Parent Involvement and Awareness:

How to Teach Your Children to Do

Mental MathPart 1
by Paul Giganti, Jr., CMC Math Festival Program
pgiganti@berkeley.edu

t is important that everybody learn to do

some calculations mentally when paper
and pencil or a calculator is not handy.
This article, Part 1, suggests a few beginnning
mental math strategies that a parent might
help a child learn at home.
Mental math should not be confused with the
memorization of basic mathematics facts
such as knowing the times-tables by heart.
While memorizing basic facts makes mental
math easier, doing mathematics mentally
requires both memorized facts and the
manipulation (strategies) of numbers and
operationsin order to solve problems that are
much more complex than the simple number
facts we can easily memorize.
The following mental math strategies are
arranged in general order from the easiest
strategies children can learn to perform in
their head to more difficult and challenging
mental math gymnastics.

Strategies for Addition

Doing addition problems in your head is

probably the best way to start doing mental
math. Even young children5, 6, and 7 yearoldscan do the easiest strategies below.
While the first few may seem trivial to adults,
they are a good way for children to begin
learning to do mental math.
When the words hearing and saying are
used in these strategies, they mean hearing in
your head and saying in your head.
Adding One
Adding one means hearing a number, then
saying one number upor counting up one
number. The best way to introduce this to
your children is to say a number out loud and
then, after allowing them time to think, have
them tell you the next higher number. Make it
March 2013

fun by having your children tell you a number

and then you tell them the next number. Start
with low numbers and, when your children are
able to count higher, move to larger numbers.
Adding Two
Adding two means hearing a number, then
saying the number that is two more. To do
this, children can either mentally add two or
count up by two. If you first teach your
children to count by twos: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, . . . etc.,
it will be easier for them to add two mentally.
However, remember that they will also have
to learn how to count by the odd numbers: 1,
3, 5, 7, 9, . . . Also, if children understand that
any odd number, plus 2, will always be
another odd number, and that any even
number, plus two, will always be another
even number, these mathematics concepts can
help them check their answers mentally.
Counting-On
Counting-on is one of the simple but powerful
mental math strategies children can learn and
is the easiest for most studentsmany
children figure out this strategy naturally.
Counting-on means a child mentally says the
biggest number to add, and then counts-up
the second number, one (or two) at a time. For
example, in the equation 5 + 3, you start with
the 5 in your head, and then count up: . . . 6, 7,
8. You might suggest to your children that if
they want to add 2 + 6 in their head, they
should start with the bigger number, in this
case 6, and count up (. . . 7, 8) since, with
addition, you can add numbers in any order
and get the same answerorder does not
matter. This is called the commutative property
of addition.
When mentally counting-on, children and
adults often resort to using their fingers to
count up (or down), simultaneously counting
on their fingers while they count in their

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heads. If your children use this handy device,

let them. It is not harmful if it helps to make
counting-on a useful mental math strategy.
Making-Ten(s)
Since ten is the basis of our number system,
students who know all the single-digit
combinations that equal 10 can make good use
of them in doing mental math. The makingten strategy involves memorizing the number
combinations that add to ten: 7 + 3, 8 + 2, 5 +
5, etc.they are not as useful if children need
to think hard to remember these combinations.
Once students memorize these, counting-on or
other strategies become easier. For example, 6 +
4 = 10 may be a trivial problem, but if you know
your combinations of ten, this strategy can then
be extended to harder problems, such as 76 + 4,
since 76 + 4 = 70 + 6 + 4 = 70 + 10 = 80easy!
Rearrange Numbers and Operations
On paper, we tend to calculate with numbers
in the order they are given. Doing
mathematics mentally frees us to do
calculations in the order we choose and can do
more easily. For example, if we do 6 3 + 2 + 4
+ 8 in our heads, we can rearrange it as (6 + 4)
+ (2 + 8) 3two combinations of 10, then
subtract 3 last. However, to do this, a child must
be able to remember the numbers and rearrange
them mentally. This is hard for some people.
Visualizing A Mental Number Line
Number lines, such as those found on the wall
in many classrooms, are a visual model of our
number system and can be very helpful for
children who need to see how numbers are
logically arranged. If children can close their
eyes and visualize a mental number line, this
too can be helpful in doing mental math. The
best way to help students picture a number
line is to post a paper number line in your
home where your children can see it and use it
regularly when they do mathematics. They
will begin to notice all the wonderful number
patterns, the twos, the fives, the tensand
many more. If they can then see the number
line when they close their eyes, they can use
these patterns to do mental math.
Adding Ten
The number line can teach students that adding
ten is easy because ten is an easy jump up the

number line. No matter what number you start

with, the ones digit stays the same but the
tens digit increases by one. For example: 5 + 10
= 15, 12 + 10 = 22, 23 + 10 = 33, etc.
Adding Nine
Once adding ten is easy to do, adding nine is
the next strategy to learn. To add nine, a
student just adds ten, and then counts down by
one. A child would mentally say 5 + 9 = 5 + 10
1 = 15 1. Once understood, this mental math
strategy is almost as simple as adding ten.
Double Numbers
Making use of doubles5 + 5, 7 + 7, etc.is a
bit harder, but can be very useful for mental
math. Doubles come up often in calculations,
so if all the single-digit doubles are memorized,
students can combine these known facts with
the mental math strategies already mentioned.
For example, when faced with the problem 76
+ 6, students can think of it as 70 + 6 + 6. If
they remember that 6 + 6 = 12, then they can
rearrange the problem as 70 + 12, and then
again rearrange the problem as 70 + 10 + 2 =
82making it an easy mental math problem.
Near-Doubles
Once students have memorized their doubles,
the use of near-doubles in mental math
follows easily. For example, in the expression
5 + 6, if students first remember the double, 5
+ 5 = 10, then it is easy to add one more,
getting an answer of 11. Children actually do
not have to memorize the near-doubles if they
know their doubles. For example, in the
equation 37 + 8, when children use the neardoubles strategy, it follows that 30 + 7 + 7 + 1
= 30 + 14 + 1 = 44 + 1 = 45.
Front-end Addition
We frequently do mathematics differently in
our heads than we do with paper and pencil.
The typical way to add a pair of two-digit
numbers is to add the digits in the ones place
first, carry ten if necessary, add the digits in
the tens place next, and finish by combining
the tens and ones results. However, many
people can keep track of these calculations
more easily in their minds if they reverse this
orderadding the tens first, remembering
that number, then adding the ones, and only

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Volume 37, Number 3

then combining the tens and ones. For

example, in the problem 65 + 26, if students
first mentally calculate 60 + 20 = 80, the
number 80 is pretty easy to rememberto
store away mentally for a few moments. If
they then add the ones, 5 + 6 = 11, they can
recall the easily remembered number, and
compute 80 + 11 = 91. Not everyone prefers
front-end addition, but those who do often
use this strategy without thinking about it.
Friendly Numbers Strategy
Certain number pairs go together nicely and
are easy to work with in our heads; we call
these friendly numbers.For example, 75 + 25
totals 100we know this well from using
money. Although we do not often get many
problems as simple as 75 + 25, we can
combine this friendly number strategy with
other mental math strategies. For example, to
add 78 + 25 students would instead think 75 +
25 + 3, changing it into two friendly numbers
and one easily added number instead.

In Part 2 of this series, I will share mental math

strategies for sraction, multiplication, division,
decimals and percents.
Permission is granted to reproduce and share this
article for instructional use by parents, guardians,
teachers, and familiesprovided it is duplicated
with full credit given to the author, the California
Mathematics Council, and its Journal, the
ComMuniCator.

Balancing Strategy
Balancing numbers before you add them is a
variation of the friendly number strategy. This
strategy involves borrowing one or more
from one number and trading it to the other
number to make two numbers that are
friendly. For example, 68 + 57 are not friendly
numbers, but if you mentally borrow 2 from
57 and add it to the 68, the problem now
becomes 70 + 55a much easier problem to
do mentally.

A Bit of Mental Math Advice

For some students these mental math

strategies will be interesting and funand
may even make them feel mathematically
powerful. However, what appeals to one child
may be uninteresting and hard to another. If
there is one important bit of advice before you
share any of these strategies with your
children, it is: go slow and proceed only IF
your children enjoy learning how to do
mathematics in their head. A few minutes of
playing with mental math are plentydo not
make it tedious. If learning mental math tricks
is not fun for your children, it is best if you
stop and look for other areas of mathematics,
such as geometry or puzzles, that will appeal
to your children more than mental math.
March 2013

CMC ComMuniCator

Parent Involvement and Awareness:

How to Teach Your Children to Do

Mental MathPart 2
by Paul Giganti, Jr., CMC Math Festival Program
pgiganti@berkeley.edu

n Part 1 of this series I introduced many

strategies that work well for mental
calculations. I concentrated mostly on mental
math addition strategies since they are the
simplest and are the most common in use.
This article takes the next step with mental
math strategies by expanding to subtraction,
multiplication, division, and percent.
You will probably find that these strategies are
a bit more complex than the addition mental
math strategies. But once you have mastered
the mental math addition strategies, you will
be able to use them with mental math
strategies for other operationsbecause all
mathematics is tied together beautifully. For
example, it helps to learn subtraction if you
see subtraction as addition in reverse!
A warning to parents: Do not try to teach the
strategies in this part to your children until
they are comfortable with many of the addition
strategies in Part 1!
The following mental math strategies are
arranged in sections by mathematical
operation, but they do not necessarily have to
be learned in this order.
Strategies for Subtraction
Subtracting One
This is a great place to start with really young
children. Subtracting one means hearing a
number, then saying the number that is one
down from itor counting back one number.
The best way to introduce this to your
children is to say a number out loud and have
them tell you the next lower number. Make it
fun by having your children tell you a
number, and then you tell them the number
that is one less. Start with low numbers and,
as your children are able to count higher,
move to larger numbers. Make it fun.
June 2013

Counting Back
Children start with a number and count
backwards. For example, if the problem is 5
2, children say 5 in their heads, then count
back by 1 twice4, 3. Note: This strategy is
only easy for subtracting small numbers such
as 1, 2, or 3. However, if you will allow your
children to use their fingers, they may be able
to subtract up to 10 this wayfolding down
one finger at a time as they subtract one each
time in their head.
Imagine a Number Line
All things are easier with visual aides, and images
in your head are visuals that can help you do
mental math. If your children are familiar with a
number line (you DO have one up on the wall in
their room, right?) then they can see the
number line when they count backwards.
If You Would Rather Add Than Subtract
Once children learn that addition and
subtraction are reverse operations, they can do
the addition instead of subtraction in simple
problems, if they prefer. For example, in the
problem 15 8, they could instead ask
themselves what they would need to add to 8
to get to 15, or 8 + 7 = 15. Therefore 15 8 = 7
Subtracting Ten
Once students learn that adding ten is easy
because ten is an easy jump UP the number
line, it is easy to learn to subtract 10 by
making that jump in reverse. No matter what
number you start with, the ones digit stays the
same but the tens digit decreases by one when
you subtract 10. For example: 35 10 = 25 and
47 10 = 37.
Subtracting Nine
For subtracting 9, students should use two
strategies they already know: subtracting 10
and adding 1. When subtracting 9, children

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just subtract 10 (see above) and then count up

by one. Children would mentally say 23 9 is
the same as 23 10 + 1, or 13 + 1 = 14. Once
understood, this mental math strategy is
almost as easy as adding ten.
The No-Regrouping Strategy
When students are called upon to subtract
two- or three-digit numbers, the first question
to askbefore any subtractingis: If I was
doing this problem on paper, would I need to
borrow (regroup), or can I simply subtract
each place value from left to right?To
subtract 368 125, think 300 100 = 200, 60
20 = 40, 8 5 = 3.The answer is 243. Of course
this requires students to keep the numbers
and separate subtractions straight in their
heads. Start this strategy with two-digit
numbers only. If your children can readily do
two-digit subtraction with no regrouping in
their heads, THEN try three-digits!
Strategies for Multiplication
A note to parents: While many of us grew up
learning to use the x to indicate multiplication,
such as 6 x 7, many textbooks now reserve x for
use in algebra and use the sign for multiplication.
Skip Counting
Skip counting should be one of the first
mental math skills all children learn. It uses
the fact that multiplication is simply repeated
addition of the same number. To multiply 5
2, children could mentally say: 2, 4, 6, 8,
10or five 2s. If children know their simple
multiples, such as 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s, then they
can skip count by 2s, 3s, 5s, and 10s. If they are
really good and know all their multiples up to
10, then this strategy is even more useful. Once
again, if you are willing to allow your children
to use their fingers, they can more easily skip
count in their heads while counting on their
fingers to make sure they have skipped the
right number of times (MANY adults do this).
Multiplying Numbers, the Same Forwards
and Backwards
Multiplication is commutative (as is addition),
which simply means that 7 3 gives the same
answer as 3 7. This is true for ALL addition
and multiplication problems, regardless of
size or complexity. This gives children a
choice; if they do not remember the answer to

8 5, perhaps they will remember the answer

to 5 8. Technically, this means that you only
have to memorize half the multiplication facts
since all facts have a turn around fact.
Multiply by Two
If children remember that multiplying any
number by two is the same as adding a number
to itselfdouble numbersthey can use
mental math addition instead. For example: 2
16 = 16 + 16 = 32. People who frequently do
mental math always choose the operation with
which they are the most comfortable.
Multiply by Ten
This mental math strategy, ironically, is best
taught using paper and pencil BEFORE trying
it mentally. When writing and solving
problems such as 3 10 and 25 10 the
traditional way, children will see that the
answers will always be the same number
being multiplied by 10, but with a zero placed
on the end! 3 10 = 30 and 25 10 = 250. Once
they see this pattern for themselves, they can
use the rule of tacking on a zero at the end to
multiply any number by 10. If they do not see
this pattern with problems done on paper,
they are probably not ready for this mental
math strategy.
Multiple Neighbors
While we want children to know every
multiplication fact, we know that some facts
are harder to remember than others. For
example many children (and even many
adults) sometimes are slow to remember the
answer to 8 7. However, children who cannot
remember the answer to 8 7 may easily
remember that the answer to 8 8 = 64. If so,
they can backup 8, and get the answer, 56,
to the fact they could not remember.
Sometimes it helps to be comfortable with
what you do not know, just as it is with what
you do know.
Other Math Operatons
Zero Is Your Friend
Zero is more than a big, fat nothing!
Knowledge of how zero works in many
mathematical operations can allow some
wonderful mental math short cuts. For
example, in an addition or subtraction

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Volume 37, Number 4

problem where both numbers have trailing 0s,

such as 120 70 or 150 + 30, students who
know the power of 0 know they can remove
the common 0s, and complete the easier
(smaller number) problem, then tack the 0
back on to get the final answer. For example,
for 120 70, think instead 12 7 = 5, then tack
that 0 back on to get the answer 50! For 150 +
30, think 15 + 3 = 18 then tack the common
zero back on to get the final answer, 180.
For multiplication, if you have a problem such
as 70 60, mentally remove BOTH 0s, do 7 6
= 42, then tack on BOTH 0s you removed, to
get the final answer of 4200.
For division, if both divisor and dividend both
end in 0s, remove the same number of trailing
0s from each number, then dividethis time
you get to forget the 0s you removed because,
in effect, they cancel each other out in
division! For example, in the problem 3200
400, drop two 0s from each number, and
divide 32 by 4 in your head, getting the
answer 8ah zero; we love you!
Percentage/Fraction Connection
If children learn the close connection between
fractions and percents, they can use that crossover knowledge more easily. Students need to
know that percentage IS a fraction, and that
the most common percentages have equally
common equivalent fractionswhich might
be easier to use when finding percents
mentally.For example, 50% has the equivalent
fraction 1/2. If children are asked to find 50%
of $28, they should instead think: one half of
$28 or, more simply, divide 28 by 2 to get the
answer $14. To make the most of this strategy,
children need to know the common
percentages as fractions. 20% is 1/5, 25% is 1/4,
33 1/3% is 1/3; 10% is 1/10, etc.So, to find 20%,
they would divide by 5, and to find
approximately 33%, they would divide by 3,
and so on. This is a skill that every shopper
needs!

demonstrates the pattern, structure, and order

in our number system. If children not only are
able to do these tricks, but also can
understand WHY they work, they are
developing a broad knowledge of how
numbers fit together logicallywe call this
number sense.
A Bit of Mental Math Advice
I said the exact same thing at the end of Part 1,
but it is so important that it is worth
repeating. For some students these mental
math strategies will be interesting and fun
and may even make them feel mathematically
powerful. However, what appeals to one child
may be uninteresting and hard to another. If
there is one important bit of advice before you
share any of these strategies with your
children, it is: go slow and proceed only IF
your children enjoy learning how to do
mathematics in their heads. A few minutes of
playing with mental math are plentydo not
make it tedious. If learning mental math tricks
is not fun for your children, it is best if you
stop and look for other areas of mathematics,
such as geometry or puzzles, that will appeal
to your children more than mental math.

Permission is granted to reproduce and share this

article for instructional use by parents, guardians,
teachers, and familiesprovided it is duplicated
with full credit given to the author, the California
Mathematics Council, and its Journal, the
ComMuniCator.

Mental Math Teaches Number Sense

Some people may read the strategies in these
two articles on mental math and call them
tricks. But for children, learning these
strategies is much more than learning a set of
useful mental tricks. Each of these strategies
June 2013

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