To wonder what is actually being taught...

[HereWeGoRound]

My step daughter is almost 9, and very bright (flagged as gifted at school). She just asked me if multiplying 16 by 4 is a "real thing". I wasn't quite sure what she meant but she explained that "it's not in the times tables so I thought it wasn't allowed".
AIBU to think her teacher is putting too much emphasis on times tables and kids are completely missing the wider picture, or is this just my step daughter having an odd moment? She had some tests recently and couldn't do anything involving multiples of money (John buys 4 apples at 20p each. How much does he spend?) Now I understand why she left them out! If only they'd been 12p each....

I imagine her teacher is focusing on the times tables first because they (arguably) underpin the rest of your DC's mathematical understanding. I expect she will move onto multiplying larger numbers in due course.

That's the strange thing. They've already done multiplacation of larger numbers. I've helped her with the homeworks and she seemed to understand it at the time. Today she was specifically practising her times tables, and then asked the question. I have explained that she only needs to learn by heart the multiples up to 12, but yes, everything above 12 is "allowed" to be multiplied too.

How much do you do with her at home? I think teaching comes yes, from school, but also from parents (and step parents) it is easy to incorporate when doing the shopping for example. This tin of beans if 40p and we need five.

Fwiw at nine I would imagine she is in year four or five? Year four expected standard (ithink) is two digit by one digit and year five is two digit by two digit multiplication.

Does she have very rigid thinking in other areas too?

I would say that's just her having an odd moment. Not a stealth boast but my children (older then yours) are both very bright but can be remarkably dim sometimes about very obvious day to day things!

Maybe have a chat about how 16 x 4 is the same as 4 x 16, is the same as (10 x 4) + (6 x 4) etc.

Money can be confusing- I would sit down and make piles of equivalent amounts- 1 pound coin, 2 50's, 5 20's and so on.

GetThrough, we do lots. This is just one thing we didn't know she didn't know...or she did know but has been confused about. She's in the top set for maths at school but struggles with homework, and says (with regards to most of her maths homework) that she hasn't been taught it in class. I don't know if that's true or that she just doesn't remember, but we go through an example or two and she picks it up straight away.

Apologies, having a bad day, I didn't mean to word it so it sounded like you didn't.