I think skip counting is often a precursor to multiplication.

I've had this question too. My son loves multiplication and taught himself to multiply while I was sitting around trying to figure out how to teach it to him.

He said he skip counted to teach himself the tables. It made sense to him. He was 5 as well. From doing that he had no problem figuring out 3x5 = 5x3 so it worked for him.

I was leaning toward using math blocks or physical objects to show it.