Do you let your child memorize the Multiplication?
By Metatronik
@Metatronik (6199)
Pasay, Philippines
December 6, 2020 9:28am CST
My daughter is grade one already and they have multiplication but good thing on a book it is not memorization since the method is Singapore Math. It is about the repetitive addition and explains the procedure of multiplication and how does it apply rather than memorizing it. To begin with I am really against of memorization because in my opinion they will be soon familiarize without forcing them to memorize the multiplication. Another thing is that I am more concern about the concept of why we need multiplication and how it is done.
When I was a kid or in grade 3 it came to the point that I am doubting already how come we need to memorize, what is the whole point of memorizing it then it was not totally explained to us regarding the concept. Then you need to be speed because of that. Whereas in Singapore Math it explains each detail about the repetitive addition.
3 people like this
3 responses
@FourWalls (62193)
• United States
6 Dec 20
I’m old, and that’s how I learned....the multiplication tables. I don’t feel I was traumatized by it, and it has proven a good thing because I can do math in my head while others are reaching for the calculator in their smartphone! 
2 people like this
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
6 Dec 20
I think it's not a good idea to make pupils learn something by heart without explaining the topic beforehand. But when it has been explained and the pupils have understood it - in this case multiplication - I think that memorising the tables is not a bad thing.
I remember that when I was at school, our teacher of maths made a game out of multiplication, division, etc. We all had to stand up, he asked a question and the pupil who knew the answer first could sit down. We were all eager not to be the last one standing.
But no fun was made of the last pupil. That's very important.
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (12598)
• Ireland
6 Dec 20
@maluse Basic arithmetic still baffles me considerably. At school I had some bizarre methods of memorising multiplication methods. For 9 X 5 I imagined an English lady called Dorothy who we knew saying “nine fives are forty five” in her own inimitable way. Her husband said gruffly “nine sixes are fifty four”. I had an entire cast of my parents’ friends helping me out.
3 people like this
