Meet My Best Friend…. MATH!

I knew it was coming.  I’ve been waiting.  And it’s finally happened.

Bee can do long division.

Not only does she do it, but she loves it.  Our breakthrough came last night.  We’ve been at it for weeks now.  It’s been a long, frustrating journey but having arrived at our desired destination, I can say it was all worth it. 

Thursday night we seemed to still be on square one.   I gave her a relatively easy question but she was still getting caught up on simple multiplication facts.   We’ve reviewed and reviewed and I felt she knew them pretty well.  Yet presented with a simple problem like 42 divided by 6, she just could not come up with 7.  We went back and reviewed the facts orally and she did fine.  That gave me an idea.

Last night we sat down to a division problem but I handed her the multiplication table and told her to use it.  She whipped through the first problem.  I sat there with my jaw on the table and she laughed and smiled with delight.  So we did a second and a third and a forth…..she got them all.  She did get a little lost here and there but was able to correct herself in the end.

So my theory is that she was completely overwhelmed by having to recall both the math facts AND the long division process.  Her attention issues make it difficult for her to switch lines of thinking and be able to go back to the first where she left off.  She understood the long division process and knew her facts, but just couldn’t do them both at the same time.

Now that I see clearly what the problem is, I’m certain that with some practice she’ll be able to master doing long division without the multiplication table at her side.  The confidence she’s gained will certainly help with that.

Overall it was a great week for Bee.  Earlier in the week we worked on Roman numerals and she told me, “Mom, I love Roman numbers!”   Then we had our long division breakthrough and now she says, “Mom, long division is easy!”

So it seems math is her new best friend, for now …..