Fractions and decimals for a kid who doesn't like math

March 20, 2019 11:56 AM

Recommendations wanted: Math materials for a grade 5 kid, studying fractions and decimals, who doesn't like math. Other interests: Reading, lego, super heroes, history, geography.
posted by clawsoon to Education (6 answers total)

Best answer: There are a bunch of ways to use Lego to teach fractions. I won't begin to guess which ones work best, but searching Lego Fractions gives videos and other media.
posted by hydra77 at 12:13 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

What kind of history? (A particular era?)
posted by dismas at 12:14 PM on March 20, 2019

Best answer: Our family loves Beast Academy for math. If your only concern is fractions, it probably doesn’t make sense to consider a whole other curriculum, but if you are looking more generally for increasing positive feelings about math you may want to check it out. The “text books” are graphic novels and my son read all the level four and level five books for fun last summer. Just reading the books isn’t enough to really understand/be able to apply what he has read; he also has to do problems, but reading the books definitely revived his love for math after a particularly bad school year.
posted by ElizaMain at 12:37 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

I really like khanacademy.org. Salman Khan is an amazing teacher.
posted by mrbarky at 1:08 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

If kid is into geography, then maybe a latitude/longitude hunt or a citywide geocaching day? It's not really math, but teaches decimals.

You didn't mention cooking, but measuring cups and money are also great to teach fractions in a not really math kind of way.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:21 PM on March 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The iOS/Android App Slice Fractions and Slice Fractions 2 are pretty silly but do a nice job of giving some good modeling of fractions. They do cost money though.
posted by sleeping bear at 2:25 PM on March 20, 2019