Expert: Abe Mantell - 8/28/2010

Question
I am about to explain to my 9 y.o. what is decimal, and I have no idea how to start. Any ideas? I also need few points on how to explain fractions versus decimals, change one into another and back. I understand that of course, but don't know how to explain it to my kid.

Answer
Hello Oksana,

Is your child familiar at all with money?  That might be a good
way to introduce decimal notation...pennies, dimes, etc.
I think it will also serve well to explain fractions.  If he/she
can understand that 50 cents is half a dollar, then it is natural
to introduce 0.50 = 1/2, and a quarter being 1/4 = 0.25 and so on.
Those are just my immediate ideas.  I do not teach elementary level
math, I'd expect elementary school teachers would have more ideas
on the subject. There are also lots of resources on the Internet.
I typed the following in google.com and got many results!
"how to explain decimals to children" and
"how to explain fractions to children"

I hope this helps...good luck!

Abe