The Best of Times

It is a tale of two classrooms, the best at times and the worst at times. In Mrs. DePoint's class, it has been a winter of despair as her students struggle to learn multiplication. They have grown weary and discouraged by the age-old approach of memorizing the times tables. Yet just across the hall, hope prevails. A revolution is taking place! Students are calculating answers nimbly in their heads. They are deriving formulas and solving problems. They are enjoying math ...

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Do you remember learning to spell? Remember how much easier it was once you could sound out words and letters? With a basic understanding and a few rules, all of a sudden spelling wasn't so hard! Now think back to when you learned to multiply. If you were like most people, you probably memorized your times tables. There was very little understanding or real math involved, just a lot of repetition and maybe a trick or two like using your knuckles to remember the nines table. But was that the best way to learn?

Instead, wouldn't it be great if by understanding math better you could learn to multiply numbers of any size, not just the ones you memorize? I believe it's possible. By being clever and using a little common sense, kids can learn to multiply large and small numbers quickly and dependably. Multiply by four? Just double twice. Multiply by five? First multiply by ten, then take half. These strategies are simple and easy to remember because they make sense. There's no fancy math involved, just straightforward techniques that really work.

I wrote The Best of Times to help kids (ages 7-10) master their times tables. But instead of taking a short-term approach based on repetition and memorization, my focus is on the longer-term and helping children develop a sounder, more intuitive understanding of multiplication. I use poems and pictures to convey and clarify concepts, and throughout the book, I challenge readers to apply what they've learned so they see firsthand how fun and rewarding problem-solving can be. In writing The Grapes of Math, Math for All Seasons, and now The Best of Times, my goal is to inspire kids to seek a deeper, more satisfying understanding of math. It is this journey of learning that truly is the best of times!

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