It's true that not too much emphasis is being placed on long division. We have a game that your children might enjoy playing that would give them practice using long division.

Before starting the game, make three sets of cards numbered 0-9 and shuffle them. Then have every player draw a blank division problem with two squares for the devisor (dividing number) and four squares for the number to be divided. The game is played in this way:

• -The first player turns over the top card.
• -This player writes the number in one of the squares on his blank division problem.
• -The rest of the players take turns drawing cards and writing the numbers on their blank division problems.
• -When all the spaces are filled in, each player solves his or her division problem.
• -Calculators can be used to check that the answers are correct. (Remind your children that remainders in division can be shown as decimals or fractions.)
• -The winner is the player who has the highest quotient.

Children who truly understand division and have a strategy for filling in their division problems will usually be the winners.