Honeybun has a knack for getting really frustrated with new math concepts. Getting her to even attempt regrouping (borrowing with subtraction) took me weeks and involved a lot of crying, from both of us. But she eventually got it and even though she still screams “I don’t know how to do this!” every time she encounters it, she manages to get the work done.
A year ago she proclaimed that she would never be able to do multiplication. But we’ve slowly worked through the idea of multiplication, exploring different ways to look at the concept of what multiplication is and how it is used and she’s become pretty comfortable with it. Until this:
Multi-digit multiplication.
Turning the page, you would have thought I murdered a kitten right there on the kitchen table with the look of horror and despair that quickly spread across her face.
I explained to her it wasn’t that hard, all it is is doing the steps she already knew multiple times. I started to explain that it’s like cooking, once you know how to make something, it’s doesn’t matter how many people you’re cooking for. The steps are the same.
“Like making a bowl of cereal!”
“Yes, exactly like making a bowl of cereal. Once you know how to make a bowl of cereal, you can easily make enough for everyone, you just have to repeat the same steps multiple times.”
She got it! She actually got it! We found a way to relate math to a less scary concept and she quickly and easily completed the work. I joked the rest of the time while she practiced and completed the work to just keep making me more bowls of cereal, and she did!
Until the next page. When she had to multiply two double-digit numbers. “I’m never going to be able to do that!”
“Sure you can. This just like making oatmeal. It’s basically the same as making cereal there’s just a few extra steps like stirring and putting it in the microwave.” I held my breath and waited for the full-on meltdown.
“oh.”
I worked through a problem to show her how to do it and she watched intently. I had her help me with a few more then let her try. She didn’t get it right away and needed talked through the steps and it took us a few tries to get through the whole page and had plenty of “I just can’t do it, it’s too hard!” moments but I kept reminding her that she’s just making oatmeal. Add the cereal and milk (multiply the ones) then stir (pull down the zero), add your goodies (multiply the tens), and pop it in the microwave (add.)
I’m sure we’ll have more arguments over her ability to multiply larger numbers as we continue on in her math learning journey but she managed to do some thousands times single-digit problems on her own (“just making a lot of bowls of cereal!”) and is slowly gaining confidence.
Now I can only hope that long-division doesn’t send us both off the deep end!
