▸ Why It Matters
The 4 times table has its own built-in shortcut: doubling twice. Since 4 is 2×2, multiplying by 4 is the same as doubling a number and then doubling the result again. This worksheet's 14 problems run through 4×1 up to 4×9, and then flip the order for six of them (1×4 through 6×4), so your child sees the same fact written both ways. A problem like 4×6=24 gets confused easily with 4×8=32 from the 8s table, or 3×6=18 from the 3s table, so keeping the steps carefully separated helps especially here.
▸ Getting Started
For a problem like 4×7, have your child double 7 to get 14, then double 14 to get 28 — two doubling steps instead of one multiplication fact to memorize from scratch. Saying "double, then double again" out loud while doing it reinforces the two-step pattern. Small ones like 4×1 and 4×2 barely need the strategy at all, so let your child answer those quickly and save double-doubling for 4×6 through 4×9, where it earns its keep. When a flipped problem like 5×4 shows up later on the page, point out that it is the very same fact as 4×5, just written the other way around.
▸ If They Get Stuck
If double-doubling feels like too many steps to track, have your child write down the middle number after the first double before doing the second double, so nothing has to be held in their head all at once. A common mistake is doubling only once and stopping there, leaving 4×6 at 12 instead of carrying on to 24, so asking "did you double? and again?" helps check whether a step got skipped. If doubling itself still feels shaky, counting up by 4s on fingers or along a number line is a fine fallback — slower, but reliable while the doubling trick is still settling in.
▸ Praise Points
Praise using double-double as a genuine strategy, not just memorization: "You doubled 7 to get 14, then doubled again to get 28 — that's using a real strategy instead of guessing, and it works for any times-4 problem on this page." Also praise your child for noticing that 4×5 and 5×4 land on the same answer even though the numbers are written in a different order — that's an early, intuitive grasp of a real math property, and it's worth naming out loud: "you got the same answer both ways, that's a great thing to notice."
🎯What This Worksheet Builds
This worksheet targets the 4 times table specifically, covering all nine facts from 4×1 through 4×9 plus six reversed-order problems from 1×4 through 6×4. It builds the double-doubling strategy (4 = 2×2) so children learn to solve times-4 facts by doubling a number twice rather than memorizing each one separately, while the reversed problems reinforce the commutative property and help children tell times-4 answers apart from similar-looking facts in the 8s and 3s tables.
👉Next Step
Once your child can double-double confidently across all the times-4 facts on this page, move on to Multiplication Practice 5 to build the 5 times table, which relies on a completely different pattern of always ending in 0 or 5. After that comes Practice 6, which mixes the 2s and 3s tables together and asks your child to first identify which table a problem belongs to before solving it, an important step toward flexible, mixed-fact fluency.