Studies have shown that memorizing facts does not always equate to “learning.” When you connect facts to real-life applications or practical applications, kids will appreciate them more and absorb what they learn.

Having to memorize the multiplication table can be tedious, even as an adult, so one can imagine how difficult it can be for children. Multiplication does not always have to boring! When you multiply, you will notice patterns and rules. These patterns are what will make learning and teaching multiplication fun for all. Here are some tips and tricks to help you teach your child multiplication.

To See is To Believe:

Multiplication is repeated addition. You can prove that by using objects to demonstrate how it works. Write down a simple multiplication problem like 4 x 3 on a board or a piece of paper. Using marbles, ask your child to make four groups that consist of three marbles each. Let your child count them to show that the problem 4 x 3 means that you add 4 three times.

Fingers for Five:

Skip counting by 5 is easy to remember. They might find it more interesting to know that when you skip count by five with your fingers, the number of fingers you put up each time you count by five is the number you multiplied five to.

Try skip counting to 25 and track how many times you skip count using your fingers. You will see that five fingers are up by the time you get to 25. The problem you just solved then would be 5 x 5.

Fingers for Nine:

There is a simple trick to help your child visualize the product when multiplying 9 to single digits using their fingers:

1. Let your child put their hands out in front of them, with their palms facing down.
2. The fingers of the left hand will represent numbers 1 to 5 (from left to right), and the fingers of the right hand will represent numbers 6 to 10 (from left to right).
3. When you multiply by nine, ask your child to put down the finger that represents the number they will multiply nine with. For example, with the problem 9 x 6, your child should put down the thumb on the right hand.
4. The number of fingers that are still up found on the left side of the finger down is the tens place of the product, while the number of fingers found on the right side is the one’s place of the product.

Following the example above, there would be five fingers on the left side and four fingers on the right. The product then of 9 x 6 is 54.

Eleven twins:

When multiplying single digits to 11, show your child that the product will always be a pair of the same number. For example, when you multiply 11 x 7, the result will be a pair of 7s! So, 11 x 7 = 77.

Zeroes in Tens:

Multiplying by 10, you will see that the product always looks like that multiplier but with a zero at the end. For this example, let’s multiply 10 x 5. Your product should be 50, which looks just like 5 but with a zero at the end. Try out other numbers and see for yourself!

Zeroes in Fives:

What makes multiplying by 5 difficult is there are so many patterns. Notice that when you multiply an even number by five, the product always has a zero at the end. If you look even closer to the numbers next to the zero, it is always half the multiplier. Take a look at this example:

5 x 6 = 30

Here you can see that 6 is an even number. The product will then have a zero at the end. Look at number 3 in 30! The number 3 is half of 6, which is the number you multiplied 5 with.

Patterns always help with memorization and when you can apply that when teaching multiplication to your child, it can make a big difference in learning.