I picked up a parenting technique from William Bligh, as described in The Mutiny on the Bounty. While traveling in a small boat after the mutiny, Captain Bligh needed to fairly distribute shares of a seabird the crew was lucky to catch. The technique mentioned was “Who Shall Have This?”, as follows:

1. One member of the crew stands with his back to the item being divvied up
2. Another member points to each portion in turn, and asks “who shall have this?”
3. The first crew member names a person for each portion

This mechanism is an effectively fair distribution, and I have used it to great effect when dividing leftover dessert, pizza, etc. between my children.