Year 2 weekly timestables

[MineyMoe]

DS has a weekly times tables test every Thursday. First week was 2x up to 12 and reverse (e.g., 2 x 12 and 12 x 2, 2 x 7 and 7 x 2). Those that get all 20 questions correct are tested on the next number the following week. Those who miss 1 or more of the 20 have to repeat the 2x table the following week instead of progressing. Follow me?

This was ok for DS for the first 4 weeks: 2x, 5x, 10x, review. But now they have moved to 3x, 4x, 7x, 8x, 9x, etc. With 2x, 5x, 10x they have had 1.5 years of various practice counting in 2s, 5x, 10s, number line, grouping, hundred chart, etc, The other numbers they appear to have had no concrete practice.

He has squeaked through the weekly set, but now that he is at the part to consolidated knowledge, he has fallen behind. He's demotivated because 1) he is now behind his peers for the rest of the year on the weekly test because he has to re-take the previous week (missed 4); 2) he feels lilke he's no good at maths, which is not true at all. They simply have not taught them these number sets and appear to be skipping parts of the curriculum, which for Year 2 is only meant to cover 2x, 5x, 10x.

How to I raise this with the school? What is the point in memorising these symbols with no understanding to underpin it? It is very demotivating and I think it's unreasonable to be testing in such an aggressive way when they have not given them sufficient tools or time to really understand beyond 2x, 5x, 10x.

Then you just keep learning them by doing (long) multiplications or solve area problems or whatever you fancy over and over and in time it is all ingrained in your brain. There is no real reason to defer it any further.

But you won't do long multiplication until half-way through Y4, and I'm not sure about area problems but it's not in Y3 I don't think. So what DO you do over and over to keep practising your times tables for the rest of Y2, all of Y3 and the beginning of Y4? In Y3 you will be learning column addition and subtraction, and practising this over and over and over. You will get to apply your number bonds and doubles and near doubles until they are automatic. So really, teachers need to make sure that this stuff is solid in Y2, rather than pushing memorisation of tables that they then won't use for another two years.

That's why I say it's no rush. 'Get it over with' is fine IF the groundwork is there. For most Y2s it won't be, and even if it is, there's no problem at all with 'getting it over with' at some point in Y3 or Y4.

I think brilliotic summarized perfectly what I wanted to say, Arkadia.
I think we have to agree to disagree on this.

Brill, I don't think it is outsourcing as in my view it is the ONLY way.
To do times tables at school it would be a painfully slow process.

10 minutes a day AT SCHOOL is no more painful or slow than 10 minutes a day at home. And should be perfectly sufficient for memorising and retaining those 36 number facts that remain once the children understand multiplication (incl. commutativity) and know 1x, 2x, 5x, 10x.

What do you think schools do about the kids who don't practise times tables at home? Just let them fail?