Monthly Archives: December 2013
The meanings of division
I really love this, more parents should do this with their kids.
I was talking with Griffin one day when he was in third grade.
Me: Do you know what $latex 12\div 2$ is?
Griffin (8 years old): 6
Me: How do you know that’s right?
G: 2 times 6 is 12.
Me: What about $latex 26 \div 2$?
G: 13
Me: How do you know that?
G: There were 26 kids in Ms. Starr’s class [in first grade], so it was her magic number. We had 13 pairs of kids.
Me: What about $latex 34 \div 2$?
G: Well, 15 plus 15 is 30…so…19
My notes on the conversation at this point only have (back and forth), which indicates that there was probably some follow-up discussion in which we located and fixed his error. The details are lost to history.
Our conversation continued.
Me: So $latex 12 \div 2$ is 6 because $latex 2 \times 6$…
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