Learning the multiplication tables is a huge obstacle on the road to mental math and this challenge is capable of destroying early confidence. Does anyone have any suggestions for teaching these facts? What is multiplication?
Some common methods:-
Draw attention to patterns -tables 2, 4, 6 and 8 are easy to learn as they end in some combination of 2-4-6-8-0.
Use the principles of spaced repetition- possibly one of the most effective methods.
Mnemonics – The Major System links numbers to images.
Cutting the number of facts almost in half by explaining that when you multiply two numbers, it does not matter which is first or second, the answer is always the same.
Multiplication triangles
Remembering squares is useful because whenever you multiply numbers that are separated by two you can simply square the middle number and then subtract one to get the answer. 5x7=6x6-1
I’m currently reading the mental math book about all the prodigies over the years that could do amazing mental math. Only on chapter 5 I think, but… one of the math geniuses was discussing the multiplication tables. One hypothesis was that the mental geniuses memorized a larger multiplication table, and, according to the one prodigy that discussed it, said that it was actually a waste of time to memorize more than 10x10. He talked about reducing the number of “facts” to the fewest possible.
The author also goes into great lengths discussing mnemonics, and basically the thought was that the actual number of “bits” in doing a large mental calculation doesn’t really use too many bits up through 3 digit times 3 digit (according to this same prodigy)… he basically said once you get past that, he didn’t think an ordinary person or child could do it - they would have to be sort of freakish like he was.
Perhaps you’ve already read this book… but thought I’d chime and subscribe to the thread and will put a book report somewhere on here when I’m done.
Oh, and by the way, I’m using spaced repetition more than ever now. After your comments about Anki, I loaded it up and am back to doing daily supermemo via Anki. What a great program, Thanks.
Check out this resourse http://www.multiplication.com/resources/books, basically it’s a method of teaching times tables using stories, pictures and rhymes. It works. I am still surprised how well it works actually. children quickly learn them using the rhymes and have the story internally for life. It doesn’t take long for them to ditch the rhyme and go strait to the number for instant recal. A story a day, could be used on any age…I would suggest it would even work for kids who are unable to recognize a rhyme as the pictures and stories are reinforcing the answer also. Any way I have been using it to teach my kids those tricky times tables that are hard to remember. If you have a brain the student workbook should be enough (cheaper!) you don’t need step by step instructions.
One note I do think it’s important to teach kids what times tables actually mean ( 5 groups of 4) before teaching them to memorize them but After is fine if you decide to start young so long as they understand it eventually.
So you know the fingers up and down trick for 9 times tables? If it’s 9 x 7 put down the 7 th finger and your answer is on your hand 6 and 3 fingers is 63. And teach 2 times as doubles its more useful long term.
also I always start by skip counting so the answers are familiar.
Hi everyone! I just wanted to share how happy we are with the method from www.multiplication.com. The mnemonics are really memorable and very effective. My three-year-old mastered everything in 3-days! I wouldn’t have thought it possible to learn it that fast since I myself had it memorized when I was already 9-years old :wub: First we started with 5 “stories” at breakfast then several more again at lunch, and dinner. Before we knew it, we were done on Day 3 (May 17), exactly before her Dad’s birthday so it became sort of a surprise present for him :). The stories are silly and often humorous so it really stuck on us. One thing though, I had trouble remembering a couple or more but Cammie didn’t. I guess it pays to learn it while one is still right-brain dominant.
The downloadable flashcards are just $.99 and is ready in jiffy, no waiting for it in the mail. This is a huge convenience for us as we live in the Philippines. I can’t thank this site enough! Now were ready to begin soroban multiplication. Yay!
Question, please. On the website http://www.multiplication.com/resources/books, I’ve seen 4 books, the first two books appear to be hard copies, the last two are ebooks. My question: are the contents of ebooks ‘Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables (Student eBook)’ and ‘Multiplication in a Flash (Student Workbook Pages)’ exactly the same as the first 2 books which appear to be hard copies? I asked because I would prefer the ebooks, rather than dealing with hassles and extra costs of shipping hard copies.
About the last ebook ‘Multiplication in a Flash (Student Workbook Pages)’, they say
``This packet contains the blackline masters of the student workbook from Multiplication in a Flash. (53 Pages) ‘’. This is a bit confusing. Does this mean this ebook has only 53 pages? I noticed the hard copy with a similar title is said to have 288 pages.
Hi Nee! Sorry I couldn’t be of any help regarding the books. We skipped that and went straight ahead with the flashcards. In the website, there are individual videos of the “stories” for each multiplication fact. We watched those too.
Memorize in minutes is for young kids, the other one is for older struggling kids. Well that’s what my research found anyway!
I bought the full physical copy book with black line masters, because I am a teacher. The black line masters mean I can photocopy them as often as I want without upsetting the copyright laws.
Really I think the student workbook in electronic format will be all you need. What a bargain a few dollars and times tables are licked! lol
The book i have tells me what is in the student book ( it actually has copies of the pages for teachers reference) this book is definately aimed a t teachers it has step by step objectives and lesson plans. I am convinced the student book is all a parent needs, and in electronic format is perfect as you can print pages for coloring in. All you need are the pictures and stories.
Nadia I am so pleased you had such great success with it. I am surprised at the pace you flew through it! I had never attempted more than one story a day…oh dear I am underachieveing my kids again! Sigh. It really is very child friendly, they love it. Videos? What videos? I am off to explore!
Hi Manda! We didn’t plan to have it memorized so fast but when I saw that she’s taking the stories so well, I just continued on and on You see, my daughter is very mischievous and she’ll just light up to anything with humor. She wanted to know what happened when the “hive” (5) put on the “skates” ( 8 ) and if the “sign” (9) does the same thing when it is it’s turn to put on “skates” (9x8). It is like narrating a very long silly story to her. I supplement with dialogues between the characters (complete with different voices :biggrin: ) and I guess that reinforced the facts even more. We reviewed the facts learned the previous day before starting with new facts. We’ve talked about the stories during bath time, potty time, and even before bedtime. Now that I think of it, we studied almost all day for three days but only because she’s enjoying so much. I have to admit that it is the most intensive thing we’ve done so far as EL goes.
You can find the videos (not really moving pictures but just the image with narration) when you click a fact on the Fact Navigator chart.
You said there are coloring activities in the book? We would love to do that! Thanks for the info.
Here’s a pic right after we’re done. It became a surprise gift for her father’s birthday
Thank you so much for your responses. Nadia, I’ve searched the website for the silly story games you mentioned. I can’t seem to find those particular ones. Please can you paste the link? Thank you so much.
EDIT: I’ve found the link to the story games. Thanks a lot, Nadia, for mentioning the games.
What a great way to learn multiplication tables! We downloaded the student ebook and the .99 color flashcards. I reviewed two stories tonight with my 4 yr old and he was able to do those two problems. I’m excited to see if he remembers them tomorrow! Thanks for sharing!
Hey Everyone!
Thanks SO MUCH FOR the links! I just bought both (physical and E copy!) for my mathy toddler of 29 months! We will see how she does with it!
Thanks Nadia0801 and Mandabplus3 for the inspiration! Will let you know via her YouTube channel how it turns out!
Thank!
@Nadia. Wow. Daddy must have been super happy with that present. three days and timetables all done! Do you know how long it takes me to teach that to 3 rd grade children! Early learning rocks! We need more resources like this! I am sure they exist in the creative minds of many. That is intensive but really I don’t think it was all that taxing on her, she has an amazing memory brought about by “using” her memory. That probably knocked off a week So what’s next? ( visual world geography perhaps?)
@ LDSmon please let us know how he does. I am ever curious. How many under fives who know their complete times tables will it take to change the world? @kerileanne. I KNOW this one will be a hit in your house! Enjoy I can’t wait to watch the video! @all thanks again for pushing me that little bit further down the road. I have been using this resource as a fall back plan for kids struggling to remember the tricky ones (7x8 etc) but have now decided to use it ( and shout about it from the rooftops) on my younger kids too. New bedtime story’s
It is great to hear about your success with using mnemonics to learn the times tables. After a few reviews your daughter will start to be able to recall these facts without thinking about the images and story.
Some thoughts on explaining what multiplication is-
I think that it is a mistake to tell a child that multiplication is repeated addition.
Multiplication can be used as a shortcut to calculating repeated addition but this does not make it repeated addition.
It is better to discuss how multiplication can leave numbers unchanged or make them bigger or smaller. ½ as big 7 times bigger etc
Giving intelligible meaning to multiplication with negative numbers is easy with the right approach. Explanations encountered at school are usually inadequate and can leave children thinking that math is beyond them.
-4 x -6 does not have any obvious meaning.
It all makes more sense if you think of -1 as an instruction to rotate a number on a number line about zero 180 degrees in an anti clockwise direction.
-x can be thought of as the number x and the operation (-1) performed or about to be performed on it.
(-1) (-1) is performing the rotation 180 degrees twice which corresponds to a rotation of 360 degrees.
Example -3 x -4 can be seen as (-1)3 x (-1)4
This is 3 x 4 rotated 360 degrees anti-clockwise on the number line.
Hope this makes sense.
Hi PokerDad,
Glad to hear that you are impressed with Anki. Everyone can benefit from periodic review.
I am confused. Why exactly don’t you like it explained as repeated addition?
I usually teach what multiplication is by using physical objects in groups, usually with glass beads ( in cups for large numbers) because the kids are fascinated by them. After a few demonstrations I usually don’t need to show them, they get it. I imagine teaching a 3 year old may take a few more demonstrations than a 7 year old, but that of course depends on the math knowledge we are building on.
It is incorrect to state that multiplication is repeated addition but you can state that multiplication provides a quick way to get the answer to a repeated addition.
½ x ¼ or 1.3 x 6.4 and multiplication of negative numbers are clearly not examples of repeated addition.
It is probably better to demonstrate what the various mathematical operations do rather than attempt to explain what they are. Addition is collecting together, subtraction as the reverse process. Multiplication is better understood by looking at examples of scaling. We multiply sound when we turn up the volume etc.
Ahha! Well that makes sence. I asked because it is something my kids are taught at school. I always taught it as a short cut to adding and adding and adding and adding and adding and adding ( then I pretend I fell asleep, the kids all yell wake up! Laughing hysterically. 8 year olds are the best audience )
I always demonstrate. I think that is the most essential part of math. I do like your wording of addition and subtraction. Will note that for later. thanks for clearing it up for me.
wow nadia0801, thats amazing for your 3yo kid to be able to remember the multiplication! Congrats
Has she already understand the concept of multiplication? How do you teach her so that she understand what does 3x2 means?
By the way, where to view the videos of the silly stories you mentioned? Need to buy it?
Awesome! …You guys/girls are my Gurus. Everytime I think we are doing well, I always find that you guys are 2 steps ahead of me. But I am soo glad that you are!
I have to try this with my 3 yr old daughter too… Thanks Nadia for the inspiration! Sooo grateful! But two questions for all…
How do you inspire a child to learn multiplication tables. I can imagine a conversation with mine…lets learn MTs…why Mommy? And then, there willl be many other interruptions. Or are the stories good that they learn it?
Someone earlier posted a link to Right brain Multiplication Division Book…http://www.child-1st.com/new_site/index.html Is that better or is this better? I like using just one method and sticking to it soo if you guys have any knowledge about both let me know and i’ll go with that … :biggrin:
For those that got the student book…what does that have…they have no previews. :clown:
So what’s next? ( visual world geography perhaps?)
thanks for clearing it up for me.