Fractions explained for parents: help your child without the jargon

Picture a loaf of bread cut into 4 equal slices. Your child eats 3 of them. They have eaten 34 of the loaf: three out of four equal parts.

• The bottom number (the denominator) tells you how many equal parts the whole was cut into. Here, 4.
• The top number (the numerator) tells you how many of those parts you have. Here, 3.
• The parts must be equal. If one slice is huge and another is thin, it is not really quarters.

That is the whole idea. Every rule your child learns about fractions comes back to this picture of equal parts of one whole.

💡 Tip: When your child is unsure, ask: "What is the whole, and how many equal parts is it cut into?" Drawing a quick loaf, pizza or bar on paper settles most confusion.

Cut a loaf into 2 halves and take one: that is 12. Cut the same loaf into 4 quarters and take two: that is 24. You have exactly the same amount of bread. These are equivalent fractions.

The rule your child will learn is: multiply (or divide) the top and bottom by the same number, and the fraction keeps its value. So 12 = 24 = 36 = 48. Going the other way, 68 can be simplified to 34 by dividing top and bottom by 2.

Why does it work? Doubling the number of slices makes each slice half the size, so you need twice as many slices to have the same amount. The bread hasn't changed, only how finely it is cut.

This is where most children (and parents) get stuck. A common mistake is to add the tops and add the bottoms, so 12 + 13 becomes 25. That cannot be right: half a loaf plus a third of a loaf is more than half, but 25 is less than half.

The problem is that halves and thirds are different-sized pieces. You can't count them together any more than you can add 1 naira and 1 dollar and call it 2 of something. First, cut both into pieces of the same size. That shared size is the common denominator.

Subtraction works the same way: make the pieces the same size, then take away the tops. The bottom number stays the same because the size of each piece hasn't changed.

Multiplying is the easy one: multiply the tops, multiply the bottoms. It helps to read "×" as "of". 12 × 12 means "half of a half", which is 14. And 23 × 34 = 612, which simplifies to 12.

Dividing uses the rule many children learn as keep, change, flip: keep the first fraction, change ÷ to ×, and flip the second fraction upside down. Children often learn it as a magic trick. Here is why it works.

Division asks "how many of these fit into that?" Take 3 loaves and ask: how many half-loaves can I make? Each loaf gives 2 halves, so 3 loaves give 6. So 3 ÷ 12 = 6, which is the same as 3 × 2. Dividing by a half is the same as multiplying by 2, and 2 is 12 flipped.

A mixed number is a whole number and a fraction together, such as 214 loaves: two whole loaves and a quarter. To work with it, children turn it into an improper fraction (top bigger than bottom). Two whole loaves are 8 quarters, plus 1 more quarter, gives 94.

Fractions, decimals and percentages are three ways of writing the same amount. A percentage simply means "out of 100". Your child should know these common ones by heart:

To turn any fraction into a decimal, divide the top by the bottom: 34 is 3 ÷ 4 = 0.75. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage: 75%.

Short, real conversations do more than an extra hour of worksheets. Try these:

• Cutting food. When you share bread, yam or a cake, ask: "If we cut this into 6 and you take 2, what fraction is that? Can you say it another way?" (26 = 13.)
• Cooking. Ask your child to halve or double a recipe: half of 34 of a cup of rice is 38 of a cup.
• At the market. "The trader is giving a quarter off ₦2,000. How much do we save?" (14 of ₦2,000 = ₦500.)
• Money. ₦50 is what fraction of ₦200? (14.) What percentage is that? (25%.)
• Time. A 45-minute journey is 34 of an hour. How many minutes is 23 of an hour? (40.)

Your calm matters more than your maths. If your child is frustrated, the most helpful thing you can do is slow down and ask questions rather than give the answer.

1. Ask them to explain what the question is asking, in their own words.
2. Ask for a drawing. "Can you draw the loaf?" Pictures make fraction rules visible.
3. Ask about the whole. "What is one whole here? How many equal parts?"
4. Try smaller numbers. If 512 + 38 feels hard, try 12 + 14 first, then go back.
5. Look at a worked example together, such as a MathPlug lesson, then let your child try a similar question alone.

💡 Tip: Avoid saying "I was never good at fractions either." Say "Let's figure this out together" instead. Children copy our attitude to maths as much as our methods.

For more ideas, see our guide on helping your child with maths at home and the study tip on common fraction mistakes.