Use your fingers to help you add or subtract two small numbers. Add by extending an amount of fingers to match the first number then stick up additional fingers one by one while counting out loud until you say the second number. Count how many fingers you now have up and that is your addition problem's answer. Subtract by sticking up an amount of fingers that match the larger first number then lower fingers one by one while counting until you say the second smaller number. Count the amount of remaining fingers to get the answer to your subtraction problem.
Use repeated addition to solve multiplication problems. A problem such as 3 x 4 is the same as adding 3 to itself 4 times. Solve 3 + 3 = 6 on your fingers, add another 3 to get 9, then add another final 3 to get 12. For multiplication numbers with numbers such as 2, 3, 5, or 10 it may be easier to count in your head by that number until you've got the answer. For example, 5 x 4 can be done by counting to 5, 10, 15 and finally 20 in your head. Use your fingers to track how many addition steps you've done. Eventually, you need to memorize the multiplication chart for use with higher-level math.
Solve division by doing reverse multiplication. A problem such as 12 / 4 is the same as asking what number multiplied by 4 is equal to 12. Use your knowledge of the multiplication chart to realize that 4 X 3 = 12, so 12 / 4 = 3.
Solve addition and subtraction fraction problems by using fraction strips. A fraction such as 2 / 3 can be represented by drawing a block, dividing it into three parts and coloring in two of the parts. You can subtract or add fractions with the same denominator (bottom number of the fraction) by drawing additional fraction strips and counting block parts until you've gotten the answer. When the fractions have different denominators you need to need to find a common denominator. An easy way is to multiply the two denominators together. For example, find the common denominator for 2 / 3 + 1 / 4 by multiplying 3 and 4 together to get 12. Multiply the numerator of each fraction by the number you used to reach 12. In our example, we multiplied the first fraction by 4 to get 12 and the second fraction by 3. So, we calculate 2 x 4 = 8 and 1 x 3 = 3 to make a new fraction problem of 8 / 12 + 3 / 12. Now that we have a common denominator we can add the numerators or use fraction strips to find the answer. The final answer is 11 / 12, which cannot be simplified.
Read word problems several times to help you find the answer. The first time you read the problem, try to understand the situation and what the problem is asking you to solve for. Read the word problem a second time and write down all the numbers and variables provided to you. Read the word problem a third time and if possible draw a picture to help you understand the situation. Use all the information available and your picture to help you create an equation to solve the word problem.