Strategies and ideas to help DD (7) learn times tables

[LadyPenelope]

DD just started Y3, and in maths the teachers have begun to focus on the importance of knowing times tables. DD can count in 2s, 3s, 5s, 10s and met all the expected targets for KS1. She's feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of learning times tables because she's not done it that way before and she needs to learn 2x - 6x.

I really sympathise with her because I HATED times tables at school and never really learnt them properly. I still feel a bit hindered in mental arithmatic because I don't know them properly. The only way we did it at school and home when I was a kid was shouting it out. Since I now know I do not learn well with auditory sense (I'm visual and need to write and experience), I think that's one reason why it never stuck!

So, what ideas, stategies, games are most useful in learning times tables ... would like her to have fun doing it. So stuff we can do little and often over the next few weeks to get her going.

Promise I'm not being a pushy parent BTW, DD wants to learn but doesn't know where to start!

I meant arithmetic of course! My spelling used to be better than my times tables!

i taught my children to do it to a beat ie: 1 6 is 6 slap knees
2 6 is 12 slap knees

then when we get to 5 we clap hands so

5 6 are 3000000000000000!!

reason i do this is bcos evantually they can be faced with 7x6 and think

clap hnds 5x6 is 30 and begin at 5x6 iyswim???

with 7s we drag it out then speed it up after 5 sevens are 35

8s we do like a train

9 we do quickly

i know it sounds puzzling but it worked for us

That is a bit puzzling and intriguing too! Think I've got 6s (slap knees and clap after 5)
7s you do slowly until 5 then speed up.
What do you mean like a train for 8s and quickly for 9s??

Very inventive - did you come up with that yourself?

do it one table at a time
you could make flash cards, so 4 x 1 on one and the answer on a different card, then match them all up, or play memory games, or snap.
also writing them down (rote style) is good
loads of internet sites - just do a google search on 'learning times tables'

my mum used to try and teach me using 2 ball again the wall to a rythem.

i am shockingly rubbish at numbers - seriously.

as soon as i learned 4 tables i forgot 3's

she gave up on me in the end - however i think its a great method

imagine a train...choo choo well to the rhythm of the chugg chugga you go 1 x 8 is 8 choo choo(but the choo you imagine my little ones move there arms a little like a train movement -bjesus my 15 yr old would be mortified if he knew i was telling you this)2x8 is 16 etc etc then when youd ring the bell they pull the cord at 5 x 8 nd so on on 6x 8 is 48 choo choo...until 10 a 8 is 80 pull the bell. im sat her blardy doing this lolol 9s are quite easy so we do it to a fast rhythm you go up on the 10 side and down on the unit side.....1x9 is 9 2x 9 is 18 3x9 27 etc etc by 5x9 is 45 you are fast so you start it regulr for 6 x9 then build up to 10 x 9 is 900000000000000000!!

i did come up with it myself after trying to teach a group of year 3s their sixers!! and so i did it at home with mine and it works i should call it chapsticks challenge lol.

they do do songs with the times tables on cd and tape in ELC.

Custy that beats singing jimmy giraffe and matthew mark luke and john -those were what we sang playing two a ball.

No ideas for games related learning but my DS1 (8) struggled with tables last year and we stuck up a copy of the times table (whichever one they were supposed to learn that week) next to the bathroom mirror so that he could practice whilst he was brushing his teeth. There was also a second copy stuck to his ceiling (he was then sleeping in the top bunk so not quite as mad as it sounds) and he could practice whilst falling asleep! We would practice one week in order (1 x 5 is 5, 2 fives are 10 etc) and the next week try and mix it up a little. It really worked for him because like you, and me, he learns in a very visual rather than auditory manner.

My sister has a CD with timetables on it that she plays in the car (she does quite long journeys with her children). Even her 4 year old DD knows them perfectly .

times tables

What Anna said. We used to repeat them in a kind of sing-song at school and I still know them off by heart that way, like

Once 2 is 2
Two 2s are 4
Three 2s are 6 etc

The easiest one to remember is the 9x table cos the answer always adds up to nine, ie

1 x 9 = 9
2 x 9 = 18 (1+8=9)
3 x 9 = 27 (2+7 = 9)
etc, till you get to 11x when the answer adds up to 18

Yes - times tables are committed to your very long term memory by rote. Don't bother with understanding them at this stage. Just commit them to memory through repetition.

I'm constantly buggered here in France by the fact that I only know my times tables in English.

These are all great - want to try a few ideas and see what she likes and what works best for her.

Chapstickchic - I'm not sure I've got it - really think you and your 15 yo, should put a video on u-tube so I can follow it! I really like it because it has all sorts of different anchors and cues to help!

And I'm amazed by the 9x Boyswillbeboys - why am I 42, crap at times tables and I didn't KNOW that?

lmao at u tube!!! ds1 would be shamed publically!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nine times has another easy way to learn and kids love to learn it and astound adults. Hold all your fingers up palms facing you. If you want to know what 5 x 9 is, fold down finger number 5. You have four fingers on the left and five on the right, and the answer is 45 (and so on). Works for all multiples of nine up to 10 x 9.

janinlondon - love it! Never mind kids astounding adults. .. I'm going to astound the kids and my dh!

Chapstickchick ... get ds to do it, film him secretly and then threaten to upload it if he won't do his homework/tidy his room etc!

agree with learning by rote

dd1 sings along to a cd (in the privacy of her bedroom) and seems to learn them fine.