10 yr old (4th class) - problems grasping multiplication

Plek Trum

Im hoping that someone here maybe able to give some guidance and suggestions. My 10yr old neice seems to be having a very hard time grasping the concept of multiplication tables.

She is a very bright pupil, scoring over 80%+ in all recent assessments (She got 78percentile in maths) and has no problems whatsoever with addition, subtraction, etc but she cannot grasp the actual concept / theory of multplication at all. Her parents have spoken to the teacher, who has encouraged her refer to the times tables written in the back of the book to keep up (?!)

It is at the stage where she is very upset and frustrated and is dreading going into maths lessons.

Can anyone recommend any additional books / activities / approaches we can try to help her with this? She already does additional maths work from a second book with her parents in the evening to try and help but she still cannot grasp the conecpt.

All help and links appreciated, thanks.

karen3212

Have ye tried the idea of 2 colums of 4 apples, let her count them. Let her add them 4+4 = 8, then let her know it's written as 2x4=8.

Continue doing this 3 colums and 2 apples in each = 6 etc.

Then explain it's just a quick way of doing addition.

Then she'll just have to work at memorizing the tables.

c-note

multiplication tends to be drilled into kids by learning the "times tables"
and then long multiplication is taught as a proceedure for multiplying numbers you dont know by heart, using thoose which you do.

i could multiply any two numbers (no matter how long) by eachother before i knew what i was actually doing.

i believe in was in 1st year of secondry school when my maths teacher
told me that multiplication was just addition in disguise.
eg 4 x 6 was just 6 added to itself 4 times

i think multiplication, as well as negative numbers, are the first jumps you have to make in maths, the first time that it becomes less intuitive and easy to loose sight of what you're actually doing. i'm sure if she's been strong at +/- up to now that she'll get it soon enough with a bit of work!

Trotter

Plek Trum wrote: »

she still cannot grasp the concept.

As karen3212 said, try to make things a little hands on. You can also do multiplication tables with a big bag of smarties.. breaking them into groups of 5 for example, so that 3x5 is now something that can be seen in front of the child.

Once the concept 'clicks' with very simple numbers, the problem with large numbers will diminish quickly.

Hope that helps!

Trotter.. 6th class teacher

byhookorbycrook

Florence Gavin has an excellent book on mulitplication facts

http://www.mulberrypublications.com/mulberrymult.htm

Plek Trum

Thank you all very much for help and suggestions, much appreciated! *fingers crossed*

samhradh

as poster said above multiplication really is only repeated addition
with any child struggling with concept of multiplication i would take a step back and look at repeated addition sums
e.g. 2+2+2=6 (only after lots of this intro idea of 3 groups of 2 making 6)
1.get child to use concrete things e.g. counters, bottle corks etc.
2.draw out the sum
3. NB Last step write sum using numbers and signs e.g .2X3=6

another idea,
draw out 100 square in maths copy. for 2 times tables colour 2, 4, 6 etc and write the tables as you colour
e.g. 1X2=2 (saying 1 group of 2 make 2 for example)

another idea
there are cds you can get or riddles you can download for free from the internet to help memorize tables

another idea
looking at table facts all around us e.g. shoes and shoe laces
6 pairs shoes
6x2=12 shoe laces
collecting egg boxes to get across idea 6/12 times tables,
display egg boxes out , count groups, write sum
e.g.
6+6=12 or 2groups of 6 make 12 or 2x6 =12

feel free to ask if you have any questions on the above
i cannot stress enough though drilling repeated addition enough Before moving on to multiplication


I would really stress that you speak to your childs teacher about the language they are using for multiplication are they saying 2 , threes or 2 times 3
this can be very confusing for child finding concept difficult if different terms used at home and school

byhookorbycrook

also have a look at

http://www.multiplication.com/