Math Learning Steps

It’s exciting

Your child now has all the tools they need to master multiplying any number from 1 to 5 by any number from 1 to 5. That is an exciting place to be for a young child. Let’s review all the things they know that support this.

Order does not matter

When you multiply, it doesn’t matter whether you multiply 3 time 4 or 4 times 3, the result is the same. This is a big work saver and it allows your child to pick their favorite way to multiply things. For example, if they want to calculate 2 times 5 by doubling 5, that’s fine. However, if they prefer to skip count by 2’s five times, that’s fine as well.

Have your child look at a picture of 2 rows of 3 dots. Whether you have 2 rows of 3 dots, or 3 rows of 2 dots, you have the same total of 6 dots. All you need to do is turn the picture half way around to see that they are the same picture.

Multiplying by 2 is doubling

Multiplying by 2 is the same as doubling, so your child has that skill already.

Multiplying by 3 is doubling plus one more

If you have 3 of something, that’s the same as having 2 of them and then adding one more. If your child needs to multiply 3 times 4, they can double 4 to get 8, and then add one more 4 to that to get 12. Alternatively, you can also skip count by 3’s four times, or skip count by 4’s three times, if you wish.

Multiplying by 4 is doubling twice

If you want to get 4 of something, start by doubling it to get 2 of it, and then double that to get 4 of it. For example, to multiply 4 times 5, double 5 to get 10, and then double 10 to get 20.

Multiplying by 5 by skip counting

Skip counting by 5’s is so much fun, that is probably the preferred method. Also, all the 5’s end in either 0 or 5, so that makes them pretty easy to remember.