Now I'm older than the hills & from US hills at that - thus my name - and learned my times tables through this: ff6w.primaryblogger.co.uk/school-house-rock-times-tables/
believe it or not these were shown as commercial breaks (sponsored by the government) on Saturday mornings between cartoons. And we kids got excited when rumours of a new one came out & would endlessly discuss the latest video (there were also videos for grammar & for explaining US democracy) - this was in the days before MTV when dinosaurs roamed the land.
Lots on Mumsnet about how to teach multiplication - just search multiplication. I've written a small novel here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/a1778680-Arghhhhhhhh-best-way-to-learn-times-tables
My main advice is use number families to make it easier:
Y2 should have learned to count by 2s, 5s, 10s by now - so in effect know x2/ x5/ x10 - but may not appreciate they do.
Often schools skip or quickly review x0 and x1 - but these are great and give a good sense of achievement. Definitely worth spending time on - because then you can say you know 5 times tables (0,1,2,5 & 10)
Anything x 0 = 0 - so 999,999,999 x 0 = 0. Instant genius child!
Anything x 1 is itself - think of 1 as a giant floor length mirror - so 999,999 x 1 = 999,999 - again instant genius.
2 is really important - because if they get doubling (x2) they have a head start to so many other times tables.
3 is tricky - but use your hands back of hand upwards to help count - using knuckles with fingers + knuckles & finger nail with thumb and you have a way of counting 3s quickly. Practice by playing snakes and ladders with multiples of 3. So roll the die - say it's 4 - so that's 4 threes - then use four fingers and count those knuckles. Keep practicing and it gets easy.
Once you've broken those you're really a long way there - because x4 and x8 are easy once you know x2
x4 can be thought of as x2 but double it - so 4 x 8 is the same thing as 2 x 8 but double the answer
x 8 can be thought of as two doubles of x2 - so 8 x 8 is the same thing as 2 x 8 = 16, double it = 32 and double that again = 64.
same idea with x6 and x12
6x table is simply double of 3x table (so 6 x 6 is the same thing as 3 x 6 = 18 and double that = 36)
12 x table is simply double and double again 3x table (so 12 x 6 is the same thing as 3 x 6 = 18, double it = 36 and double again = 72). You can also think of x12 and adding x10 + x2 results - so 12 x 6 = (10 x 6 = 60) + (2 x 6 = 12) = 60+12 = 72.
At this point (just with x3 & doubling skills) you'll know x0, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, x8, x10 & x12.
11 is just fun & there's a trick after 9 x 11 (see link above for trick)
and ditto for 9 - fun & great number patterns there (also tricks there - see link above)
and that leaves 7 - which you just have to learn. No tricks I'm afraid. But by saving it for last in fact you know all of them except 7 x 7 because you've done them with x0 - x6 and x8 - x12 - so if you remember 7 x 7 is a swine - that rhymes with 49.
There are tons of free on-line games to help:
Math champs (tables spread across 3 age bands 5-7/ 7-9/ 9-11): www.mathschamps.co.uk/#home
Games on multiplication.com: www.multiplication.com/games/all-games
and resources/ games on woodland junior school maths zone resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/
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Once tables are sound (but maybe a bit slow/ creaky in places) - to improve speed try Timez Attack (free version works just fine): www.bigbrainz.com/. Kids get so wrapped up in the game - they really don't realise they're practicing.
HTH