As students are learning fundamental multiplication facts, many parents have likely heard the following phrases from their children:

“Why do I need to know this? I’ll just use a calculator.”
“When will I ever need this in real life?”

As adults, we recognize how important it is to recall multiplication facts, but how do you answer your students when they ask you, “why is multiplication important?” Helping children understand the significance of multiplication goes beyond just providing an answer; it involves explaining how mastering this mathematics skill benefits them in everyday life and in their education.

Here are 4 answers that may help you navigate that question.

Why Is Multiplication Important?

1) They Are a Stepping Stone

Much like building a house, you need a strong foundation to build math skills that will withstand the test of time. Along with addition and subtraction, basic multiplication and division is one of those foundational skill sets that need to be secure before moving on to more complex math lessons. Developing math skills from a young age is crucial, as it supports logical thinking and problem-solving abilities. It’s not uncommon for students who are missing this strong foundational knowledge to begin struggling right around the time they are learning long division.

Teaching multiplication effectively and emphasizing the concept and its value prepares students for more complex math tasks in the future. This is particularly important in primary school, where mastering basic multiplication lays the groundwork for understanding more complicated equations and concepts. Recognizing the importance of this foundational skill can significantly boost a child’s confidence in their education and overall mathematical ability.

Math is sequential, and mathematical concepts are built upon one another. With a solid knowledge base of mathematics education, it becomes easier to learn and master new concepts.

2) They Boost Confidence

As students progress to more complex math problems, those who have not mastered multiplication facts have an increasingly hard time completing these problems. If these facts are missing from their knowledge base, the constant struggle and frustration can result in your student losing their confidence and ability to learn and succeed with math.

Taking the time to ensure facts are committed to memory or pausing to address any gaps with multiplication fact mastery can help boost your student’s own ability and confidence. When your student is working on a complex problem and is able to pull the needed facts from memory to help them solve the problem, that moment is often a turning point for the wary math student. The process of learning multiplication not only aids in arithmetic proficiency but also enhances overall cognitive development.

3) Knowing Your Facts Helps You Stay Engaged

Can you relate to this situation?

You’re working on solving a complex problem and get to a point where you are just mentally exhausted and need to step away. Your mental energy has been spent, and you are no longer engaged in solving the problem.

Students can experience the same thing when working on new math concepts. As your student works to solve a math problem, they will often need to pause and reallocate their mental energy to calculate a fact. If, for example, in order to calculate that fact, they need to skip count, consult a multiplication chart, use a calculator, or use some other strategy, they are increasing the possibility of errors and increasing the time spent on the problem. This increase in both the time and effort often leads to frustration.

Teaching multiplication helps in developing long-term memory, making it easier to grasp and master more advanced concepts later on. By being able to immediately recall multiplication facts, your student’s mental energy can stay fully engaged on the mathematics problem at hand, and their mental energy is not consumed by switching back and forth to work on both math facts and the new concept. This is crucial as it prepares students for various situations where these skills are often applied, both inside and outside the classroom.

4) Multiplication Skills Are Used in Real Life

The earliest examples of multiplication tables can be traced back to over 4,000 years ago by the Babylonians, who utilized these tables to help them build and trade. Your student is likely not trading furs or using bricks to build a home, but there are a number of ways that they can use multiplication in everyday life.

• Doubling or tripling a recipe – How many cups or tablespoons will you need to make a double batch of brownies?
  
• Setting the table – each table can seat 6 people, you’ve set 6 tables. How many people will you be able to invite to sit?
  
• Chores and screen time – For every chore completed, you receive 5 minutes of screen time. On Wednesday, you’ve completed 3 chores; how much screen time have you collected?
  
• Soccer practice snacks – There are 8 players on the soccer team, so it’s your turn to bring a snack to practice. Each player will get a juice, a piece of fruit, and a sweet treat (3 items). How many items will you need to bring to practice?

Multiplication is often a stepping stone to understanding more complex mathematical concepts like fractions, algebra, statistics, and probability, which are essential parts of a child’s school education. Additionally, multiplication skills benefit in handling money, time, and resources, proving useful in daily decisions and tasks. This foundational knowledge prepares students not only for school but also for practical problem-solving in their future adult life.

Often, multiplication facts are presented with rote memorization drills, leading to students’ common questions of, “Why do I need this?” For example, learning times tables is a common method for mastering multiplication, but there are also more engaging and effective approaches. Using blocks allows students to visualize and interact with multiplication concepts, making the learning process more hands-on and intuitive. This method helps students understand the underlying principles of multiplication in a more dynamic way than relying solely on memorization. One of Demme Learning’s objectives is to develop programs that focus on mastering concepts but also building a sense of understanding. Demme Learning’s programs go beyond just memorization to show how the concepts can be applied practically in real life.