Learning Times Tables!

[GettinTrimmer]

My year 5 boy (year 6 in September) doesn't know many of his times tables - any he doesn't know he works them out and refuses to practise them by rote.

We have a game called ladders and slides that he will play with me. Does anyone have any more ideas? He doesn't enjoy practising them on computer games.

I do them with DD on the iPad - she likes trying to beat us for who has the fastest time. Normally she can win if DH has only half woken up .

But she loves maths .... and sneaks off to play it on the ipad on her own!

I know other people who do it as a competition with a parent. I would just tell him to get on with it and learn them as he'll find exams easier. but I'm a bit too blunt And if necessary offer a bribe when he can answer all of them within a specific time.

Try Percy Parker app on the iPad or iPhone, or you can buy a CD - we have one in the car.

dd1 (8) hated all other tables songs, but learned nearly all of them in months with Percy - not sure if a Y5 boy would like them or not, but they are quite funny and very catchy! If he likes music, he might enjoy them...

DD1 is similar - also going into Yr 6 - very good at maths but works everything out from scratch instead of memorising facts.

We do numberplate times tables on long journeys. Look at passing car number plates, pick two numbers and use them to shout out random multiplication sums.

We've also tried to narrow down which tables she is worst at recalling and focussed on them. I've asked her 6x7 so often now that she's actually started remembering it.

Have contemplating paying her for each table learned, but am keeping that in reserve.

try
www.mad4maths.com/multiplication_table_math_games/

if you google times tables games online or similar you will come up with loads..

I use them all the time at school

this is another favourite and you get a report back of those he got wrong so you can work on those specific ones.

You could try flashcards too with question on one side and answer on the other, again if you google you might be able to find some to print off. ( if memory serves me right activity village had some)

oops sorry forgot the 2nd link!
www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/meteor/meteor.html

You say he doesn't like playing times tables games on the computer, so my suggestions would either be a cd in the car - we've got a DK one which is very much learning by rote. We used it regularly on the school run and while it was a bit irritating we only did one tables a day so it was only a few mins but iit did all stack up and work.

Don't know ladders and slides but another simple & quick game is just to shuffle a pack of cards and turn them over 2 at a time, child has to tell you the answer to the 2 numbers multiplied (but quickly, not working it out) to win the pair. Game ends when the child has all the cards. (Obvs, jack is 11 and queen is 12. You can use King and Ace for doubles of any number your child finds tricky - we usually say ace = another 7 and King = another 8). Again this only takes a few mins and the idea is to do it daily.

DD (11) has never really got to grips with her times tables, despite me spending many hours going over them & doing quick fire questioning on the way to & from school, she would have forgotten them a couple of weeks later. She did manage a 4A in her yr6 SATs and only narrowly missed a 5 being let down by the mental maths section of the papers.
I never had to learn times tables at school (80's) and still managed a B at A level. I think maths is more about problem solving than memorising facts.

We have Percy Parker on in the car. I keep the same one on repeat for a few days to drum it in.

snowfire as a maths teacher I would like to point out that knowing your times tables is incredibly important in maths. A student who is unable to rapidly recall (or work out) multiplication facts is going to be disadvantaged when dealing with tasks from simplifying fractions to factorising quadratics.