Maths News

🧠 Effective Ways to Help Your Child Learn Multiplication

The transition from addition and subtraction to multiplication is a big step in every primary school student’s learning journey. For many children, mastering multiplication can feel like a daunting task—but with the right strategies, it becomes much more manageable (and even fun!).

At St John’s, students in Years 3 to 6 are currently diving into multiplication, exploring a

 variety of strategies to build deep understanding and confidence. After all, remembering 144 multiplication facts can be overwhelming—so helping children understand the patterns behind the numbers is key.

Here are some effective ways you can support your child’s multiplication learning at home:

• Talk about multiplication in real life: Use everyday examples, like counting equal groups of items, to show how multiplication is used.
• Practice skip counting: Skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s lays a great foundation for multiplication.

• Use multiplication games: Card games, dice games or online platforms like Essential Assessment and Sunset Maths help reinforce facts in engaging ways.
• Build with blocks or counters: Visual and hands-on learning helps children ‘see’ multiplication as arrays or groups.
• Use a multiplication chart: Display a chart on the fridge or study space and encourage daily practice.

And here’s a game-changer—the Commutative Law of multiplication! This strategy shows that numbers can be multiplied in any order (e.g. 4 × 6 is the same as 6 × 4). This simple concept cuts the number of facts your child needs to memorise from 144 down to just 36!

With regular practice, encouragement and a bit of fun, multiplication can become one of your child’s greatest maths strengths. Thank you for supporting your child’s learning at home!

These are all the multiplication facts your children need to store in their long term memory.