How much should he know

[duckster]

My G/f boy is ten now and he does not know his six and seven times tables off by heart, he goes to secondary school next year and he is going to get a shock. How old are/were your children when they could do thier times tables? And am i mean for pushing him to learn an hour each nite?
I must have been around 7 when i knew mine, it was well b4 secondary school anyway!

[noxlumos]

Well this is the problems with the current schooling situation. there are kids aged 11 who can't even write their own name to be honest, and that not me exaggerating, I read an article ages ago about it, in the Guardian I think.
My eight year old knows up to her 12 times table and has done for a year or so, but she is one to one home schooled, so it's not a very fair comparison, and my four year old, whose good at maths, knows up to his five times table.
Ask the school what their opinion of his level of numeracy is, you might find they are all about the same to be honest and they are happy with hi,.
If he, you and his mum think he needs extra work then set some, but we always do tables in the car to be honest when we are en route to somewhere, as it's something you can do in your head and chant, so I wouldn't set too much extra work or he'll get over tsressed and bored with it and won't learn anyway then.

[duckster]

mm thanks for your answer! i find it really hard to believe he cant do them. His reading has improved dramatically, but again you have to push him. It has taken him over a week to learn the 6 and 7's.
its the same with his spellings? it can take up to a week, them ask him the week after and he has forgotten? so frustrating.

[teag1rl]

I'm 26 and I dont think I'm particulalry thick. I have never learnt my times tables off by heart. My dad was astounded, he couldnt believe I couldnt do them. Even banned me from watching tele in an attempt to get me to learn them and it just wouldnt work. I'm still no dunce at maths, can do it fine if given time to work it out. I dont think it's that big a deal. I have never needed to give a lightening fast response to 'seven sixes'. I dont think times tables were ever mentioned after I left primary either!
If he can bascially do maths but doesnt have the ability to learn like a parrot what's the problem? That is after all what times tables are-a memory test!

[ganesh]

For some reason they don't consider learning tables parrot fashion as we used to, and they dont stress any importance on it. We were learning it from the age of 5 and performing them in front of the class when we mastered each one. The speed of knowing 6x7 may not be important in life but it can be really useful and will definately help in secondary school exams and Maths GCSE which is still compulsory! No , I don't think your'e mean to make him practice -he might think you are though.

[Beanmistriss]

I'm also 26 and don't know my times tables off by heart. Quickly and parrot fashion I could do the 2, 5 and 10, the others I would have to put some thought into (not so much my head exploded) I'm not too thick I don't think and I passed my maths standard grade no problems at all. It's just something I found that would never stick in my head no matter how much I went over them

[jake-the-peg]

I'd try to get him to learn them but I wouldn't go overboard unless you're set on him getting a career as a bartender!

Kids don't do maths at primary school they do arithmetic and when they start to do maths at secondary school their tables and arithmatic tends to drop off a bit anyway so starting with a good base now is good.

An hour a night seems a little heavy for learning parrot tables parrot fashion - why don't you do half an hour tables and half an hour maths starting some of the things like basic algebra and trigonometry.

It's amazing how many people got turned off maths by being forced to chant tables.

If you can instill in him a genuine enthusiasm and sense of fun in a subject like maths it's worth more than knowing that six sevens are fourty two.

Incidently this years Royal institution Christmas lectures are on maths.

http://www.rigb.org/rimain/events/christmaslec tures.jsp

I think they're fully booked now but they're really worth watching over Christmas

[ytrewq]

My eldest was the same with maths but has been doing kumon maths for just over a year. It's not something he enjoys as he has to be a work sheet every night but he has inproved a great deal in this time.

[emailia]

I remember trying to learn 7x tables when i was 7 and finding the concept extremely difficult, and thinking about it now i have no idea how i did end up understanding it, apart from lots of practise and the 'Numeracy Hour'! It's true that when you go to secondary school, the maths is less focused on arithmetic, but it's still important for other aspects obviously.