In the figure, $ABCD$ is a square of side length 1, and $M$ and $N$ are the midpoints of sides $\overline{AB}$ and $\overline{CD}$, respectively. Find the area of the shaded region.
MBND is a parallelogram.....
The height is 1 and the width is 1/2.....so its area is 1 * (1/2) = 1/2 units^2
And the shaded area is (1/2) of this = 1/4 units^2