How it works
- Choose the method: addition, subtraction, or multiplication by a one-digit number.
- Choose how many digits the numbers have, two, three or four, and whether carrying or borrowing is needed, left out, or mixed.
- Choose how many questions: 6, 12, 18 or 24.
- Print the sheet. Each question is a frame with the numbers lined up and room for the answer under the line. The answer key comes on a page of its own with the frames filled in.
- Or practise on screen. The same questions appear with a box for each answer, and every answer is marked as it is typed. There is no score and no clock.
- Keep the link. The address holds both the settings and the numbers, so the same link gives the same sheet again.
Carrying and borrowing
In column addition a digit is carried when two digits in a column add up to ten or more. In column subtraction a digit is borrowed when the digit below is larger than the one above it. In multiplication by one digit the carry comes when a digit times the multiplier reaches ten. “Without” keeps every column free of it, which is the place to start; “with” has at least one column that needs it.
Before the column method
The method rests on place value and on facts that come without counting: the times tables for multiplication, and the number facts of addition and subtraction within 20.