You can help your child understand the concepts of third grade math. Just like learning to walk, read, or ride a bike, children learn at different rates and it simply takes some students longer than others OR, even more likely, some children need another approach because they have different learning styles.

Maybe your child needs more time or just a different approach. Here are some approaches that may help your child with that third grade math. You just might find that these approaches help his or her math comprehension well beyond Grade 3.

1) If you haven't already done so, start experiencing multiplication in daily life. It is so important to see the use of multiplication in the store, at the gas tank, in the kitchen, etc. Having this frame of reference is critical. After all, away from the elementary school classroom, people don't go around reciting the times tables. They use them.

2) Multiplication is repeated addition. 5+5+5+5= 5X4 = 20. If cans of green beans are 79 cents and you buy four, it is correct to figure .79 + .79 + .79 + .79 = $3.16- but it is so much more efficient to figure $ .79 X 4 = $ 3.16. That may not be as obvious adding four numbers as it would be adding many more, but it is an important concept to introduce and emphasize early on.

3) Show and experience fact families. And, yes, this is taught, but sometimes more time is needed.
8x7=56
7x8=56
56 divided by 7 = 8
56 divided by 8 = 7

Write each of the factors, their product, and = signs on cards and have your child move them around to show the families.

4) In the fact family above,start calling the 7 and the 8 factors because it comes up later in math and it is a very important concept. Call these numbers factors and it will pay off and you are getting double results for your efforts of working with your child on multiplication.
The answer in multiplication is called The Product. Use that vocabulary, too, as it will also pay off.

5) Demonstrate multiplication and division by using materials your child can handle and move around. Coins, poker chips, marbles, dry beans, anything that is small enough to handle easily and large enough to see clearly, can be used to demonstrate the concept that multiplication is repeated addition. Set these items up in sets to be sure your student understands the underlying concept. 3 x 7 = 21 is three sets of seven items or seven sets of three items. AND even 21 items divided into 3 sets means 7 will

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