I'm teaching my 8 year old multiplication this year, how did you teach your child? What seemed to worked? DH says I need to let her write then 20x each a day, I'm thinking that's a little much in the beginning, maybe 10x each, what do you think?
We taught our oldest as we were teaching addition before he ever started k. We would use things in groups to show it, like 5 groups of 4 or what ever and show him the mechanics of it.. like 4+4+4+4+4= It is really hard to explain how we did it... I'm just not very good with my words today. Hope that helps you at least a little.
Yea I seen printable worksheets on edhelper that taught it like that, I think it's a great concept. I guess I need to buy some dried beans, LOL
we used anything and everything and when nothing better was available we drew dots, apples, stick people what ever! We used hotwheels cars the most.. they are our favorite manipulitive for math with my oldest.. he had about 4 thousand of them (last count and that was now 3 years ago :roll: ) so they are readily available. My dd will be a bit tougher finding the best thing to keep her into it.. she loves strawberry shortcake, I don't see her owning thousands of them though..lol.
Write? They're supposed to write them out? LOL I never make my kids write out their facts. . .I don't find that it helps them understand the concept of groups of things. We start multiplication by counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. Then we look at dimes and nickles. Kids who can easily understand that 4 nickles makes 20 cents can also easily understand that 4 x 5 is 20 and same with the dimes. Once they have the idea that multiplication is groups of things. . .we move onto two's which they're already familiar with bc we've been counting in two's and we go on from there. Like the other pps said, simply showing them groups of things with manipulatives is the best way to learn it. But I find that it is a very abstract concept for kids to learn taken out of context. (i.e. it's easier to learn while you're adding, learning to count by #'s, working with money, even working with measuring cups) Memorizing facts can come later if need be. . .but it's useless to memorize them if the concept isn't down. jmho
Sneaky Mom, I totally agree with you, it's best to show them how to get it down first. On edhelper they have it done with objects and dots, and I actually started teaching her like 4+4+4=12 so 4x3= 12, I think that's a better concept than getting her to write them so much.
Yeah. . .but the daddy's sometimes don't know all the sneaky tricks we moms have huh! ;-) It used to frustrate me to no end when I got kids in my class that couldn't multiply. They spent hours copying their facts down (not in my class mind you) and didn't have them still bc no one taught them the idea that it was a group of something. But my inner city teaching stories are for anther thread. . .LOL
For reinforcement once she's learned her 1 through 6 facts, play a board game, like Monopoly, except multiply the numbers instead of add. You can also play a game of war, using only card numbers she's worked on. If she gets the product correct, she keeps the cards. If not, you keep the cards. My two like to play games like this and it seems much less painful than drill. Best of luck! Carol
We did both writing and manipulatives; manipulatives to help her learn to figure out the problem and understand how and why she came up with her answer. The writing is for memorization, which we also did orally, because their are times she needs to know the answer and does not have the time to work it out through manipulatives. I think that both have there purpose and should work side by side, especially once division is started. But whatever you find works best for your family is what you should go with. Patty
I'll be teaching it this year- Miquon starts it in 1st grade but they build up to it. I think repetition and memorization are good, but I think it's MORE important to understand the process first- which is why I'm using Miquon. If she understands that 3+3+3=9 then once she's got that down I'll throw in that it is the same as 3x3. I'll use manipulatives to show 3 groups of 3. That's how I'll be teaching it- and how I already am teaching it in a way. Mine learns best with visuals and hands on manipulatives though. Every child is different.
I am a bit nervous about multiplication. It will be the first new thing in math I will be teaching her.
Don't Forget Skip Counting My son is finishing up second grade and has already almost mastered multiplication thanks to starting out with skip counting. We used a hundred chart and line numbers and he learned to county by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 10's, etc. Used in conjunction with a couple of practice workbooks and an online game, he seemed to pick it really quickly. We just focused on skip counting until he had it down completely and then the multiplying wasn't that big of a deal.
Dd's 7 and in 1st grade- we've been working on it since before Christmas off and on. We use Miquon and Singapore so I go back and forth between the two. Skip counting she learned last year in K- 2's, 5's and 10's and this year she's learned 3's. But I really don't think that mattered in the scheme of things. She's not memorizing them. She's learning the concept and what it means. so she knows when she sees 2x4 that it's 2 groups of 4, or 4+4. She also knows that 2x4 is the same as 4x2 and that 4x2 is 4 groups of 2 or 2+2+2+2 she caught on rather quickly with it because it didn't just throw the 2x4 out there to begin with. It worked on grouping, how many groups of what, ect. THEN it moved on to showing the multiplication problems on one side of the page and matching them up with the corresponding addition problems on the other side of the page. I don't believe in rote memorization till the concept is actually understood and understood well. We also used chocolate chips, base 10 units, ect to do our own grouping and doing it that was.
LOL I just realized this was an older thread and last time I replied we hadn't started it. I'm with it!
count by numbers.. 1's 2's 3's 4's 5's is a great place to start then find a multiplication hard and work at fillingin the blanks on them.... reciting the tymes tables and that sort of thing.
Rock and Learn has nice CD's about multiplication, plus there are story books you can get. We have one called Multiplication on the Farm. It really is best to show groups so there is a concrete example.
Skip counting, flash cards, and timed tests. We learn concepts first, then memorize. The way SneakyMama listed it (2s, 5s, 10s, then money) is also the way MUS introduces multiplication. We're just starting with it (and flying through the first half of gamma), but I wish we'd used it last year to introduce it! Wouldn't have taken as long to understand it! Anyway. Skip counting, flashcards, and timed drills. For the timed drills, ds has a prenumbered page and *I* use the flashcards to call out the problem. I count to "three one thousand" and then state the next problem. If he didn't get the answer, too bad. This has worked well for us; he was getting all but the 12s facts and it motivated him to learn those!
I totally agree - MUS! My son learned to skip count with their songs and I don't think that he will ever forget them. It made learning so much fun.
