This is a very helpful book, and I wish (a) we had had it much sooner; and (b) could use it to allow our daughter to show her work. This is not a book you complete in a few sittings, so it is best to start before they start studying multiplying and dividing at school.

Pros: You'll find lots of help and cheer-leading as you use this book to learn multiplication and division.

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I am very impressed with this book! I have always loved math when I was in school, and we have 4 children, ages, 2,5,8 and 19. This was used to help our 8 year old son, who actually is pretty good at math, however, due to an illness, missed a lot of school in his last year. (2nd grade). We have been buying and searching for and printing, all kinds of lessons, for all the kids actually. But specifically for our 8 year old. Just so he stays on track with his grade and schoolwork.
Math is one of the subjects that seems that if you don't catch it at the beginning, you may end up having a very hard time for the rest of the lesson. Tests and homework and grades, all count on this, and when you just barely pass 1 section, and get moved onto the next, you can certainly end up hating math, and having a rough time for the rest of your school career. not to mention real life, when you really do have to use math in all kinds of daily situations!
Math to me, is extremely important, and sometimes it gets hard to help your child since they always seem to change the way they teach them in school. Especially when they have to show work! Which was always something I had trouble with in school because I could do the math in my head, have the right answer, and get a bad mark because i didn't show my work.
No matter how many we have tried to help the 2 children that have had and are in school , with math, there has always been a bit of confusion, and misunderstanding. With this book, our son literally opened it up, took a piece of paper, and a pencil, and started with page 1.
He really maybe spent about 5 minutes, like the book claims, and was so proud and yelling "Oh mom!! I know how to multiply!!" lol! He loved the fact that he figured this out on his own and was able to understand it, as it is explained very clearly, and it seems so easy! To easy actually!
If you can count, you really can multiply and divide. really, what is even more amazing, is that Genevive, our 5 year old who will be starting school this year, can count, AND was easily able to do some (very simple), multiplication! This is something that really boosted her ego!
Aaron can not wait for school, and finds something everyday to multiply and divide, lol, he loves school and learning so much!
I recommend this book for any parent who would like to help their children gain confidence. You don't have to be having trouble in math just to use this! This book will be used over and over and over, and you can share the concept with friends and relatives! (or just recommend they get this book:)

** We were given a copy of this book in return for our honest review ** ( )

When I read through the book I found myself wishing I had found this a few years ago when my son was at the stage of learning his multiplication and division. He was so enthusiastic to sit go through his times tables but when he became stuck and just couldn't remember seeing the disappointment in his eyes, especially with the 6x, 7x and 8x tables. The book would have been such a valuable tool for both myself and my son.

The simple, yet clever method not only covers basic multiplication in detail, it also covers what's the missing number, both short and long multiplication and division sums and progresses onto slightly more advanced areas such as square root and the least common multiple. The author has also included some lovely educational quotes throughout the book to inspire.

I found the book very easy to read and understand from the simple instructions and clear diagrams. The numerous diagrams are spread out nicely throughout the different stages of the book and you also benefit from extra examples at each stage to reiterate the problems and solutions. For a parent or teacher it is very quick to read through and digest and be able to share the knowledge with the child. For a child it makes learning, what can be a difficult subject, fun and enjoyable. What I think makes it all work is the fact that they visually and physically see the problem being solved in the steps, which makes it so much easier for them to remember.

I would definitely recommend this book to any young mathematician and of course their helper !! ( )

Multiply and Divide with Sticks and Steps
By Maureen Stearns

The concept of book is to simplify multiplication and division so that regardless of whether or not a student can memorize the times table, they will always have a strategy that helps them to be able to figure out the answer, how to get it and why that number makes sense. This method of counting tally marks help to reduce errors in counting and increase confidence in mathematics.

There are large diagrams that help to explain the reasoning of multiplication and this method of multiplying. The vocabulary used is also broken down and made easier to follow allowing this method to be taught to any child that has mastered addition. The concept of this method is easy to catch on to and resembles the traditional tally mark way of multiplying with the exception of the “steps” which is the reason for the ease and accuracy of this strategy. The method is then taken to the next level to show how it can work for division.

The addition of quotes and proverbs provide encouragement and inspiration for the readers while the larger print on large pages leaves no doubt about how easy this method is to learn. Tested the method and concepts on my own children and discovered that having this tool in their reach took the stress of memorizing the times table away and actually allowed them to start to remember their times table quicker. The old adage about learning for yourself will stick with you longer than just being told something really stands up to the test when it comes to multiplication and division. Knowing how and why that number is the right answer makes it easier to remember what the number is.

This method is so simple to teach and easy to use that I find it surprising that it isn’t already widely used, maybe it is in some areas. I do know that the ease of use alone has allowed my youngest the confidence to make a great improvement in the math scores brought home from 3rd grade. The confidence alone has increased the scores, but the method behind it also helps with those tricky problems.
2/25/11 ( )