As a homeschool mom, I need to find the best way possible for my children to learn certain concepts. When my now almost 6th grader was in 4th grade, she was having some trouble grasping her multiplication facts. Looking online for help kept leading me to more and more multiplication strategy worksheets. If you homeschool, you can probably understand why more worksheets is not the answer! So, I came up with our own 4th grade multiplication strategies and started helping her in more practical, hands-on ways. Here, I’m sharing the different strategies we used, in hopes it may spark some ideas for your own homeschool!
First, let’s talk about 4th graders…
I realize that in public school, it is important that children learn their multiplication tables in the 4th grade. That’s because their curriculum requires them to master the concept of multiplication so that they are ready for the next concept. And for public school, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
But homeschool is not the same as public school in many ways, including our curriculums and timelines. When I refer to “4th grade multiplication strategies” in this post, I’m only doing so because my daughter was in 4th grade when we implemented these.
Some children are ready for multiplication practice in 2nd grade, while others may not be ready until 5th grade. Consider 4th grade to be the “average”, and remember that your children WILL learn all of their math facts in good time. These multiplication strategies are what really helped cement the concept of multiplication in my daughter’s mind and honestly, we still use some of these strategies today.
The Specific Strategies We Used
Before I share the various strategies we used (and continue to use) in our homeschool, please understand that I’m just a mom who knows my kids best. I’m certainly no expert in teaching multiplication, but I do consider myself an expert in my children!
If you are a homeschool mom, I bet you are also an expert in the study of your own kids! Therefore, don’t consider these to be concrete methods for ensuring the mastery of multiplication. Your children may require something different. I’m simply here to provide some relatable examples of how we do things and what works for us.
Here are the strategies we have used (I deep dive into each one further below):
- Learning to skip count
- Flash cards
- Focusing on the concept of place values
- The use of math manipulatives
- Games using incentives as fun ways of memorizing math facts
- Real-life examples/problem solving
Learning To Skip Count
Memorization was, and still is, something my oldest child hasn’t taken to when it comes to multiplication. She is getting better at it, and has memorized a good number of her multiplication tables now. But in 4th grade, that wasn’t the case. We found that skip count practice was more effective for her.
For each multiplication table, we would practice skip counting by that number. For example, for the 2’s we would skip count by 2, for the 3’s by 3, and so on. We would have fun with it and see how fast and how far she could skip count without help. I still encourage skip count practice by randomly asking her to skip count while we’re in the car driving somewhere! It has been really helpful for her and more engaging than just memorizing each multiplication table.
Flash Cards
Before I go into this one, I will say that in general, I’m not a huge user of flash cards. They work great for some kids, but mine don’t love them. However, I do have some multiplication flash cards that we use like a card game. Instead of me simply holding up the cards and having my daughter solve the multiplication problems on each one, we play games instead! She loves this method and often asks if we can play these games!
One way we do this is by choosing a multiplication table (let’s say the 5’s), and laying out all the cards for that table. I will then say a number and she has to find the card that has the multiplication equation on it that equals the number I’ve said. For example, if I say “20”, she would find “5×4”. We do this a lot and she loves it!
Another game we play is where I will lay cards of a certain multiplication table out in random order. She will then have to put them in order and say the answer as she does so. For example, if we are doing “8’s”, she would start by finding “8×1” and say the answer. Then she would find “8×2” and say the answer, etc.
These sorts of math games work well for her because she’s a kinesthetic learner, and being hands-on is way more effective than memorizing from a piece of paper.
Place Values
In 4th-grade multiplication, multiplying multi-digit numbers is something that is practiced a lot. But if your child doesn’t have a strong concept of place values, this can be challenging. I noticed that she was sometimes getting confused with how she lined up her multiplication problems when they were multi-digit numbers. She wasn’t always lining up the ones with the ones, the tens with tens, etc. This was especially true when she was multiplying a larger number by a smaller number.
I decided to pause her multiplication practice and focus on establishing a firm understanding of place values. A great way that we found to do this was by using money. By writing dollar and cents amounts, it teaches the importance of each number having its place and how everything gets messed up when its place value is ignored or misplaced.
By viewing every number as a dollar value, she could visually picture where each number would go and how they would line up. A few weeks of this and she mastered the concept of place values!
Math Manipulatives
We are long time users of math manipulatives! Because my children both do well with hands-on activities, the use of manipulatives provides a visual model of each math concept they are learning.
For learning the basics of multiplication, things like math blocks or anything you can easily group together works really well. Kids can put them into equal groups based on the multiplication table they are working on. If the equation is “4×6”, they can make 4 groups of 6, or 6 groups of 4.
It teaches the fact that multiplication works the same going forwards and backwards in the equation (for example, “4×6” = “6×4”). It also allows them to take large numbers and break them down into small groups. For example, 100 can be broken down into 10 groups of 10.
This strategy has been very effective in solidifying an understanding of what multiplication is, and why it’s helpful. It’s also a great way to encourage independent practice by having them create multiplication groupings on their own.
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Games
As homeschoolers, we are always looking for fun ways to do things! Why sit at a table when you don’t have to, right? And again, for kinesthetic learners the best way to learn is by moving, touching, and being hands-on.
Even though basic memorization of the multiplication tables isn’t my daughter’s strong point, it can be very useful in real-life situations. Being able to quickly go through them in your head when calculating how much something will cost at the grocery store, is a real world application of memorization. So, I created a memorization game that is hands-on and has an incentive attached to it each time we play!
Our mudroom floor has little square designs on it that she can stand on and step from square to square. We will choose a couple of multiplication tables (usually ones she needs extra practice with), and play this little game:
- She stands on a square near the far end of the mudroom, and I stand 12 squares away from her. I say each problem, starting at the beginning of the table up to “x12”. For example, “3×1, 3×2, 3×3…..3×12”. If she answers each one correctly, she moves up a square. If she answers it wrong, she moves back. Once she gets them all right and reaches me, we start over with another multiplication table.
- We choose an incentive such as a special treat, or a fun activity that she earns by getting the right answers. I allow 2 errors per multiplication table, but any more than that and she doesn’t earn the incentive. If that’s the case, we try it again either later that day or the next day. Once she masters them, we move on to different multiplication tables for the next round.
She LOVES playing this game, and my youngest loves it too because the incentive usually benefits him as well! (If a playground outing was chosen as the incentive, he gets extra excited.) Don’t be afraid to have fun and think outside the box when it comes to fun and efficient strategies to help your children learn. Whatever works for them, is the best way.
Real-life Examples
When it comes to 4th grade multiplication strategies, oftentimes the best strategies are the ones that can be applied to real-life! Complicated word problems about things that don’t apply to the real world can quickly become boring and feel like a waste of time to your kids. Sure, they can serve a purpose at times, but I have found that what works better is applying the math concepts to the lives of my kids.
I do this in many different ways, but here are a couple of examples:
- My daughter loves to go shopping! I often ask her questions about how much money she has in total, and how many items she thinks she could get with that amount. If she has $20, that means she could get 10 really cheap items at $2 each. Or, she could opt for 2 more expensive things at $10 each, and so on. This helps her see the many ways in which a number is broken down and multiplied back together.
- For the last few years, my daughter has set a goal to purchase Christmas gifts for her friends and family with her own money. Setting a budget for each person teaches her how much money she needs to save in total, to be able to meet this goal. This is a tangible way of seeing that knowing how to multiply makes it easier to set a budget. If she wants to spend $15 on each person, she has to multiply that by how many people she’s buying for in order to know the total amount she needs to save.
Take Simple Steps
I hope this post has encouraged you to get creative with your children’s education. Whether it’s 4th grade multiplication strategies or something else you’re looking for help with, take simple steps and do whatever will work for your child.
If you have kinesthetic learners like I do, the strategies we use may work wonders for your kids! If your kids learn differently than mine, take these ideas and tweak them to suit your family. Just keep it simple, trust your instincts as their parent, and be confident that they will learn in their own way and in their own time.
Homeschooling is all about the freedom to educate our children the way we see fit. So have fun, and trust the process!
Blessings!
~Maryann
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