Why study the order of operations concurrently with multiplication

One of my customers questioned the rationale behind studying the order of operations at the same time as the concept of multiplication and the multiplication tables, which happens both in Math Mammoth Grade 3 and in Multiplication 1 book:

I stumbled upon your youtube video to teach multiplication (very helpful - thank you !!) which led me to your website. I downloaded the Math Mammoth Blue Series Multiplication book and I am sure it will help my child learn his tables well.

I have a question and would appreciate your reply. I noticed that the book requires the child to understand the "Order of Operations" and solve equations based on that. Why do the children need to learn Order of operations while learning multiplication ? Look forward to your answer.

The idea is to help children write expressions that involve more than one operation AND to solve word problems that involve more than one operation. You can see that right in the very next lesson (after the lesson on order of operations), "Understanding Word Problems, Part 1". Look at the example on page 22 of staplers and scissors. The example shows:

Another example: a word problem from page 33:

3. a. Mommy bought four cartons of eggs. Each carton had six eggs but two of the eggs were bad. How many good eggs did Mommy get?

_____ × _____ − _____ = ________

So, I want children to become familiar writing such expressions and THINKING in terms of several operations when they solve word problems. This prepares them for algebra, in fact. :)

So that is why the order of operations is there. It's not actually so crucial for them to learn and memorize the order of operations as it is for them to become familiar with many operations happening in one expression.

Hope this helps!

By Maria Miller