I’ve been working with the boy on his multiplication “facts.” That’s what they refer to them as now, as opposed to multiplication tables. It was the same thing with addition and subtraction. I guess I can’t argue with the new nomenclature as it’s correct, they are facts. Still, it rankles for some reason.
Anyway, tonight was the first night he was able to work through all of his 7’s, 8’s and 9’s. He was, understandably, pretty proud of himself.
In fact, he was so flushed with confidence that he wanted to learn how to multiply double digit numbers. I hemmed and hawed a bit, mostly out of some respect for the school. Then I came to my senses and realized “HEY! He wants to learn something and wants ME to teach him!”
What the heck was I waiting for.
So I introduced him to double digit multiplication, showing him the mechanics of how to multiply the digits together and then add the 2 results. I kept things simple, avoiding any multiplication that involved carrying. I even showed him why the math “worked”, introducing him to breaking up a number and using the distributive property. Aside from making the mistake of wanting to add for some reason, he picked up on it and was working through problems after just a couple of examples.
After we’d finished up for the night, he told me “It makes so much more sense when you explain it. When the teacher shows us this stuff, she makes it seem so complicated and stuff. But you do it and its, like, so easy.” I was quite proud of my apparent teaching chops.
Naturally, he got the next problem wrong…