In fourth grade, students focus most on using all four operations - addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division - to solve multi-step word problems involving multi-digit numbers.

The box method better illustrates what's going on in a multiple-digit multiplication problem, making students understand that 23 times 7 is just the sum of 20 times 7 and 3 times 7.

The standard method for two and three digit multiplication is delayed until fifth grade; the standard method for long division until sixth.