I have come across a book that can be helpful to the parent or teacher of a fraction, decimal or percent challenged student. It's called Piece = Part = Portion. It is written by Scott Gifford, whom I believe is a teacher, with photographs by Shmuel Thaler.
The book opens with an example of three different words that mean the same thing. Bascially that's what fractions, decimals and percents are. They are all "part of something - by a different name", which in my opinion is a fabulous way to describe them. This page goes on to explain, in simple and understandable terms how to identify what each is and how to find or figure them out.
The rest of the book is filled with examples using bright and cheerful colors and great photographs. I really like the use of the photos! They are vibrant and defined. They speak volumes in relation to the mathematical equasions. I clearly remember having paper pie pieces to learn fractions with and how helpful they were. I think these pictures are even better and definitely more on par with today's kids.
I would recommend this book for older primary grade children and possibly even a bit older kids who may still be struggling with this type of math. This book is one that I give to our homeschooling family friends as gifts because it's so helpful and can be used as a supplement to the regular math curriculum. If you're children are in school, this book is positively perfect for a teacher gift for the classroom.
I think every school library should have several copies of this book!
