The science of counting is one of the most used elements of mathematics in daily life. Unfortunately, it is also the nightmare of many young students who get lost in the complexity of numbers. The problem is not with how exactly to count that is easily understood. The challenge occurs during the execution when the results get fudged due to some unknown reason. This mainly occurs as the child is confused with the numbers in the steps and makes calculation mistakes. The only way to avoid this is to have a proper practice that must be ensured right from childhood.
One of the most important parts of counting is multiplication which is also the most challenging part of early maths. If you are looking for some advice on how to teach multiplication to your kid, then you have come to the right spot! This blog will discuss some fun ways to teach multiplication. Read on to know more about multiplication for kids.
The problem with multiplication
The transition from multiplication tables to mathematical problems might be too much for your kid. Appropriate time and care, along with ample practice alone, can help your kid ace this concept. The first challenge here is to teach multiplication tables, the next comes the specific rules to be followed when multiplying big numbers, and the final challenge is being able to utilise all the multiplication concepts in solving mathematical problems. You must pay keen attention to all these stages and make sure that your kid is pretty adept at each stage before proceeding to the next. You can start with small and simple numbers and proceed to the larger numbers and increase the complexity level by level instead of overwhelming your kid with everything.
Ways to teach multiplication while keeping things interesting
Multiplication might be tough for your kid, but that doesn’t mean you cannot teach it easily! If you keep it fun and light your kid will learn better without the fear of mathematics. Here are some interesting activities for multiplication learning:
- Math Bingo: Are you concerned about your multiplication class going not so well with your kid? How about a game? In this game you make your kid draw a 5 by 5 grid and fill it up with random numbers. Now choose some random numbers like “7 x 8” and ask your kid to check if the solution is there in the grid. This will be a fun way to revisit the multiplication tables.
- Teach multiplication based on mathematical patterns: In multiplication, there are several patterns that can make learning easy. Also, going through them will make things easy and fun. For example, in the four times table, all the numbers are even while in the five times tables the numbers either end with a zero or a five. In the ten times table all the numbers end with zero and in the nine times table, the summation of the digits of the number is always nine.
- Cards of multiplication: In this game, you will be using the playing cards and assigning numbers to each of the 52 cards. For most, it will be easy as the number could be simply the number of shapes it has but you will need to assign numbers to the joker, king, queen and ace. Shuffle the cards well and distribute them. Now the cards of both players are dealt face down and then each player has to flip the cards at the same time. The player who multiplies correctly the numbers in both cards first wins the game.
- Teach your kid the power of commutative property: This is one of the most fundamental properties of multiplication that make things easy in learning the tables. To show your kids the significance of the commutative property, teach them that answers often repeat themselves. For example, if you multiply 3 by 4, you will get 12. Similarly, if you multiply 4 by 3, you will get the same answer. This specific property comes in handy in learning the later on tables once your kid has mastered tables 1,2 and 3.
- Try out some virtual games: Technology will influence your kids sooner or later, so why not use it for some constructive purpose? There are tons of multiplication games available online. There are even options to download some of them if you don’t want to expose your kid to the internet. These games are fun ways to sharpen their multiplication skills. These have point systems and high scores that give a competitive edge as your kids try to better their It is better to play games and learn more than to teach multiplication on a white sheet of paper.
- Give some real scenarios to teach skip counting: You might want to give some real-life scenarios to help your kid sharpen his/her multiplication skills. For example, you can ask your kid if he has to give 5 chocolates to 4 of his friends then how many chocolates he has to buy? This is where skip counting can come in handy when your kid has to add 5 four times to get the answer, i.e.,
5+5 = 10
10+5 = 15
15 + 5 = 20
Then proceed to explain to him/her that instead of adding 5 four times he could simply have multiplied 5 by 4 to 20.
Multiplication is one of the most important elements of mathematics that will form a building block of advanced maths in higher classes. You can test all the methods above to find the best ways to teach multiplication to your kids. Everything depends on your approach, whether it is the old boring way or in an innovative fun way.
We at Kangaroo Kids International Preschool employ innovative ways to teach multiplication and other fundamental concepts to kids without making them seem difficult. To learn more about our curriculum, contact us today.
