how to learn times tables

[crisgal]

my 8 year old is really struggling with learning her times tables.
Does anyone have a good way of learning them
We are both getting exasperated which isn't helping!

[chelle7272]

Been a few years and I can't remember but always found the bbc site helpful for different ways of getting kids to learn:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...lication/timestables/

[crisgal]

that does look good - thank you ♥

[horseshoes]

I remember that when I was in primary school and about that age (@1962), we used to learn them parrot fashion. If we were changing into our plimsolls for PT, the master used to pick us out at random and shout "Marilyn - 5 times table" "David - 8 times table" and so on and we'd have to recite them. I used to dread getting the 7 times table because I found it the hardest. But that method DEFINITELY works. You could even try singing them. I think that the old fashioned methods of teaching were actually the best.

[brenda]

We used to sing them ---rote learning I know but it worked.

[squarebear]

I used to have an old cassette with a woman singing them. That made it easier to learn but yes, we were also picked it to recite them. I hated 6,7 and 8 times tables. Whoever got 10 was classed as the lucky one.

[joggerjayne]

Always put the smaller number first.

Our brains are accustomed to thinking in a progressive linear fashion ...

... ie. we find it easier to remember numbers from smallest to biggest.

So ...

Six Eights are Forty Eight

is easier than

Eight Sixes are Forty Eight

The only exceptions to this rule are when the last number of the sum is also the last number of the answer.

So it's easy to remember that ...

Six Fours are Twenty Four

Seven Fives are Thirty Five.

But apart from that, if you get the highest number first ... reverse them.

Nine Sevens is difficult.

Seven Nines are Sixty Three ... easy!

Nine Fours is difficult.

Four Nines are Thirty Six ... Easy!

[crisgal]

hmm, i'm not sure i agree with you on that last point JJ!
I know that putting the smaller number first works, but as for nine times something, i find that very easy as it's just ten times, minus the number. If you know what i mean.

It's really difficult, because what worked for me, really doesn't seem to be helping her.
It's funny isn't it, though, how you never ever forget the way you were taught!
I will remember forever: Susan Wolfenden, stood on her desk saying "six sixes are thirty six" thirty six times!
But it made me remember it!

[carrot99]

I also had a cassette for my girls where all the tables had a different catchy tune - you couldn't help but sing along. You could probably get a CD you could play quietly when she went to bed or just as background when she was playing - I'm sure that would help her.

[4getmenot]

9 times is easier done with fingers so hold up all ten fingers so 3 times 9 hold third finger down and there will be 2 fingers still up on left of the finger thats down and 7 fingers to the right making it 27. so 8 times 9 hold eighth finger down and you get 7 and 2

[carrot99]

http://www.tablesdisco.com/

this is the sort of thing - our cassette had a disco style tempo - not boring like nursery rhyme tunes.

[Canary42]

Try this quiz

http://www.sporcle.co...tiplication_table.php

[kat1]

Always found the 9 times table the hardest until a teacher showed me an easy way ie:
They all add up to 9
eg: 1x9 = 9
2x9 = 18
3x9 = 27
and so on.

[sandyRoe]

In the olden days we learned them by rote. Apart from 11x12's I think I've got them still.

[tinkerbell23]

i used to have a book where u pulled the tab and it revealed the answers...all coloured etc...ill ask my friend shes a primary teacher ...see how she drums it into her kiddies xx

[mike11111]

Tables were learnt from 1 to 12 because of the need to calculate money in pre-decimal days. Eddie 51 is spot on - they are the foundation for all mental arithmetic. Some would argue that the inventions of calculators has made this redundant but I would disagree. Who has never pressed the wrong button on a calculator by mistake. Unless you have some mental notion of approximately what your answer should be you are working in the dark. I wonder how many shop workers today would have coped fifty years ago before tills had calculating facilities.

[sandyRoe]

I was in a gov office yesterday and the woman I was seeing had to subtract 18 from 1882. She got a calculator to do that sum.

[crisgal]

ooh sandy, i would too, eights are nasty!

[sherrardk]

Hi Crisgal - think I was off the day we did 8's (I am rubbish at them!). On a serious note, my husband is an ex-Primary Deputy Head and he swears that children learn their tables best when they learn by rote - not fun and and very dull, but the absolute best way to learn them.

[mumof3angels]

Hi Crisgal, I think parrot fashion is pretty much the standard way. My kids are 13, 9 and 6 and having got through 2 of them my youngest will start times table soon. I bought one of those bright posters with all the times tables on and put it in the eldest's bedroom, then moved it into the middle one's and now the youngest one is about to have it on his wall. I think if you see something everyday it slowly sinks in. My middle one also had a cube like this one which opens out and folds back in on itself again.

http://www.amazon.co..../ref=pd_cp_k_h_b_cs_2

Hope this helps x