times tables

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Has anyone got an inspiring :o idea / resource for securing / improving / reinforcing times tables knowledge in a very unmotivated and resistant child who has so far managed to avoid learning them properly, and will be going into Year 4 in September? She knows the easy ones and the "trophy" ones (she can tell you 7x7=49, but not what 4x7 is, without sitting for ages and doing 4+4+4+4).

She can bluff her way through, but her lack of tables knowledge means her homework (which assumes secure knowledge of all the tables as a prerequisite now) is taking ages and making her frustrated and grumpy, and they do a lot of tests at school, which she often gets a lower grade in despite getting most questions correct, because she doesn't finish because not having automatic recall of her tables means she takes three times as long on some questions).

She is very stroppy and resistant to old fashioned drilling or testing on her tables for more than about 30 seconds, so wondering if there is a more interesting resource she might use over the summer to drum them in before she starts year 4...

[eurycantha]

Have you tried the App squeebles,we use that and the children are very keen.There is also a division App,as well.

[PandasRock]

I was going to recommend squeebles too. The maths race one has been particularly motivating for my dd2 - she plays against me (set hers to easy/medium, mine to hard/extra hard) and loves 'beating' me.

I have also used Komodo maths to get dd2 up to speed with basic arithmetic and maths problems. This has worked well (I got it on offer, think it is quite expensive - maybe £70 for the year?) and has been worth it, imo.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks eurycantha, sounds promising, will go and look it up (we don't have i-stuff, just Androud phone and regular laptop).

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks Pandas too - will google Komodo maths too.

[PandasRock]

From experience, I would say 10 minutes every day is far more valuable than eg 30 mins once or twice a week.

I have tried to get dd2 to see it as a routine no -negotiable thing she has to do each day. Just like she does reading from school each day (she has jsut finished yr 2, so one year behind your dd), she does a small amount of maths, which is set by amount, not time (as otherwise she argues and 'needs help' to wile away the time ) so eg 3 Komodo lessons, or 2 lots of squeebles maths bingo and 3 maths races or similar.

[fuzzpig]

I have posted this before but what helped my DSDs was a card game. I cut out 48 cards and wrote numbers on - IIRC I did 4 of each of 2-12, plus two 0s and two 1s.

Lay them all out face down and then it's kind of like find the pair. You pick two cards, and if you can say the product (on your first try - didn't want to encourage random guessing!) then you keep them. If you can't, you turn them back over and pick different cards.

If you do it on your own then you can time them for how long they take to clear the board (24 correct answers) - it was very motivating seeing their time improve!

Or if there are siblings/friends they can play together, but if you get it right you get another go, and if you don't then you turn them back over and it's the next person's go.

[PandasRock]

Oh, that just reminded me (thanks fuzzpig )

I just bought dd2 [[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mathical-Creatures-numeracy-card-game/dp/B00DRD5MC8?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 mathical creatures]] to play on holiday next week. Must pop it in the suitcase.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

The problem with 10 mins of boring drilling/ testing a day is that we live abroad and she gets serious amounts of fairly dull homework every day - there's always a maths worksheet intended to take about 20 mins for the focused, able child, but which takes DD up to an hour of tantrums and proceastination. There is always other homework too - though she enjoys and is hood at her other subjects it adds another half hour or more of dryish schoolwork per afternoon.

The card game sounds a good idea - both home made and bought. Unfortunately her siblings are younger and not at school yet (which is what makes the screen based options tempting).

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

*not dismissing the card games due to siblings btw, will try the home made one! Depressingly for her I can see DS1 overtaking her and being able to play against her pretty soon.

[TheSporkforeatingkyriarchy]

For homework, I have one of those flipcharts of posters with the times tables on one similar to this one. If they can't get it quickly, I have them get it and read out the related times tables. It has really cut down the frustration and helped them pick their times tables up (though this did involve whinging at first as they hoped they could just get the one they wanted). Asking them out of order afterwards has also been helpful for them.

[stargirl1701]

Do you have them displayed? We put them up on the back of toilet doors at school and saw improvement. We realised it might work after noticing everyone on the staff knew the fire drill verbatim because it was on the back of the adult toilet doors :)

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Ah now displaying them on the toilet door is a good idea I used to do that with my revision notes at Uni

[PandasRock]

I do understand re: siblings. I have dd1, who has severe ASD so takes up a fair amount of attention after school, and toddler ds to look after - dd2 gets a bit lost in the middle of t all. Which is why we use the screen based ones too!

I do try to use games as much as possible - we make up differentiate the rules to be able to include dd1 as well (she's 10, but functions at about reception level). Some of the Orchard Toys games can be good - like Pop to the Shops. Not times tables, but basic money/maths. Ooh, talking of money - Amazing Coin is another app dd2 has for on well with. We try to play one family game each day - and finding things like the card games helps. There are a range of Snap games like Snap fractions or Snap money as well.

I found a good app for number bonds the other week too, as without a soid base there life gets tricky - called Number Bonds Pro

Sorry, I know you said you for have iProducts, but hopefully some of these are available on Android too.

Mathmateer app is good too, as is a symmetry one I have - iPad playing up and won't connect to store to find out what it is called, it comes up with 'symmetry' on my screen which isn't very helpful.

Also Primary maths app isbrilliant. Dd2 does 2 rounds if that (10 questions a round) while I load up the car/pack school bags.

[QueenAnneofAustriaSpain]

What about just drilling when you are en route to places?

This morning DS2 and I were walking to his activity and I just asked him random questions in the midst if conversation and interspersed with spellings. It may not work as a strategy on its own but allows for practice.

[fuzzpig]

Depressingly for her I can see DS1 overtaking her and being able to play against her pretty soon

I feel similar about my two (7 and nearly 5) - maths just isn't my eldest's strong point!

That mathical creatures game looks fun!

[unlucky83]

Have you looked at step into tables? Hopefully this link works and the image on the second page is the one I use for DDs...

www.kilsby.northants.sch.uk/cms-assets/documents/94302-883846.times-tables.pdf

I found it helps to show how few tables they actually have to learn ...rather than seeing a sheet packed with them all laid 1-10/12 for each number...
I think makes it seem less boring and repetitive...

I have some game with counters and a cassette tape (!!!) ...but that's only useful when they should have learned them all anyway...

[Ferguson]

Having worked in primary schools over twenty years, this is my standard advice to help with numeracy:

?QUOTE:

Practical things are best for grasping number concepts - bricks, Lego, beads, counters, money, shapes, weights, measuring, cooking.

Do adding, taking away, multiplication (repeated addition), division (sharing), using REAL OBJECTS as just 'numbers' can be too abstract for some children.

Number Bonds of Ten forms the basis of much maths work, so try to learn them. Using Lego or something similar, use a LOT of bricks (of just TWO colours, if you have enough) lay them out so the pattern can be seen of one colour INCREASING while the other colour DECREASES. Lay them down, or build up like steps.

So:

ten of one colour none of other
nine of one colour one of other
eight of one colour two of other
seven of one colour three of other

etc, etc

then of course, the sides are equal at 5 and 5; after which the colours 'swap over' as to increasing/decreasing.

To learn TABLES, do them in groups that have a relationship, thus:

x2, x4, x8

x3, x6, x12

5 and 10 are easy

7 and 9 are rather harder.

Starting with TWO times TABLE, I always say: "Imagine the class is lining up in pairs; each child will have a partner, if there is an EVEN number in the class. If one child is left without a partner, then the number is ODD, because an odd one is left out."

Use Lego bricks again, lay them out in a column of 2 wide to learn 2x table. Go half way down the column, and move half the bricks up, so that now the column is 4 bricks wide. That gives the start of 4x table.

Then do similar things with 3x and 6x.

With 5x, try and count in 'fives', and notice the relationship with 'ten' - they will alternate, ending in 5 then 10.

It is important to try and UNDERSTAND the relationships between numbers, and not just learn them 'by rote'.

I am sorry it seems complicated trying to explain these concepts, but using Lego or counters should make understanding easier.

An inexpensive solar powered calculator (no battery to run out!) can help learn tables by 'repeated addition'. So: enter 2+2 and press = to give 4. KEEP PRESSING = and it should add on 2 each time, giving 2 times table.

There are good web sites, which can be fun to use :

//www.ictgames.com/

//www.resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html

UNQUOTE

[proudmama2772]

I get them to write down the sums and then we make a card game with index cards.

For example for 5X

5
10
15 ... 50 or 60

the

use 10 index cards, or paper cut into rectangles

write start on one

front Back
-- --
start 5X5
25 5X1
5 5X4
20 5X6
30 5X3
15 5X7
35 5X9
45 5X2
10 5X10
50 YOU WIN

lay the cards out with front side up and its a game of solitaire. Kids love to play card games so it works with my kids.

[fuzzpig]

These are great tips! :)

[Hakluyt]

Bribe. And bribe her well.

But be very strict. Absolute and practically instant recall in any order,( no starting at 1times and counting up to the one she wants) before you pay.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks unlucky - that 2nd page is definitely going to be stuck on the wall and the back of the toilet door (as soon as I get the printer to recognise my laptop), and we'll use the tricks on page 1 too!

[SalemsCity]

Dd was struggling with her times tables when she was the same age as your dd. As boring as it sounds we found that chanting the tables worked quickly and she learnt them off by heary, the way you'd remember the words of a song. We did this when we walked to her swimming lesson every week - half hour walk - and spent the time going through the tables. We did the easy ones first and then the harder ones (spent more weeks doing the harder ones). Probably not very fun or interesting but it worked for my dd. I suspect had I suggested chanting them at home she wouldn't have gone for it but it was quite fun doing it whilst on an otherwise boring walk and she picked them up quite quickly.

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks Fergasun - she does like "real world" maths better than abstract, I used to use raisins to help her do minus sums in year 1, as she initially struggled with them when there numbers were bigger than 10, but she no longer has that problem. She likes number lines a lot, and draws herself one whenever she thinks there is a chance it might help, and has an uncanny ability to work out what she can afford in shops, how much change she should get, how many weeks pocket money she would have to be advanced to afford xyz etc. etc. etc. compared to her ability to do boring number sums ona worksheet! She is also better at - or at least less put off by - the "text questions" they get as homework (the old "if Sara buys 20 sweets and shares them equally between herself and 4 friends, how many will each one get" type stuff than some of her peers who were initially "better" at maths.

She can do some of her tables - she is actually not terrible at maths, though not great either, she just finds it dull, it doesn't come easily to her as other subjects do so she has no patience for it and doesn't like it, and will not learn her tables by rote... She does know the "easy" ones - she knows her 2s, 5s, 10s etc. and the "trophy2 ones like 7x7 which are always the first ones anyone asks, and give the appearance of knowing the difficult ones, but she doesn't have them all at her finger tips, and it hampers her doing the division they are doing in class now - big tantrums over yesterday's division based homework (but we break up tomorrow :o )

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks Salems - sounds like an excuse but there is no way we can spend half an hour walking and chanting tables with her younger brothers in tow - especially with the 3 year old along -DH is out of the house 12 hours a day, so the 3 year old is always there...

We live miles from anywhere, so although we -"go" for "walks" (which are not really occasions for tables learning as the kids are always playing, talking about what might live in that hole, whether that tree looks like a giant or an ogre, or whatever... or they ride their bikes) getting from A to B is a car thing - and on the rare occasion its just DD and me, car journeys are the times she chooses to tell me things she wouldn't usually mention, so I wouldn't want to blot that chance out with times table recitations...

[MrTumblesBavarianFanbase]

Thanks Proudmama - can but try (may have to hide the Uno...)