The right time to introduce the idea of multiplication is when the child can count objects one-by-one up to hundred. After this the child can be given experience of counting in groups. Begin with two objects at a time. The same is shown here in the following figure.
The child may say, "two and two make four, four and two make six, six and two make eight, and so on."
After this the child could be given experiences of counting three objects at a time. Next step would be giving experiences of higher order of objects in a group at a time. The child thus gets idea of repeated addition, which is the base of multiplication operation. However, in addition we deal with unequal groups as against the equal groups in multiplication. This point is crucial and NEVER SHOULD BE MISSED. Unless you point it out they will not properly link the two operations - addition and multiplication.
If this is done, later, children can easily differentiate situations demanding operation of addition from those demanding multiplication. Children's ability to discriminate between addition and multiplication operation can be checked. For example, you can give them eight groups of 3 buttons, one group of 4 buttons and one more group of 2 buttons. Now, ask them if you can use multiplication to find out the total number of objects all together.
Once the child starts counting comfortably objects in groups two, three, four...etc., we can ask them to list out things around us, which are found in groups of two. Children immediately spot out many examples like eyes, ears, hands, legs, socks... etc. We can repeat the counting in twos with eyes of (so many) children in a classroom. Similarly, we can do counting of ears, hands, legs, socks...etc. of children in a classroom. When children are comfortable with the idea of counting in twos in varied real situations; we can teach them to express the action of counting in twos mathematically, as shown in the figure above.
The idea of counting can then be extended further for counting groups of threes, fours, fives, ...etc. The every-day examples of things observed in groups of different objects that children can usually list are given on the left-hand side.
The list can similarly be extended for things found in groups of eleven and twelve.
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