School years › Homework help
Homework help: how math is taught now
How your child is taught it now: area models, number bonds, open number lines and more, each with a picture and a worked example.
- Area model multiplication, explained for parentsWhat the box method is, why schools teach it, and a worked example (23 × 14) with a picture, plus how it connects to the method you learned.
- Partial products multiplication, explained for parentsHow the partial products method works, with worked examples (23 × 14 and 347 × 6), why it's taught, and how it leads to the standard algorithm.
- Number bonds, explained for parentsWhat a number bond is, how it shows addition and subtraction together, the ten pairs that make 10, and how to practice at home.
- Open number line addition and subtraction, explained for parentsHow children add and subtract with jumps on an open number line, with worked examples (38 + 25 and 63 − 38), and how to help.
- Lattice multiplication, explained for parentsHow lattice multiplication works, step by step with a picture (46 × 23), what it's good for, and what to ask the teacher about it.
- Fraction strips, explained for parentsHow fraction strips show equal fractions, compare fractions and add fractions with different denominators, with a picture and worked examples.
- The standard algorithm, and when your child learns itCarrying, borrowing and long multiplication (the methods most parents learned), when the Common Core expects each, and how today's methods lead to them.
- Making ten: the addition strategy, explained for parentsHow children add numbers like 8 + 5 by making a ten first, with ten-frame pictures, worked examples and games to play at home.
Practice at your child's level
Peabody, our site for children, has free stories and learning games written at each reading level and math grade, with no sign-up. Start where your child is comfortable, not where the calendar says.
- Start reading on Peabody Peabody asks your child's grade, starts the stories a little under it, and moves the level as books run easy or hard.
- Reading levels and math by grade Where each grade starts, and a page for every level and math path.
- The free library Stories sorted by level, to read on screen.
- Decodable readers Stories built from the sounds a beginning reader has been taught.