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How to Teach Kids Division?

Parents can try to explain division to a child in their own way or turn to specialized educational platforms. For instance, the innovative education platform Brighterly offers a wide range of activities to learn math, including fun ways to teach division.

As the topic belongs to one of the most important and core, kids should learn it by heart to go on and become successful learners and acquire the future education material.

How to explain division to a child?

To explain division to a child, use special techniques that will help to understand and realize the strategy of patterns. There are 8 ways to teach a child division:

• Understanding division as sharing
• Division vocabulary
• Relating division to multiplication
• Division without remainders
• Division with remainders
• Dividing decimals
• Word problems and applications
• Checking work using multiplication

Before starting to learn division methods, the child should understand the concept of division and get into the theory and meaning of it. Figure out below short descriptions of each of the methods and start using them while teaching kids division.

Understanding division as sharing

The easiest way to explain division to a child is to show how to split things evenly. This ability is core and influences the way learners understand the purpose of divisions. When the child can count well and group things, you can start splitting exercises. As a rule, it becomes possible in the second or third grade. 

To make it simple, divide things in everyday life. Take 10 apples and tell them to give it equally to 2 people in the room. Later you can make it harder and ask for sharing fewer items between the bigger number of people.

Division vocabulary

Talking correctly about the process is an important part of learning. How to teach division for beginners? Start talking about it step by step and the child’s interest will rise. The important division words are dividend, divisor, quotient, and remainder. 

For instance, in the case of 10 apples, you can teach a child to talk in the following way:

«You have a dividend of 10 apples which should be shared between two people. Thus, the divider is 2. As a result, each person will receive 5 apples. 5 is the quotient»

You can describe each sharing situation in such a way. A clear understanding of naming parts of patterns will help learners orient better.

Relating division to multiplication

When explaining division to a child, you should relate it to other mathematical tasks. As soon as the child understands the sharing mechanism in everyday life, turn to the multiplication connections. Realizing how the division problems can be tackled with multiplication, will assist the child in many equations.

Children are ready to understand it when they are aware of sharing principles and division vocabulary. Start teaching with simple questions. From the multiplication table, the student knows that 4 × 5 = 20. You can say:

«If we divide 20 by 5, how many would we get?»

The main idea is to catch the relationship between divisions and multiplication tables. 

Division without remainders

When the child understands vocabulary and the core meaning of divisions, it is time to say that it can end without whole numbers. Each simple division ends with the number, but there can remain. To make it more understandable, take 12 cookies and ask to divide it between 3 people. You can draw the scheme on the paper to make it clear. Subtract one cookie each time till you reach zero. 

Different worksheets are an effective way to practice and explain child information with pictures and interesting graphics. There are some free math division worksheets materials offered by the educational platform Brighterly. For better understanding, start teaching division with remainders. 

Division with remainders

Division with remainders can become more complicated to understand, thus learning after previously described ways is essential. Use an easy way to explain division which consists of dividing fruits or cookies at home.

Dividing 10 apples between 3 people, you will face a problem when one apple is left. To divide it, cut the apple into 3 equal parts. Otherwise, you can tend to draw to show the core of the problem. When kids understand the concept of division with remainders in everyday life, tasks on the paper will be more apprehensible. 

Dividing decimals

This involves dividing numbers that have decimal points, starting with dividing decimals by whole numbers before moving on to dividing by decimal points themselves. This level of division is more serious and demands good knowledge of previous samples. Starting teaching divisions, persuade your child to understand the meaning of decimals and their place value. 

Start by dividing the decimal point by the whole number, using the same long division process, but paying attention to where the decimal point is in the fraction. Use real-life examples about money or measurements so they can be related. Then enter the division by the decimal fraction, showing how to move the decimal point to make the divisor a whole number.

Word problems and applications

From everyday life examples, you have to transfer the child’s attention to global worldwide issues. When the child understands the meaning of division in tackling world problems, the attitude to learning and assignments will change. An easy way to learn division meaning in the global sphere is by reading together different articles and discussing how the division works in each situation. It is important to practice dividing into groups or dealing with measurements.

Checking work using multiplication

Share the secret of checking whether the exercise was solved correctly. To make it, ask the child to multiply the quotient by the divisor. When the result is the dividend, the task is done correctly. Division for kids explained in the mentioned way brings more attention to the division principles and improves the multiplication knowledge reminding about the table each time.

Easy way to teach division: effective methods for kids

There are two easy ways to make divisions attainable for learners. The first one is visualization, while the second is dividing a large process into small steps. By implementing both methods, you will find out the easiest way to teach division.

Visualization is the best way to teach division

There are several ways of visualization that make clear how dividends in patterns work and change.

• Number line. Ask the child to circle the largest number in the line. The rest of the line is divided into equal parts.
• Visual models. Draw empty circles and indicate the large number. The task is to give one-by-one numbers to the empty circles till zero. 
• Tape diagrams or bar models. In this way, you can draw different bars to show how the division changes. 

Column division for beginners

The column can be divided in different ways. 

• Write the number to be divided (dividend). On the right, write the number to be divided by (divisor). 
• Separate the dividend and the divisor with a dash, and underline the divisor with a horizontal dash. A corner should be formed. 
• Next, determine the first incomplete divisor – the smallest number that can be divided by the divisor. At first, when the child learns to divide in a column, it is advisable to circle each incomplete division with a parenthesis from above. Circle the first incomplete divisor with a parenthesis and the rest of the following numbers as well. 
• Calculate how many digits the fraction will consist of (the result of the example). You can put dots in place of the numbers that will form the number of the fraction. There are as many brackets above the divisor as there are dots under the divisor. 
• Calculate how many times the divisor will fit in the first incomplete divisor. To do this, divide the first incomplete dividend by the divisor. Write down the result without a remainder in place of the first dot. 
• Multiply the number you wrote down in the result by the divisor. Write the product under the first incomplete divisor. 
• Subtract this result from the first incomplete divisor to find the remainder while teaching kids division.
• Write the number of the next digit of the division next to the number of the difference obtained in the previous step. If zero was obtained in the previous step, then it is not necessary to write it down. 
• Divide the received number by the divisor. Write the result in place of the second period.
• Multiply the number written as the second in the result by the divisor. Write the product under the second incomplete divisor.
• Subtract both numbers. If the result is zero, it means that the equation is solved.

The top 3 difficulties of teaching division

Learning math with your child will face a lot of complicated tasks and steps. The biggest difficulties in explaining divisions are the visualization part, building connections between multiplication, and remembering the algorithm of long division. Figure out advice that can help you to deal with the mentioned obstacles. 

Difficulty in visualizing division

How to teach division to kids? To understand the division, you have to show how it works. The best option is to draw schemes, fruits, and other things on paper and allow your child to see how division changes the sequence and amount of dividends. Sometimes it is hard for parents to draw such patterns or find ideas on how to make them. 

In this case, you have to turn to an innovative educational platform that can provide your child with specialized programs and methods aimed at explaining and making things clear.

Brighterly is one of the best education platforms which works with children of different ages and gives great and complex knowledge to kids. Click the Register Now button and present your child with the opportunity to learn math faster with professional tutors.

Misunderstanding the Inverse Relationship Between Multiplication and Division

Multiplication is one of the longest and not-so-favorite math sections for children. Learning multiplication tables is boring, while the connection with divisions makes learners confused. To overcome the complicated understanding, you have to:

• start explaining from easy tasks;
• use interactive and fun ways to teach division and show the principle in work;
• give time for children to realize and make their own conclusions on the connections between those basic math sections.

Forgetting steps in long division

Naturally, children forget everything they hear or see at once. To help with remembering, try to remind yourself about steps every day and follow them during teaching.

You can create an interactive algorithm of steps, adding curious pictures and schemes. It will attract the child’s attention and will boost remembering. After several reminders, it will become easier to reflect on steps in long division.

Conclusion

Overall, in teaching divisions, you can face a lot of difficulties to overcome on your own or turn to specialized education platforms that will provide your child with comprehensive support and knowledge.

Methods described in the article above are effective when you implement them all in a complex rather than separately. The other side of this is the systematic learning and tackling difficulties that appear at each step. Follow the recommendations from the article and turn learning math into enjoyment rather than duty.