<p>When my son was in 3rd and 4th grade, he was struggling learning his division facts but he loved long division. He insisted that I write big numbers with big divisors - divisors had to be at least 3 digits and never 1 digit. I didn’t know why until I realized that long division is merely a series of multiplication and subtraction operations. He didn’t need to know division facts for long division involving big numbers. It was also very easy for him to check his answers - more multiplication!</p>
<p>Now, in 5th grade, we’re doing some practice on the distributive law and solving for x. I need to throw in some fractions.</p>