School is officially in session. We are a few weeks in, learning the ropes to Grayson's 4th grade class and Asher's Kindergarten room. It is so fun to see the different personalities of my school children and especially fun to find joy in the talents they each posses. After a couple hours of homework tonight, I was reminded of the pride I take in Grayson's academic skills and wanted to now take my chance to brag about his abilities. Hopefully this post might help some of you other mothers, struggling with ways to help your children learn their times tables- especially their 11's.
So earlier in the summer, my boys found the DVD set "School House Rock". Do you remember those Saturday morning cartoon segments?
"School House Rock" is a compilation of unique educational songs that teach everything from the importance of saving money, to what conjunctions are, to math, to history. They would play during Saturday morning cartoons when I was a kid- made in the late 70's early 80's and full of catchy tunes.
Well they found the DVDs we have and decided to put them in DVD player in the car. We spent the next few weeks listening to the songs of "School House Rock" as we drove in the car and I was amazed at how much my kids learned! Grayson can sing a whole song about the revolutionary war, Asher and Beck learned what pronouns are, and all 3 of them are very much aware of what interest is if they were to ever take out a loan. During one of our drives, Grayson said to me, "Mom, I know a trick to multiply by 11's."
He had just watched a song about 11's on the DVD, so I supposed he was going to tell me what it had told him- but I was wrong. As he watched the cartoon numbers fly across the screen, he visually saw a trick that I had never heard of- and all I've told since, have never heard of it either.
"It goes like this," he explained. "If you're multiplying a double digit number by 11 all you have to do is add the 2 numbers together and put it in the middle. For example, 23 x 11 equals 253. You add 2 + 3 and get 5. You put the 5 in the middle of 2 and 3 and you get your answer!"
I was skeptical- "Are you sure that always works? What if it is a double digit number that adds up to a double digit number? For example, 77 x 11? The answer to that is obviously not 7147." I thought I'd stumped him, as I quickly tried to do the problem in my head by visualizing myself writing the problem down and carrying the 1, etc. etc."
"Easy." Grayson responded. "If you add 7 + 7 you get 14. Just put the 4 in the middle and add the 1 to the first 7. So you get 847."
"No way, we have to try this with a calculator," I said.
It worked- every time it works. Just carry the extra number and add it to the hundreds place.
Gray taught me this trick as we drove in the car. He didn't learn it at school, he saw it as the numbers flew across the screen from "School House Rock". Pretty impressive huh? It is fun to see a little mind work and teach his old mom something already- at the age of 9!
I hope this little tidbit helps any of you out there in your future school year- I know the more shortcuts and tricks we know as mothers, the better. I also know that I'm in for it, my kids will be able to outsmart me quicker than I ever imagined.
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