MathGrade 8ages 13–14
🔺 Powers
A power like 2 to the power of 3 means "multiply 2 by itself 3 times" — but it's tempting to read it as "multiply 2 by 3" instead, which gives a smaller, wrong answer.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- In a power, the base is what gets multiplied.
- The exponent counts how many copies of the base are multiplied, which is why it never enters the multiplication itself.
- Two to the power of three is two by two by two, which is eight.
- Any number to the power of zero is one, because not a single copy was multiplied in.
The mistake most kids make here
Multiplying the base by the exponent.
Try one question
Two to the power of three
- 8
- 6
- 9
Answer
8 — That's it. Three copies of two were multiplied.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: Say what two to the power of three comes to.
How to help at home
The exponent tells you how many copies of the base to multiply together — it never gets multiplied itself. That single rule is the whole topic, and it's worth saying out loud every time.
Write 2³ on paper and have your child expand it themselves: 2 × 2 × 2. Count the copies of 2 out loud as they write them. Then compare that to 2 × 3, and ask which one is actually written on the page.
When your child answers 6 for 2³ (multiplying 2 by 3), don't just say "wrong" — ask them to expand it as repeated multiplication first, the same way they'd expand 2 × 4 as 2+2+2+2. The expansion catches the mistake on its own.
A sign they've got it: they can explain why any number to the power of zero is 1 — because zero copies of the base are multiplied, leaving nothing but the empty product, one.
Questions parents ask
- Why does my child multiply the base by the exponent?
- It looks like a simple multiplication problem, and multiplying two numbers together is the most familiar operation available. Expanding the power into repeated multiplication breaks that habit.
- What is 2 to the power of 3?
- It's 2 × 2 × 2, which equals 8 — three copies of 2 multiplied together, not 2 times 3.
- Why is any number to the power of zero equal to 1?
- The exponent counts copies of the base to multiply, and zero copies means nothing gets multiplied at all — the result is the starting point of multiplication, which is 1.
- How does Maya teach powers?
- Maya has the child write out the repeated multiplication before computing the answer, so the exponent's job (counting copies) stays separate from the base's job (being multiplied).
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
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