Teaching Long Division

To teach long division, I use the traditional algorithm. You definitely want to be sure that your child already understands the basic concept of dividing before you teach long division with the algorithm.

To be ready to learn and apply this algorithm, your child should already understand the idea that division is breaking a larger number into smaller groups evenly. They should also understand the idea that there is sometimes a remainder when the number cannot be divided evenly.

You can easily demonstrate this with just about anything. You could use candy, cookies, beads, beans, or just draw a picture and circle dots into groups.

Try to make sure they get the general idea and just talk about it in real life any time it makes sense to so that it won’t be a foreign concept.

When you think your child is ready to learn long division, usually about the age of 9-10, but can vary by child, teach the algorithm.

Here is a printable that I have made to help you teach the algorithm for long division.

For the first page, I included a page to teach the basic vocabulary words for long division.

Next, I made a page that gives an outline of the steps. I learned DMSB- Daddy, Mommy, Sister, Brother- which is to help remind you of the steps of the long division process. Those steps also begins with DMSB – Divide, Multiply, Subtract, Bring Down.

For this page, I recommend using it to teach the steps to your child and walk them through the process.

Next, I made another page for them to practice. You can continue to guide them through the steps until you think they’re ready to practice it on their own.

Finally, there is also a blank version, so that they can use this to guide them through any problem. Soon, they should have the steps memorized and be able to do them on their own.