Sometimes I wish I had a million hours to spend on Math. When I was in school I learned one way of doing it, and that was the only way. No other way was available for use. However, in college my brain was torn apart and I learned new ways to do things.
Because of this I'm trying to teach my kids that there is more than one way to solve problems. In multiplication this was successful (though I left some of the more exotic like lattice and square methods out). In division it's been impossible. Until today! I teach repeated subtraction because the traditional algorithm confuses me to no end.
One of my girls showed me she really understood (though she could never explain it) what division is because she came up with her own way to divide! It needs a lot of work still for her to be able to explain it, but the way is monumental for me. I just hope I can help her structure her thinking!
Oh, how I love math now.
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