DS is in Y3. The school told us that as of this year the maths methods were changing due to new curriculum. Unfortunately there has been little communication beyond this.
At parents eve I was told that DS was doing well in maths, but he seems to have little confidence in his ability.
I've found it hard to support him as I'm unsure about the new methods, and feel like I might be confusing him more if I'm not doing things in the way he has been shown.
I've asked school for more info but they haven't been forthcoming. I recently looked at his maths books in an effort to try to decipher the current methods, unfortunately only his most recent book was available so I didn't get much to go on.
This weeks homework is to 'show your knowledge of the column method of multiplication. He is struggling with this and I want to help him. In the maths book there was only one bit of multiplication and the method was quite strange compared to my way of doing long multiplication- it is done in two steps so first the 'top' number is multiplied by the units of the multiplier, and then it is again multiplied by the 'tens' of the multiplier. Lastly the two answers are added together. Apologies for my rubbish explains toon, I'm hoping someone will get it!
Is this the column method? I've tried to google it but I've got very confused! I would be so grateful if someone could point me to something in the internet which DS and I could work through together on this!
I know that really I should be talking to his teacher, but she is unavailable in the mornings and I don't often pick DS up myself so afternoons are tricky. She has been very unhelpful so far when I've asked for help with maths methods- so I thought I would turn to mumsnet.