Times tables

[sherrardk]

After a week of testing, nagging and moaning (and with the use of out and out bribery) boy #1 seems to have cracked his times tables. Why don't they just bloody make them learn them by rote in school (would have saved us the price of the bribe!).

[Anngel123]

I think this is one thing that modern education has got wrong. We spend hours repeating tables. Hated it but they are indelibly imprinted in my brain. Helps no end when shopping.

[dzug2]

Does it work though? The thicker kids always had to count their way through the table to get to the required answer - they couldn't just remember a bit of it in isolation.

[didoatwork]

Dzug - well at least they could work it out eventually, rather than never learning anything....

[bednobs]

have to say learning by rote did not help me. I consider myself a dairly intelligent person (and i have a degree) but i still get a bit hazy when it comes to six, seven and eight times tables

[sherrardk]

Even if the thicker kids had to count their way to the correct answer, at least they knew what the answer was (rather than just randomly choosing any old number).

[tamborine]

My kids learned by singing tables & ABC on car journeys. This tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXi3bjKowJU

[seadogg]

The frequent "rattlings" with a ruler on my knuckles ruined confidence in maths till I discovered the beauty of the subject later on. The impression given by friends is that their children have a surprisingly formal education in primary school with tables, homework etc.

[DaisyNonna]

Primary School tables time. Round the class, random questions. If wrong, stand up, next time, stand on seat, 3rd time, stand on desk. We all learned.

[sherrardk]

Hi Daisy - you wouldn't be allowed to make the pupils stand on a table now (elf and safety and all that!).

[annie0000]

I consider myself an intellegent person, I hold down a good job and have good qualifications (I also score 142 in a Mensa IQ test - if you believe in that sort of stuff). However, I never ever mastered my times tables and I went to school in the 70s - we were dismissed each afternoon by being asked random tables questions, if you got it right you got to go - I was generally the last person to leave primary school every day :o(. I was as it turned out later, a whizz at maths, but useless at Arithmetic. I can't say that it has particularly held me back, but I do find it frustrating at times.

My eldest son who I think is about the same age as your Sher is the same as me - I have had him crying in frustration, as I'd like him to be able to have the multiplication answers at the front of his head rather than struggling with them. There really is no substitute other than to just keep trying to learn them by rote. He is very clever otherwise, but I really feel that this holds him back. Part of me wants to tell him that actually you can't be good at everything and when you are grown up you get to use a calculator so it doesn't really matter and that would be good for him to accept that he is not perfect. On the other hand I think it would do his self esteem and confidence good just to overcome this.

I don't think the school is going to help him any more so I think we need to take your method and just get him to learn them regardless of the tears!!!

Well done to No 1 son though - hope he spends his bribe wisely!

[sherrardk]

Hi Annie - I totally agree with you that we can't all be good at everything (and I think it is good for children to know this). I can't do the 8 times timetable and my husband can't do 7's and we have admitted this to him. Boy #1 is clever but lazy (and he knows it). On the plus side, boy #2 (7 years old) is now very keen to learn his tables as he has his eye on some Lego that he fancies as his reward.

[Noraq]

If there's such a thing as dyslexia for maths..I've got it.

Thank the Gods for calculators.

[Postdog]

Dyscalculia it's called

[annie0000]

lol - my 2nd is only a year younger and is fine with his tables so I don't think it'll cost me anything (and we have enough lego to build a real house I think)- they are actually in the same Maths group at school - they get the same homework which helps! they had quite a large sheet of maths this week as a kind of revision to get them back into the swing of things. I supervised No1 son on Tuesday with his and was doing the same on Wednesday with younger son but was cooking risotto at the same time. My OH came in so i sent him over to help and walked away saying he couldn't remember how to do long division and fractions - some use he is going to be when they get up to high school!!!

[annie0000]

Discalculia - I think that's what I have - I am also rubbish with the alphabet though - I know it from A-Z, but struggle to remember where the individual letters go without starting at the beginning! - I'm rubbish at looking up numbers in the telephone directory, or filing!!

[vulcan]

I still think you need some knowledge of the times table etc. If you haven't got a rough idea of the final answer, how will you know if the calculator is right ?

[joko]

i do think this is probably the best way of learning tables

there are simply too many numbers to remember...

its how we learn to speak first off really...

its like learning lyrics to a song...many couldnt sing it alone or write them down, but can if they listen to the song...
by being able to recite them, you will get there in the end...

it reminds me of those ad for music compilations for rock music or something...you hear them so often that when you hear one of the songs in full, often you will think of the song that is played next on the ad, at the exact bit it comes in... the 'memory' it sparks the next one...

unless you have a visual memory and can visualise a grid and locate the answer that way.

[saxy_jag]

Some things are better learnt by rote, I agree. Even now if I'm not sure about a figure then I'll run through a little bit of the appropriate times table.

Kids learn in different ways, though. Some will pick it up better by rote, others in the way your son has been learning. Teachers are taught and encouraged to address all learning styles in their lessons, but they are all too often not given the time and resources to do so by their employers.