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Originally Posted by Lamplighter
My G-daughter is in 3rd grade and changed schools last month.
She did not know the multiplication tables,
and was placed in a class that is learning division and estimating.
Question: how do you teach division to a child that does not know the X's-table ?
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Same way you do to one who does. Unless you feel that it's not important for them to understand the real world implications of what they're doing on paper.
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We are having nightly sessions to learn the tables,
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I bet that's making her really LOVE math, sounds like such fun!!! ....
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mainly because
I can't stand watching her try to figure out how many times 7 goes into 42.
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But it's not about you, grandpa. it's about her. go in a different room if you can't stand it. Kids need to do their own homework and make their own mistakes in their own way. The best way to help is to encourage them to write down their working so you can help them discover where they went wrong when they do.
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She was trying to add 7+7+... and almost always made a mistake.
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As do kids when first learning by rote rather than experience/practice. 8*7 = 54 etc. 54's in there somewhere and 8*7 was 50somethig..... Also, it sounds like she need the addition practice if she is still making mistakes so often. Bypassing that is not doing her any favors.
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After learning most of the tables, there are still some combinations that still give her trouble,
so I have used the same approach Monster describes above...
6 sheep in 7 pens, or any silly image that will stick in her mind to simply know 6 times 7 is 42.
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Not the same at all in fact. It could so easily be 8 sheep and 4 pens. there's nothing unique there. needs to be unique or it's not memorable. The image may be memorable, but the numbers, no.
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And by coincidence, I have also used HLJ's "trick" above with squares
to help trigger her memory.... e.g., how many times 7 goes into 35 must be 5.
So, rote memory, memory tricks, silly images (e.g., to remember people's names)
all help in moving on to the more important issues,
and not being held up trying to figure it out from scratch,
without wasting the most valuable resource... time.
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More time is wasted when you learn just enough facts to pass the test, but not the deep understanding that you can transfer to other applications (and "save time")