Who's afraid of Long Division!?!? :D

Do YOU know what 12 billion, 984 million, 635 thousand, 786 divided by 7 is?!?!?! :D Jessie does!!! :D LOL!! We'd been working on long division for a few days on and off and Jessie HATED it. She had decided she was a numb skull and would actually cry in frustration about it. Poor lamb. :( I tried all sorts of things including using pretty colors and virtual pies, counting blocks and imaginary apples, but to no avail. It just wouldn't seem to stick..... until now!! I remembered the Living Math forum on Yahoo groups. I used to get their mail every day ( that's a LOT of math mail for a non math geek like myself...) and I distinctly remember seeing an enormous math problem the moderator had given her daughter to work on. I realised that Jessie's problem was simply a lack of repetition! The long division problems she was attempting were not long enough!! If they are too short her brain has to flit from one problem to the next without being allowed time to absorb the process. I wrote out an enormous long division problem for her and told her not to panic. She used her multiplication chart to help her out and away she went. She did balk initially, but soon found she was getting the hang of it and you haven't SEEN excited until your daughter leaps up and down squealing with pride and delight at mastering such a seemingly impossible challenge!!! Natually she begged for more!! :D I had to tell her I wouldn't write her ANY MORE huge questions last night and she had to go to bed and rest but I promised I would write more in the morning... sure enough the girl was still in her nightie and not even fed yet when she came to me, pen and pencil in hand, begging for another question!!!!

YEEEEE HAAAWWWWW!!!!

So, I guess we don't need to do any more homeschool for another six weeks or so now!! ;D ( Just kidding Mum....!! ) LOL!!!!

Initial attempts with color...



Loooooong division!