8yo dd having trouble learning times tables - tips & help please ?

[Tillyboo]

Apart from chanting, which my dd refuses to do, are there any tried and tested methods for learning the times tables.

DD is very visual. Are there any games, either homemade or available to buy that might help ?

Any advice and suggestions very gratefully received.
Thank You !

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk has loads of interactive times tables games which IME are very appealing.
If she is visual have you tried the post-it note approach? Stick tricky facts on Post its in various locations around the house so she comes across them and associated, for example, 6x7 with the wardrobe door. Sounds weird but it can be very su

successful - not sure what happened there.

times table cube really helped my dD. She also had a cd and my friend gave her a book that you could wipe clean.

Times tables are simply rote learning of number facts.
There are games to practise them, but, personally, I think they'll really only help with embedding and speeding up recall, not actually learning them in the first place.

I would give her the option of practising by writing them out, or chanting. She has the choice of which way to do it, but no choice not to do it, and whichever she chooses will help her learning.

Make up little rhymes

For example
"I ate and I ate till I was sick on the floor - 8x8 are 64"

I bought a times tables cd from a book party I went to and try and put it on in the car on the way to school and when DD is in the bath. We also bought a 12 sided dice pack and she chooses two colours, rolls both die and times the two numbers. It has helped lots.

Also get her to write them out, writing stuff down helps you memerise. We give her tips as well e.g 12x table is 10 + 2 so if she gets stuck on one say for example 4x12, she may know that 3x12 is 36 so she then adds 10 then adds 2. Also 5x tables ends in either a 5 or a 0 so quite easy etc etc. DD is 7 and in Yr 3 so HTH

X posted with a lot of similar ideas I see

two times tables are fairly easy - and can be used to learn 4 times tables. 5 times tables are easy, as are 10 times. 9 times tables - did you know you can use fingers to work it out? 11 times tables are easy and 12's are quite uniform and easier to remember. That just leaves the 3's, 6's, 7's 8's - have you tried showing your dd that actually she does know a majority of the tables already, and just needs to practice the other 4?

I have got through life struggling with the 7's and 8's - for some reason, i could learn the 3's and 6's much easier than the other 2. But I always thought that 10/12 aint bad ;)

I am fairly well educated too, so it hasnt served me too badly :)

Have you tried Percy Parker? It's brill - the app is great for I pad/phone or else cd or on you tube. Both my kids love it, lots of phrases in the vein that Cece suggested.

I also say to DD to turn the times table the other way if she thinks it's hard (e.g 5x7 may seem hard but if it's 7x5 then she can quickly count up in 5s in her head!)

she can quickly count up in 5s in her head!

That's not what learning the times tables is for... If she is doing the calculation mentally, then she hasn't learnt her tables yet, no matter how fast she is working it out.

We just yelled out sums to DS who though it was funny.

What do you want on your toast? 8x7?
Where's your hat? 6x6?

Dd1 used to write prayers on the back of her times tables tests...
'dear god, please let me pass this test. Please, please. X'

It seemed to help, but I offer no guarantees....

I guess that's what you get for choosing a c of e school, though...

Timez Attack worked for dd when all else had failed. Here from Big Brainz.

CD - played in the car on the way to / from school. Drove me demented, but worked.

play pairs or snap. write the equations and answers on separate cards and try to match them together.

learn them a little at a time. we are practising 6x6, 7x6, 8x6, 9x6 at the moment. (as she has learnt 2, 3, 4, 10 and 5x tables already. we practise the division facts at the same time, eg
6x7 is...
7x6 is...
42 divided by 7 is
42 " " 6 is..

Dd1 has found it hard going from knowing how to e.g. Count in 5s to knowing what 55 is. For her she likes rules and patterns, so knowing that eveneven is even, oddodd is odd, evenodd is even. And remembering that an odd times table goes even, odd, even, odd etc seemed to help the odd times tables particularly. Previously with 7*3 she would have a guess at 22, but with her new rule she will know it is odd and so 21. There are also rules and tricks for 11 and 9 times tables.

Like your dd she isn't keen on chanting, but if I am counting out time, like how long they are using mouthrinse for, I will now count in 6, it annoys her, but her mouth is full of mouthrinse so she can't say anything! Gives my brain some exercise too!

My DDs got bombarded with tables questions going to and from school in the car.

Trouble was DD2 is way better at them than me or her big sister

Here are some very clear instructions for using flash cards, which you will need to make yourself. 8 is a good age to memorise basic facts. Oral rehearsal is very important as memory jogger.

www.rocketmath.com/uploads/Flashcard%20Directions%20for%20downloading%202010.pdf

I wonder at the benefit of learning tables on rote at all.
I have a really good m says background and never learnt mine and my mental maths is better than most others I know.
Instead I work them out like this
7*8=
So 58=40 and. 28=16
40+16=56 which is the answer

As a teacher I can say that there is a huge benefit-instant recall gives a huge advantage. I learnt mine at an early age and it stays with you, you don't have to waste time thinking about it.

kat that is a useful technique: but most people can only do 2-3 steps in a calculation, so the higher times tables you know, the "bigger" calculation you can do. So if you know 78 its easier to calculate 728=720+78=140+56=196.

I can do it to a higher level but have zero ability to learn off rote as do many dyslexics.
It was just a point that there are children who are very capable at maths but cannot learn tables

If you have an iPhone Times Table Clock is quite good.