The Math Facts

Math becomes extremely challenging when students do not have a solid 

foundation in math. That foundation begins with mastering the addition, 

subtraction and multiplication facts. 

Ask any parent of a student in fourth grade or above how their child is doing in 

math.  If the parent says that their child is struggling in math, it is most likely 

because he/she never mastered the addition, subtraction and multiplication facts. 

Ask any teacher in fourth grade or above what their greatest challenge is in 

teaching math.  They, most likely, will tell you that it is that their students do not 

know the basic math facts.  High school teachers say the same thing. 

If math is challenging now, it will only get more challenging and frustrating as your child moves on from grade to grade.  A student can slide by through third grade without mastering the math facts even though they will be frustrated and feel themselves falling behind.  Starting in fourth grade, math will become more and more difficult to keep up with as students are expected to apply the math facts to multi-step concepts such as long division, fractions, decimals and algebra.

Many teachers and parents instruct their kids to use a counting method (count on their fingers or in their head or skip counting) to get answers.  Children will only get the answer by counting.  They cannot establish a solid foundation in math by counting. They need to be able to commit the math facts to memory for 

automatic recall. There is no time to count as children progress in math.  When 

children are occupied with counting to get answers, they are not able to give their full attention and focus to learning the new concepts being taught. 

Children usually learn to count when they are 4 or 5 years old.  Counting is 

important at that age so that they can understand the relationship between 

numbers and quantities. When children begin learning the operations of addition 

and subtraction they must learn the concept of putting numbers together and 

taking them apart.  If they continue to count they will be able to get the correct 

answer, but all they will be doing is counting, something they probably learned to do when they were 4 or 5 years old.  They will not be learning the concept of 

addition and subtraction. Children need to comprehend the concept of addition 

subtraction, and multiplication in order to understand how these operations 

relate to the multi-step concepts that they will be learning as they progress from 

grade to grade.