Rene Said:

Why learning fraction is so hard for the students?

We Answered:

there is nothing hard about it they have to want to learn it first then it goes from there. you have to find a way to encourage them .

Nina Said:

Does anyone know of a good website for learning fractions?

We Answered:

http://mathforum.org/dr.math/
This website has a wealth of knowlege for any grade level and math topic. Great website!!!

Vicki Said:

Should a 2nd grader be learning fractions?

We Answered:

Hi, I'm a middle school math teacher, and I think that the questions are perfectly reasonable for a second grader. The exercise gives your daughter an opportunity to become familiar with fractions; I'm sure your daughter has already covered the topic of "fair share" or making equal groups, and this reinforces that concept. Her teacher is laying the groundwork for multiplying and dividing. You need to know how to group to multiply and divide, and the manipulatives are allowing your daughter to explore this in a concrete way.

You are right however, that math is becoming more advanced at an earlier age. Sixth graders are now covering pre-algebra concepts and must know how to multiply and divide fractions, convert to decimals and percents, and use basic geometric formulas before they are in 6th grade. 8th graders are now taking Algebra 1 (that's all 8th graders) and they are beginning with Geometry in 9th grade.

If your daughter is having problems, I'd suggest the book "The Doorbell Rang". It's an early elementary book that illustrates exactly the type of problem you described with the pennies. It's about a child making cookies w/ her grandma (or mom???) and the doorbell rings (and more people enter to share the cookies) and the child needs to figure out how many cookies each person gets.

One last note, the attitude that you show your child regarding math is easily picked up by them. I have several students that tell me "they can't do math/they're not good at math" and when I meet the parent they tell me "Well, I never liked math" or "I am no good at math, I can't help her/him". Go at it with a positive attitude, even if you hate it, and you may be surprised! When given support and encouragement, a great percentage of students list math as their favorite subject.

Good luck!

Lori Said:

Can you help me explain to my son the importance of learning fractions?

We Answered:

Whether there's a utility or not is beside the point. There are all kinds of things we learn in school simply to develop our brain power and understanding of the world, not because we will necessarily use that information or those specific skills later on.

He needs to learn fractions as it helps develop good logical thinking and is absolutely vital to success in higher math. It also is just part of developing a better understanding of numbers and how they're all connected. It's about being educated, having a certain amount of knowledge and skill, regardless of whether you will use it or not. Which you have no way of knowing as a child.

What your son is doing is trying to rationalize his desire to not study something he is finding difficult. They are excuses, not reasons. Find a good resource, like Key to Fractions, to help him with it and once he is confident with them, he won't balk at learning it anymore. DON'T get into arguments or discussions with him about why it's important.

As for actual everyday life importance, I've used fractions a lot when cooking: doubling recipes or even doing something like 1.5 times a recipe because I didn't have enough of a particular ingredient to double it; understanding how fractions work is necessary to work out ratios and figuring out better buys. There are also plenty of jobs out there that use fractions (scientists, business people, lots of tech jobs and more). There are probably plenty of things we use our fraction skills for that we don't even think about simply because we don't need to write it all down to work it out.

Carl Said:

I need help learning how to EASILY reduce fractions with LARGE NUMBERS but WITHOUT using a calculator?

We Answered:

If you use a table like this one:

http://neoparaiso.com/logo/factores-prim…

You can know the prime factors of numbers up to 4999. You can use that information in this way:

3274 / 4911

= 2 x 1637 / 3 x 1637

= 2 / 3