Ron picked up my division frustration post and ran with it.

The issue with learning something like long division is that a child who knows how to multiply, compare and subtract can follow the mechanical process of long division without learning a thing other than they have to do more of stuff they already know how to do.

I believe that is the reason most kids who start having problems with math at ages 8-12 have problems. It isn’t that they aren’t capable of it, but that they see no reason for it. They are just doing the same things in different ways to different numbers. And it’s boring….

…What we did was use real problems. Packages of items that contain X items costs Y. How much did each X cost? This package contains 18 items. That one contains 24. Which one is less expensive per item? Opportunities for real math are all around us

I agree with him, to a point. When we were doing early math, real life problems were a mainstay of what we did. Even early division was pertinent as we divided pizza and apples. As we’ve reached the process of long division we’ve slipped away from doing real life problems in lieu of practice problems (hot dog buns simply don’t come in packages of 1,876!). I’m going to make a concerted effort to again incorporate real math into our schedule – thanks for the reminder, Ron.

But, here’s the problem. Sometimes math is boring. Even so, we need to know the process. Even if we use real life problems, the fact is kids need to understand and remember the method, the steps they must take to get to the answer. With long division, there are no shortcuts – miss just one step and the whole answer is off. No matter how relevant we make math, kids still need to understand each function and how to solve a problem whether it’s real or hypothetical.

With E, the boy in question, he simply has a hard time absorbing the process. He has consistently had problems with retaining the functions of math on paper. And yet, he does this amazingly complex math in his head. Because he can do mental math with small numbers, he has a tendency to try and do part of a division problem in his head, forgetting to write down a key figure, only to end up in a quandary because his answer isn’t coming out correctly. He may, as Faith said in the comments of Ron’s post, just not be ready. And that’s why we are stepping away for awhile - I’m thankful that we can. I don’t worry about his math skills – he’s very quick with those and has a great understanding of numbers and how they work. But at some point he will need to learn – and grasp – the process of long division, complete with all of the boring steps. I just don’t think it’s going to be right now.