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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I like fraction wheels and cooking, but it's easy to waste a HUGE amount of time on manipulatives when you should instead be drilling on paper.

I suggest "Key to Fractions", a very inexpensive four-book workbook series. Get it either used or from Rainbow Resource.  Also  math-drills.com for printable worksheets for extra practice. (They have some with autofill for answers. Don't do that, just print them out.)

NB that fractions are the most difficult topic in elementary school math; IIRC in Liping Ma's blockbuster "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics", something like 40% of teachers failed to do a fractional division problem correctly, and only one out of twenty-five or so could come up with an example of fractional division, and the one she came up with wasn't that great.[/quote]

Key to Fractions looks like a good set. Question for anyone, does adding and subtracting fractions typically come after learning multiplying fractions as laid out in this series? I think mine has learned how to add and subtract fractions at school but I’m not sure he knows how to multiply them. That seems more complicated. [/quote]

Multiplying fractions (and dividing them, which is just flip and multiply) is conceptually easier than adding and subtracting. It's also fewer steps, as no common denominator is required.

That said, across two different math curriculums (FCPS and Math in Focus) my kids have learned adding and subtracting fractions before multiplying and dividing them.[/quote]

The algorithm isn't that bad, but conceptually people absolutely flail at it. You can replicate Liping Ma easily. 1 3/4 ÷ 1/2 was the sample, iirc. Pick a couple of people, ask them to solve, then ask them give you an example that would go with the problem. An appalling number will fail to solve, fail to put in simplest form,or give you a word problem involving multiplication instead of division.[/quote]

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