Mom: I think I'll have a donut with my coffee! There are six donuts, but there are four people to share them with. How many will we each get?
Child: There are six donuts, so everybody gets one donut. Then there are two more. So everybody gets another half of a donut. That means everybody gets one and a half donuts.
Mom: What is the division sentence for that?
Child: Six divided by four is one-and-a-half.
Mom: Yum! I'm going to eat my one-and-a-half donuts.
Asking children to explain their thinking will deepen their reasoning processes about mathematics. It will also prepare them for working story problems in school. Getting to eat the object of your story problem is even better!