Introduction to Multiplication for Kids

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Mathematics is a tricky subject. When taught well, it can easily become a child's favorite subject. However, it also has a tendency of becoming a child's worst nightmare if concepts stay unclear! Maths teachers have to be very patient as every child is different. Some children are comfortable around numbers. You will see them counting objects even as toddlers. It is the perfect time when you can introduce them to concepts like addition and subtraction. Adding things and finding their sum is a critical skill as it forms the basis of another essential skill called multiplication. 

Multiplication is basically repeated addition: adding the same number again and again. You have to slowly and steadily, with loads of patience, associate the concept of repeated addition to multiplication. This is why multiplication shouldn't be taught until children are very, very comfortable with addition. If you see your child struggling with addition, take a break and Some people start teaching multiplication by directly going to skip counting but I believe that they miss a step. First, you have to teach a child about groups of things that have the same number or quantity. You have to visually give colorful pictures of simple, daily objects such as fruits, candies, and stationery items and show them as groups. It is imperative that each group should have the same quantity. These visual stimuli are needed to clarify concepts. Now, make the child add such groups together.  When the child is comfortable with this, move onto skip counting where you can show numbers in series such as:

 2+2+2+2=8

Associate this repeated addition and skip counting to multiplication:

 2+2+2+2=8 is equivalent to 4x2=8.   

Now, here comes the tricky part. Develop interest in the children by telling them that instead of doing boring repeated addition, they can arrive at the answer faster if they do multiplication. Encourage the children that they can solve repeated addition in their brain if they use multiplication facts. Now, you can start the process of learning the multiplication facts one table at a time. Do the 2, 5, and 10 tables first and then, move onto the times tables of other numbers. This is the exact way I taught multiplication to both my children in combination with my Multiplication flash cards app. It is freely available from Google Play Store. The complete app is 100% FREE with no in-app purchases to open up levels! The best thing about this app is that children can hear the question and speak the answer and go hands-free 😊. 


You can also use this app along with my worksheets that I have started designing. I am starting this series of multiplication worksheets with my teaching ideas in my mind. It will be divided into parts. The first part will be all about introducing multiplication to children and the second part will be about individual learning and practice of times tables. I hope this helps in building the base for essential maths skills in your children. Kindly spread the word about my work. Do comment below if you have any queries. I would love to hear from my followers. Also, a humble request: if you want to share this FREE work, please share the webpage link or the Facebook post instead of the pdf. I strongly believe in inclusive and free education and I want my work to reach more and more people. This will not be possible if you just share the PDF file. Thank you once again for liking my work and for visiting my page.

Sample of what you will get inside the PDF file (there are a total of 8 worksheets)

Download link for Introduction to Multiplication worksheets

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