she can't draw a diagram for. Written fractions have not been Sparkle's strong suit.

When Sparkle saw the symbols "1/2, 1/3, and 1/4" in her math book and the corresponding diagrams, she got completely flustered. When the math book wanted her to write fractions, she came up with stuff that was so crazy I couldn't begin to figure out how she got it.

So, we set the book aside and I started showing her stuff with the rods and tried to explain the pictures. After a while, Sparkle was beaming "I understand fractions!" I have my doubts about her understanding, but at least she no longer cringes at the thought of fractions.