Multiple-Digit Math Fun

By Clarence Thompson

One of our last sessions before the winter break consisted of teaching multiple-digit operations to some of our kids.  We were pleased to see that kids as young as six are perfectly capable of grasping multiple-digit addition without carrying, and that kids as young as eight are perfectly capable of grasping the multiple-digit multiplication algorithm.  Our kids were also quite pleased, as can be seen from the video below:

Some of our older kids are now fully competent in executing the four basic operations on single-digit and multiple-digit problems, and this has gotten me thinking - especially concerning a statement made by W. Stephen Wilson in his paper titled, "Elementary School Mathematics Priorities."  (Wilson's paper has served as a roadmap for what we are doing in the Flying University Project, by the way.)  The statement of interest is this: "Ultimately, solving problems is what mathematics is all about."  And, "Mathematics is an activity.  It is not enough to believe you understand something in mathematics.  You must be able to do something with it."  In order to emphasize the relevance of arithmetic to daily life, we are thinking of developing a series of hands-on exercises involving the use of math to design and build things.  The hope is that these exercises will show kids the real-life rewards of correctly using math as well as the real-life consequences of getting their math wrong!