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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
MCPS starts multiplication in a slow way in 3rd grade (more towards the middle of the year). It is reviewed again in 4th grade, and the 5th grade teachers remind parents that students need to know their basic math facts with rapid recall.

I would strongly encourage you to start working on multiplication as soon as possible, in a regular way, so that your child knows it off by heart. It will make word problems and multi-step processes so much easier, by freeing up brain space for working out the rest of the question.

[/quote]

Please don't do this.

It's important that kids have opportunities to explore multiplication concepts, and work with manipulatives, arrays and repeated addition to figure out problems before they start to memorize their facts.  Memorizing math facts is important, but there is plenty of time to do it if you start in the second half of 3rd grade and 4th grade after they've had those experiences.

Kids who learn memorization first, before they explore the whys of multiplication, can end up with brittle understandings of multiplication, which will trip them up when they get to higher level math in middle school.

-- a teacher  [/quote]

+1. The reason so many parents struggle to help their kids with math these days is because we weren't taught to truly understand it, just to memorize it. Don't let you kids fall into the same trap.[/quote]

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