Odd way of doing division

[Jada2]

My kiddo is learning long division and she has created a weird sort of technique.
When dividing they leave all the remainders at the bottom and then divide a second or even third time. Finally, she adds up all of her answers.
3
31
4|136 and she answers 34
12
I can see what she is doing and that it works but will this cause her any problems later on?

 

[Dr.Peterson]

My kiddo is learning long division and she has created a weird sort of technique.
When dividing they leave all the remainders at the bottom and then divide a second or even third time. Finally, she adds up all of her answers.
3
31
4|136 and she answers 34
12
I can see what she is doing and that it works but will this cause her any problems later on?

No, this is a method of division called "scaffold division", and is a fine way to develop division skills by finding the quotient piece by piece without having to worry about getting the exact right digit at each step. With experience, it turns into the standard algorithm (or perhaps something better) as you learn to make better guesses.

I described it in my blog here, showing some of the benefits of the flexibility of the method.

 

[Jada2]

Wonderful! Your blog post was helpful. Thanks for answering.