Why are fractions so difficult? I could have added “for children” but after chatting with some parents I realised that many parents also find fractions difficult.
These notes are for parents who are helping their children with fractions. It is not intended that these notes be given directly to the children. They are to help you when you need to explain fractions to them. Your child might not yet be ready for every topic in these notes. The initial chapters dealing with the concept of fractions are suitable for pre-school children who can count at least a few numbers. The later chapters deal with working with fractions and gradually cover everything that they need to know about fractions.
[Note: although I did not intend that the book be used directly by children, one school has decided to provide the book to students and teachers. The book is used as part of their classroom teaching.]
I hope that these notes will ease the difficulties of fractions for parents as well as for children. If I can achieve that, it might break the cycle of negative emotions around fractions (and mathematics generally) from being passed on to subsequent generations.
This website presents extracts of each chapter in the related book called Fractions For Parents. The chapters are listed on the side of this page.
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