Multiplication

[Kitty]

When do children do multiplication in France?

My son, aged 8 and in CE2, hasn't started them yet.

 

[tetley]

You could give him a head start and practice the tables with him. 

I have a daughter in cm1 and she is now doing long multiplication, and they use a different method to how I learnt.....so I have to suss out what the method is before I can help with homework.  (This was long numbers like 856x357).

[Kitty]

Thanks Tetley.  He already knows quite a few of his tables.  He is still doing adding and taking away though.  When he did some tables in his school rough book, the teacher said they were 'inutile'.  Talk about stifling initiative.  She also said this when he did some harder takings-away in the same book.

 

[Kitty]

I have just had the answer to my original post.  My son (in CE2) came home today with his first times tables - but only x1, x2 and x3.

When he left the UK last July (end of Year 3), he was expected to know all his times tables.  Is the maths syllabus in France behind the one in the UK for the age equivalent?

[Anton Redman]

In a world in which I still hear 4 20 10 8 instead of 98 and still want to say nonante et septante despite the risk of being taken for Suisse, Belgique, Quebequios or worst still Parisian best of luck to him

[chirpy]

I would teach times tablea at home as the ability to use mental arithmatic is one of the most useful tools in life as especially when everyone uses calculaters and pressing by error the wrong key is not detected .

you can always get a rough idea ofthe answer if you are good at mental arithmetic.

never looked back since i gave up the slate and chalk when I was only 6years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.[:)][:P]

Very useful in supermarkets when they give you a huge unexpected bill as youngster at till pressed wrong key .

[trizzy]

Hi, My daughter started french school in CM1 and already knew how to do long multiplication from the UK.  However although she was getting all the answers correct, her work was being marked as wrong because her method was differant to what was being taught in the school here.  In CM2 now she is being taught how to do long multiplication (the modern way apparently) the same as what she knew originally from the UK!........Lucky girl, she also has to teach the rest of the class as well, because now they're confused!

I asked the teacher this year why my daughter needs to be confused yet again.  Apparently its because some tutors will only recognise the old way as being the right way, but yet the system is changing so the students will need to know both ways.  Does anyone else have similar knowledge of this, or equally confused children?

 

[Owens88]

The British education system allows for many ways to be marked 'correct' and good teachers will teach more than one way as different kids pick up on different methods.

p.s. there are loads of good web sites to keep in touch from bbc bitesize etc.

[Helen]

It appears that the  French system is more rigid than that in the UK.( particularly the modern numeracy curriculum which encourages children to use strategies which work for them) but I wonder if the teachers response shows more about his or her confidence with maths than your daughters ability. I know that I  learnt arithmetic in a very formal, rigid  manner and it was only when I learnt to teach it with a variety of methods that I began to truly understand the concepts.

If its any consololation one teacher in the  UK told us that our  son needed remedial maths classes, possibly because he never showed his working and was very untidy. He didn't as he had a very good understanding (far better than mine),  he got an A  at  A level and has a PhD in physical chemistry[:)]