Doubles Facts For Kids (And Parents!)

Young children often use their fingers when learning how to add and subtract.

As they get older and you look to make them more proficient at doing sums automatically, doubles facts are an incredibly useful tool. Double facts in math are strategies that can help students learn to count like pros in no time.

The goal of doubles is that children will gain a real understanding of doubles maths and be able to use the facts flexibly to solve a range of problems.

These facts are great for grade one and grade two students to get their heads around adding and subtracting.

If you're looking for more great educational facts like this list of doubles facts for kids and parents, why not have a look at our water conservation facts and these African elephant facts.

A double is a number arrangement where the same number is added twice. Learn all about them with these doubles facts.

1. For example, a doubles fact is that the double of 2 is 4 because 2 + 2 = 4.  

2. Doubles are a mathematical tool to help young children work towards being able to add numbers automatically.

3. Doubles games and using doubles facts are great for grade one and grade two students to help them understand addition and subtraction more easily.

4. To use doubling in math, you add the same number to itself. For example, the double of 5 is 10 because 5 + 5 = 10.

5. The double of 4 is 8 because 4 + 4 = 8.  

6. Children who are able to remember doubles facts in math will be able to manipulate single-digit numbers more effectively and improve their ability to add and subtract.

7. You can practice doubles with flash cards, finger counting or simply by using doubles facts verbally.

Once your child understands and has memorized doubles facts, near doubles are a very useful way to take their addition and subtraction skills to the next level.

8. A near double is a maths sentence that is close to a doubles fact.

9. For example, 3 + 4 is a near double as it is just a single digit away from the doubles fact 3 + 3.

10. Near doubles draw on a core understanding of doubles facts, you then add or subtract one to get a final number.

11. For example, if a child has memorised doubling in maths, then, when asked the sum of numbers that are one more or less than doubles, such as 5 + 6 or 3 + 2, they can use doubles facts plus one (or minus one) to get their answer.

12. While children memorise double facts to make addition and subtraction easier, it is important that they understand and explore rather than memorise near doubles facts.

13. The goal of near doubles is to understand the doubles plus one or doubles minus one strategy conceptually so they can apply them to a range of examples rather than only the ones they have memorised.

14. If you hear your child saying things like "I used the doubles plus one strategy to solve this" but they can't remember what that was, then they probably need some more explaining to get their head around the concept of addition with doubles numbers.

Using doubles to add is one of the quickest ways to help your child understand addition facts better and become more automatic when adding single digit numbers.

15. There are basic doubles addition facts that will help your child use doubles to add.

16. Near doubles are also very helpful to use when teaching grade one and grade two students doubles addition.

17. If a child knows 9 + 9 = 18 then using this knowledge, they will understand that 9 + 8 will be one less. 18 - 1 =17.

You can also use doubles math to help your child understand subtraction. Learn how with these facts!

18. By remembering the doubles facts, a child can apply them to subtraction math equations.

19. For example, if the equation is 6 - 3, the child knows that the double of 3 is 6, so therefore, 6 - 3 = 3.

20. For more complicated subtraction, say 18 - 8, the child knows that the double of 8 is 16, and the difference between 16 and 18 is 2. Therefore, they know the answer will be the sum of 8 and 2, which is 10.

Creating visual math concepts that show the number doubles concept is a great way to help children understand these double factors in math. Doubles facts are easily represented using pictures. Using pictures or visual aids when teaching your child doubles facts can be incredibly helpful and will allow them to understand and apply the more easily. Get them familiar with these examples to begin with.

21. 1 + 1 = 2

22. 2 + 2 = 4

23. 6 + 6 = 12

24. 5 + 6 = 11

25. 9 + 8 = 17

26. 10 + 11 = 21

For more advanced kids, these doubles examples might be useful.

29. 10 boys were collecting leaves at a park. 10 girls were also collecting leaves at the park. How many children were collecting leaves in total?  (20)

30. Mary has 5 cookies and Emma has 5 lollies, how many food items do Mary and Emma have in total? (10)

31. Half of X is the double of 5. What is x? (20)

32. Lily has 20 t-shirts in her cupboard. She decides to give 10 to charity. How many t-shirts does Lily have left in her cupboard? (10)

33. Write out double and near double facts that equal 10. (5 + 5 and 4 + 6 are the main ones)

34. Write out double and near doubles facts that equal 20. (10 + 10 and 11 + 9 are the main ones)

35. Emma and Bill found 5 shells each at the beach. How many shells in total do Emma and Bill have combined? Use images and words to explain your doubles fact. (10)

36. What is the sum of 5 + 6? If a child knows the double facts for 5, then they know the answer will be doubles plus one. 5+5 = 10 and then 10 + 1 = 11, so the answer is 11.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our doubles facts for kids and parents, then why not learn more with these spinosaurus facts and these hot air balloon facts.