The dreadful thought of introducing multiplication to Will has been hanging out in the back of my brain for the last couple years. I knew it was coming... and I wasn't looking forward to the struggle. But to all of our surprise... he picked it up effortlessly. Like, REALLY easily! I am stunned... and of course proud as can be of my little man.
Besides Will's eagerness to learn, a lot of the credit goes to the teaching materials that I chose to use and the sequence in which I introduced them to him. We started out learning what multiplication is and how to figure out any multiplication problem using: Repeated Addition, Arrays, Equal Groups, and Japanese Lines. For the first week, we used this practice form for a handful of problems each day (which I laminated -of course- so we could reuse it over and over with dry erase markers):
He picked up on it in no time at all. Really after the second day I could have moved on but I was determined to keep the whole process of learning how to multiply as relaxed as possible.
Next, I used his love for personified objects to teach zeroes, ones, twos, fives, tens, and elevens facts. I drew simple number characters and attached a catchy-ish phrase to each one that I knew he would connect with.
Multiplication Zero is a super hero... he always wins. Multiplication One is a mirror... he always reflects the other number.Multiplication Two needs glasses... he always sees doubles.Multiplication Five is a skippy guy... he always skip counts by fives.Multiplication Ten is clumsy... he's always dropping zeroes
Here is our Multiplication Family:
It took him only two or three days to master all these facts, so we were soon ready for the next step.
Knowing that he is a strong visual learner, I searched high and low for a method that would fit him besides the traditional use of manipulatives. Late one night as I was researching online, I came across a program called Times Tales. It uses a series of number characters, stories, and faded prompts (DVD or in a book format... we chose DVD) to teach upper multiplication in a completely non-traditional way... and I knew right then it would be the final piece to our multiplication puzzle. I ordered it right away so it was ready when Will was.
There are two parts to the DVD: Part One teaches facts: 6x3, 7x3, 8x3, 9x3,6x4,x7x4,8x4, and 9x4. Part Two teaches facts: 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9, 7x7, 7x8, 7x9, 8x8, 8x9, and 9x9. Truthfully, Will was about 85-90% accurate with these facts immediately after watching each part of the DVD and retained all the information. But again, I didn't rush things. We followed the Times Tales program to the letter (including waiting a week between introducing Parts One and Two), and in less than two weeks Will had mastered all his multiplication facts!
Cute story: Will was showing off his new skills to his Grandma Lynn using our Times Tales dice after completing just two lessons of Part One. She sat there in silence with her jaw slightly dropped as he correctly answered fact after fact. She finally asked him, "How are you doing this?!"... to which he quickly replied, "Because I'm smart!". That's exactly how children should feel when learning, instead of frustrated and upset with themselves.
Here are our Times Tales dice that we use for practice:
Now... I realize that these methods will not work for all children and all learning styles... but if your child is struggling with multiplication and is a visual learner like Will... then I HIGHLY recommend following this sequence of curriculum. Learning the fundamentals for multiplication and really understanding what it means is so important for children to grasp before fact memorization. And a lot of what I taught Will is just that... memorization... but only after he fully understood the concept.
An added bonus to the Times Tales learning is that division for these facts comes just as easily as the multiplication, so a huge chunk of the "hard" division facts are already filed away in that precious brain of his.
So that's it... what I was dreading and was anticipating to take at least a year or so to teach came effortlessly to Will in just under a month. Not a tear. Not a whine. Not a melt-down. Not an ounce of anxiety. All which would have surely happened (many times) if he had been taught in the traditional method.
Another point for homeschool!
*A technology shout out to my Olivia for showing me how to add embedded links to this post.
I am officially old.
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