Beauty of Decimals

There is no reason why anybody should be confused about decimals because they are everywhere in this world.  Whether we measure our height, weigh ourselves accurately, deal with prices, make a trip and figure out how many kilometers we've traveled, decimals are our companions day and night.  They live with us and share our good and bad moments.  I view decimals as shadows, because no matter how hard we try to get away from them, they follow us.  Yet, many confusion arises when introducing this concept.

In order to be successful in explaining decimals to students, a teacher should first make them aware how much we use decimals every day by making up a simple scenario.  For example, the teacher could say:

"I would like to share something that happened with me last night.  After I left the school and traveled for 10.7 kms, I realized that I have promised my best friend to go to the movies.  Since I was going the wrong way, I had to turn around and travel 5.3 kms the opposite way.  I met my friend and we bought the movie tickets, and some popcorn and coke.  That costed us $32.87 altogether.  After the movies, we decided to have dinner together.  The menu at the restaurant we went to showed dishes ranging from $10.60 to $43.25, etc.."

Listening to such a story helps students realize how decimals are everywhere, and hence they would want to know more about that topic.  Once this is all done, the teacher could play a "restaurant game" with the students, by giving the students a menu where they have to figure out what food they can order based on the amount of money they have.  That way, they become familiar with adding decimals and figuring out which ones are larger than others.

I believe that decimals should be one of the very first concepts to be introduced to students.  As soon as we help kids realize how much they use them already, it would easy for them to grasp the idea and become decimal experts.