: My 10 year old daughter is having a devil of a time multiplying multi
: digit numbers. She seems to multiply when she is supposed to add
: and add when she is supposed to multiply. She does the incorrect
: operation correctly!!! To date, she has been a pretty strong math
: student—a bit careless at times but gets the concepts. Any
: suggestions?My common experience working with high school through to college (and some elementary):Most kids haven’t got a clue what a multiplication is or why you do it. A lot of them are pretty vague on what a number is.If your daughter’s school program is like the majority, the teacher (who is most likely a math phobic herself — who goes into colleges of education in this country? — not math-science majors) goes through a textbook on the basis of “cover the curriculum” with no interest and enrichment and very little discussion — just do the work and get it over with. Many teachers use math drill as a punishment, and just think what message that sends.Your daughter has most likely been taught a recipe — put this number here and that number there and multiply these two and put part of the result here and part there and then add this one here to that one there and then go to this space and multiply again..Math becomes a magical-mystery tour; if you say the right incantation and wave the magic wand in the right way and in the right times and places, you will win through the maze. But if you slip up in your incantations even once, you will find yourself in the dungeon repeating more drills.There are hundreds of programs out there, some better than others, and take all the good advice out there and find something that works for you.But the absolutely essential part of teaching is what you do with the program once you get it; to help your daughter to understand numbers, to understand the base-ten system and all its conveniences, and to have a goal in learning to multiply and all the rest of it (re-tiling the house was a good project, and involved lots of multiplication; so does shopping, etc.)It would be a good thing at this point to go back to the old abacus and find out what really does happen when you take five groupos of twelve, etc. Betcha she hasn’t ever done this kind of foundation in what multiplication is. Most kids (and adult education students) are fascinated when they find out that this is real and tangible stuff. Dienes blocks (ones cubes, rods of ten, flat sheets of 100, and big blocks of 1000) are very good for multiplying larger numbers, and showing why and how the base ten system works.Good luck, and I’d be happy to hear from you how things go.