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s/o my own math thread...is it ok to skip fractions for a while??


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I just had my daughter make math flash cards...and we ran them...and to my uttermost suprise...she knew them all...when all along I thought it was this that was tripping her up because when she actually has to USE this skill, she gets all flustered.  So it must be fractions....so can I just skip them for now and do other stuff...and come back later?  Will I ruin something else??

 

Or what would you do???

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What are you planning on skipping, exactly?  

We never had trouble with fractions because I started my kids on them so young.  We'd find fractions in clocks, cooking, money, etc. and then I'd show the kids how they related to each other (subtraction/addition).  It was/is just part of every day life at our house...

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I read the other thread...  She's 13, right?  And you're using MM, but many people in the other thread told you to consider switching.

 

I think it really depends on what other topics you have left.  I mean, at that age, fractions, decimals, percents...  for a child behind in math at that age, that's important stuff and it's all linked.  But of course you can do other things and come back.  I have to do that for one of my ds because when he gets frustrated, it's better to move to a different topic.

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What else are you going to study that doesn't involve fractions? She can't really do decimals, percents, ratios, proportions without them involving fractions.

 

As someone in your other thread mentioned, I would strongly recommend a tutor for a while. Someone who can 'start fresh' on her.

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Personally, I don't skip things that my kids are struggling with.

We push through it and go over it in a bunch of different ways until it starts to make sense.

 

To help my son understand fractions, I related them to food (pie, pizza). That seemed to help him make sense of

how 'larger' numbers actually turn out to be smaller pieces.  (Would you rather have a piece of cake that was cut into 1/4

or one was cut into 1/12?)

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but the fraction just freak her out....especially the simpifing....I just want to skip over if for now and come back later...but I dont know if that is ok or not.

If equivalent fractions freak her out, try making the manipulatives for that out of thicker paper or cardboard paper. There are templates on the internet.

Geometry does require understanding the concept of fractions when it comes to scale drawing.

 

ETA:

This pdf has the templates and instructions for teaching fractions (gov website)

http://www.nsa.gov/academia/_files/collected_learning/elementary/arithmetic/exp_equiv_fractions.pdf

 

ETA:

If fractions is stressing her out and the the geometry worksheets coming up next has no fractions, I don't see any harm letting her do those first and come back to fractions.

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I would print/get some fraction circles and have her manipulate them that way.  Also, relating anything to food works well for my daughter, as does money.  Does your daughter get things like 1/4 of a dollar is a quarter?  I'd start with that and see if that helped.  I also wouldn't have a problem tabling a topic for a very short period, but I'd be careful to present it as "let's take a break and look at something else" rather than "this is soooooo hard."

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