please can anyone help me with ways to help a struggling 7 year old with times tables

[feelcrappy]

she is really struggling with this

I would appreciate any advice, books, ways of teaching apps, you tube links
anything really

she knows 2 5 10 and 11s

we working on 3's atm
its the upper ones she struggles with past 5x3

I've got the squeebles times tables 2 app on my phone and it's brilliant. It's also on the iPad and dh phone so can be accessed at all times. It's £1.50 and worth every penny. The division is great too.

I started with taking it in turns counting in 3s, then dd counted in 3s, then doing just 1-5x3 before moving on.

The Squeebles app is brilliant, it's turned my dd into a table whizz! (They have a division one too.)

We had a bloody awful CD which we played whenever we were in the car, soul destroyingly repetitive , but very effective.

thankyou I will get her that squeebles app
well worth the money

if I get it ont he ipad and phone do I have to pay twice?

where did oyu get the cd weall?

was it elc?

It depends on how your child learns. Does she learn though seeing it written down, saying it outloud, writing it down, associating pictures with numbers etc

For us I found the good, old fashioned, way worked well.

Get a note book and do one table at a time, get her to write them in order from the 1's then on the opposite page get her to write the division facts (basically tables back to front)

Then do some chanting -

1 3's 3
2 3's 6
3 3's 9
4 3's 12

etc

Not the drawn out '1 times 3 equals 3'

Not 3 x 1 = 3, 3 x 2 =6,

Not the rather (IMO) ridiculous 'modern' counting in 3's and calling it tables... useless method!

Chant, keep chanting, chant some more :)

Do tables regularly, we did them every night on the way home from school for 10 minutes. Chanting a new one regularly, then random testing of the others all mixed up. Sometimes they test you, sometimes you test them - when they test you, you have to do some of them wrong so you know they are paying attention! But they know you get 5 lives (use a life each time you get one wrong, so they know you were doing it on purpose - it's not good IMO to pretend not to know things like this).

Any difficult ones 'hang' it on something. Do something 'different'. Create a visual. ie we wrote 11 x 11 = 121 on the windscreen when it misted up. We discussed that 7 x 8 the answer is the two numbers before them. However, there were only about 4 out of the 12 times table that hadn't stuck, so it was easy to 'hang' them, you can't do it if it's loads.

She's 9 now and at least once a week we do 'rapid fire' tables to keep us both on our toes :)

Get a cd and put it on in the car, for any and every trip, until she's so bored of it she knows it backwards and forwards.

Look on amazon for CDs. There's loads.

Oh, cross posted with all the App advice :) Never mind, there might still be something useful in my post.

I also think that I talk about maths stuff quite a lot, I like maths :) So we talked about things like number patterns, the 9's being 10 minus 1 more each time - so the first number increasing by one & the last number decreasing by one and importantly that there aren't 12 lots of tables to learn because each time you learn a table you are learning less than 12 because you already know some of them and by the time you get to 12's there's only one to learn!

My ds plays on multiplication.com. I am not sure how much it has helped but he really enjoys it so is learning through play.
We also had a CD with times table songs on. I advise against that seriously annoying.

Chanting, marching and beating a drum in time to the rhythm has helped all 3 of our dc.
Not for everyone and of course loud, but lots of fun for the kids.

We also played the card game but this is more for consolidation or continuous revision.

Take out the kings. Ace counts as one, jack as 11 and queen as 12.
Each take a turn to place a card down so you put down 8 hearts your dc 5 clubs, first one to shout 40 is the winner.

lattelover

I've been doing the chanting with her, but the drawn out one 1x3 x 3

tbh I'm not really that sure how shes learns really
I honestly do not know if she

Does she learn though seeing it written down, saying it outloud, writing it down, associating pictures with numbers etc
how could I find this out?

yeah tricks like

number patterns, the 9's being 10 minus 1 more each time - so the first number increasing by one & the last number decreasing by one

I think would be helpful as I don't even really notice these much myself as I suppose ive not really actually thought about it much

she would probably enjoy banging a drum and marching at the same time

I like 'step into tables' which show how few tables they actually need to learn...link here, second page - less daunting than seeing them all written out 1-10.
www.kilsby.northants.sch.uk/cms-assets/documents/94302-883846.times-tables.pdf

Except DD2 (also 7) knows her 9x - (before her 4s etc) because I love the patterns
the two digits added together make 9 ie 1+8 = 9, 2+7 = 9
First digit of the answer is always one less than whatever you times by (so 2 x 9 = 18 ) the fact that the numbers reverse (there is acbetter way of describing this but the name has slipped my mind) but 18 and 81 , 27 and 72, 36 & 63 Think it should be one of the first ones they learn (like 2s, 5s, 10s)

If she knows up to 5x 3 - and she know 10x 3 - she only needs to learn 4 more anyway - one a day for the next 4 days and she's cracked it!

Count in 3s. Dray triangles and count the points. Flowers with 3 petals, trains with 3 carriages, etc

Also, look at factors as you go (the numbers times together to make the multiple). So have 6 buttons, how can they be grouped so that there is the same number in each group? One group of 6, six separate buttons, 2 groups of three or three groups of two. Do the same with 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36 ( on different days, not all at once! Write the numbers down for the child to see.) You could use a big egg box sometimes for this and have a bag of dried peas or marbles or sweets to group.you could also use pencils or pegs, etc

Set the table using knife, fork and spoon for each person. 3 pieces of cutlery for one person, 6 needed for 2 people, 9 for 3 people etc...

Measuring things. What is 3cm long? Make a strip.of paper exactly 3cm. Then 6cm, 9 etc. Keep all the strips, compare alongside one another.

*draw, not Dray!

What does she do to try and remember something? Does she mutter it to herself (strong aural memory) picture it in her imagination (visual) or have an action or imagine writing it?

For the 9s, hold hands in front of you and bend down the finger of the number to multiply with 9. The numbers to the left of the benr finger are the tens in the answer, fingers to the right are the units. ( e.g. 4th finger bent down, 4 × 9 = 36)

google 'Blind Melon' 3 is the magic number song, my DD learnt it from this!

Draw a multiplication grid 10x10
Choose a coloured pencil and colour in all the 10x table. New colour, then do 2s. Repeat for 5,3,4,6,7,8,9. It really helps them to see the correlation between the numbers - it's really positive as they can see that once they know some of the tables, they know lots of bits of the harder ones too.

Try googling arrays - use pieces of pasta and give her say 12 and get her to lay them out in a rectangle. She will get a better sense of what the tables actually mean. See if she can get more than one array from the number of shapes you give her.

DS1 had to learn a new one a week, so at the beginning of the week we worked out which ones he didn't know.
e.g. if doing the 3s he had already learnt his 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s so he had to learn
33
43
63
73
83
93
that meant he had to learn 1 a day.
So the first day I would 'test' him on all the ones he already knew
13
23
53 and
103
and also one new one
3*3.
I used to quiz him on them on the way to school and then check he could still remember them on the way back.

The next day I'd quiz him on all the above and the next new one 4*3.

Because he was only learning one sum a day he seemed to take them in.

if she learns in a visual way, she might like the Times Table Clock app. Or if she is good at remembering rhyme, the Time Table Rhyme cards with little stories on (if they're still available these days!).

DD picks up song lyrics fairly easily, so I am going with the CD route. I've got one that includes counting in jumps (6,12,18...) as that is how she was introduced to times tables.

thank you so so much for all these great ideas, slowly working through them

thanks also from my struggling 7 year old little girl
she seems a lot happier with these techniques rather than the crap way I was going it

I mean I was putting in the time with her but not doing it effectively
so feel we are finding a bit of out way now

many thanks any more ideas most welcome

I was a primary TA / helper for over twenty years. I'll add below my standard methods 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

:)

I'm glad you are both feeling a bit more positive about it. I remember how much pressure there was to learn them when I was at school a million years ago. It's horrible. I am not good at just remembering things either, but eventually the chanting stuck and even now (and having a love of maths) I still hear the sing song 6 8's r 48 and I turn numbers around in my head - so if someone were to ask what 7 x 3 is I would think 3 x 7

Good luck!