Today Aiden and I continued to work with two step equations and word problems. This time we included decimals in our equations. I showed Aiden how to solve the equation the way we have been, using inverse operations. Then I showed Aiden what we could do to clear the problem of the decimals in the first place, so we never have to deal with them while we solve. We looked at decimals like 0.32 and considered what we would need to do to turn that into a whole number. We noticed if we multiplied by 10 we would get 3.2 which is still a decmial, however if we multiply by 100, we would get 32. For example, if we have a problem like 6.4x+0.32=20, we could solve it like we normally would (beginning with subtracting 0.32 on both sides). OR we could choose to clear the decimals right off the bat. If we multiply by 100 (on both sides of the equation), it could be turned into 640x+32=2000. Although these numbers are larger, they can be seen as "easier" numbers to work with. I explained to Aiden that it's not necessary to do this, but it's worth it to consider (and understand).