Some children love the challenge of some eleven plus
questions. It can be fascinating to see how different minds approach problems.
Sometimes children need help with a solution and it can be all too easy to
maintain that there is an `easy’ method.
To illustrate this we could look at a type of example which
has the potential to fox some eleven plus children:
Deborah, Ivy and Barbara were involved in sharing out sweets.
Deborah and Ivy had 102 sweets between them and Deborah and Barbara had 88 sweets.
How many did each child have?
An easy way to solve the problem is to give each child an
initial.
D + I = 102
D + B = 88
Total 150 sweets
Take (D + I) from 150
150 – 102 = 48
B now has 48.
D has 88 – 48 = 40
D – I = 102 – 40 = 62
I = 62
Deborah = 40
Ivy = 62
Barbara = 48
Encourage your child to check the answer with 40 + 62 + 48.
Hopefully it adds up to 150.
Once you have worked through this together try the question
with different numbers. Does your child come up with a different solution?
