Times tables nightmares, help me someone please

[Chairmancow]

I think I am going to lose my mind if my daughter doesn't get to grips with them soon!

She is just about to go into year 5 and despite our best efforts over the holidays with her, she just can't seem to retain her times tables.

We were up to 7s and she was doing quite well. After a week away we came home we started to revise the previous ones with her again and lo and behold she has forgotten most of the ones we thought she had nailed! I feel like we are banging our heads against the wall!

Seriously though we are worried. On her last report she was largely average in all areas except English where she was working above national average. For Maths she is only working towards national standards. We were hoping she might have a crack at the 11 plus which is looking unlikely now.

I feel like we have not done enough with her and its all our fault. We have been fairly relaxed about it all so far. She always has to do her homework and do extra stuff at home but no Kumon or tutoring so far. I am proably extra anxious as I struggled terribly with maths and still do, and i'm determined she won't under achieve like I did.
Can anyone offer any advice or even give me some success stories of similar kids to give me hope?

My kid does Kumon. She's bright but just doesn't get the way (methods) they teach maths now. And honestly I think it sucks too.
And I say that as someone in an IT career so I get maths.

She's going into year 4. Kumon has helped her enormously. She's been doing the maths for 6 months. The Kumon teacher will come to your house and assess her.

Maybe worth looking into?

Draw up a grid on paper - 1-10 (or 1-12) across the top and then down the left

Put in the result for each combination

now do two things:

• look at patterns in the grid (e.g. 10x with 0 on the end of each / how the 9x table works / etc.)
• get her to repeat this grid again and again and again - if she has to write it out 1,000 times she will eventually learn it - learning by rote without understanding is not the basis for all education, however for tables it can work well...

I work in ks2, google timestables macarena. It's really catchy, even the children who struggle can get it. Carol Vorderman has got cds for the car etc. lots of repetition, not just in order, going backwards too. xx

www.percyparker.com/

That helped mine - main thing has been practise - mainly through doing lots and lots of maths via mathsfactor the time tables just keep coming in different activities.

Even my youngest who seems hardest to teach them to is starting to remember them as she just had to deal with them so often.

There are some nice timestables songs on youtube. Downloading them and putting them on a disc, or just watchingthem might help. The tunes are quite catching and she could practice dancing to them, if she likes. Looking at the numbers at the same time might help too. Random testing e.g what is 9X9 at different times might help motivate her to get them memorized.

Personally hate Percy Parker and find it really ineffective.
Repetition is the only way but can still be fun. We've used timetable rockstars last year with a lot of success even with very low ability children. Really rate it but you need to commit to 20mins most days. I think you can buy in as a parent and it's relatively inexpensive at under £10

Some children find it easier to learn if they move whilst doing so. One of mine learnt her tables by reciting them marching up and down the stairs.

I wouldn't rely on percy parker alone - but it helped our older children practise a bit more and acted as a memeory aid at times for them.

With youngest it really seems to be sitting her down daily and getting her to have to do sums where she needs to know her times tables - if she doesn't she has to work it out. Seems to get her to remember when any rote learning however much seems to just slip away.

She was same with number bonds as well - nothing but constantly having to work it out till she started to remember them. She does about 20 minutes of maths most days - so over time it did eventually stick.

I don't know my timetables. I am doing a PhD in astrophysics. That is what calulators and coding are for. Can you teach her other methods to work them out? Like addition etc, so she can at least do them in exams that don't allow calculators. This is how I always managed in non-calculator exams.

Look at the patterns and also learn which ones are easy to work out from another.

For example the 12 times table is the 10 times table plus the 2 times table.

E.g.
7 x 12 = 70+14 = 84

Strategies to work them out helps stop panic and not panicking helps memory.

Look at how the 2 times table doubles to the 4 times table and doubles again to the 8 times table.

Nines can be done on fingers, picture to follow.

3 times table digits add to a 3 times table number.

11 is easy.

5 always ends in 0 or 5.

Looking at patterns and playing with patterns and colouring the patterns on a 100 square help them stick.

4 times table example

Nine times table.

Number fingers

Fold down the question finger e.g. 3x9 fold down finger 3

The answer is shown as 10s and units e.g. 2 tens and 7 units with the folded finger in between.

The Squeebles app has changed our lives! £2.50, 100% worth it if you make them do 30 a day every day. You can block the easy ones. Lifesaver.

Thanks for the suggestions.
We've so far been using flash cards, getting her to write them out, reciting them repeatedly, all pretty tedious and she hates it.

I've just ordered a set of tables bookmarks (she's always reading) We haven't tried the songs yet so that's an idea.
She has been using the times tables rockstars but unfortunately her school have tended to pit the kids against each other and rather than spur her on to complete i think its knocked her confidence even more to be honest. Its hard seeing all the other kids with their high scores when she's struggling.
We are reaching the situation where she is getting completely demotivated to learn them. We tried giving her incentives eg. a pound each time she learns a set but she's just so sick of it, as am I.
I keep on telling her there is no get out clause on this and she just has to learn them but she's very unwilling.

I think if she is that demotivated you should probably take a break from them for a few weeks, other wise you risk her getting it into her head that she can't and won't. Sometimes it's better to step back from the problem and leave it a while. You are both fed up of it, that isn't conducive to learning.