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Math facts help


Twolittleboys
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My 11 year old needs a bit of help with his rote math skills (e.g. multiplication table). He does know them but could be faster/more accurate. I think he would benefit most from some app/online game that is fun as he is in regular school and kind of stressed out with all the homework. So keeping it fun would be great. Does anyone have recommendations for something like this?

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My kids have all enjoyed Timez Attack, and it was effective with drilling the facts.  You can also get it for other operations besides multiplication, although we only used the multiplication tables one. An advantage of the program is that the basic version is free, so you could try it out and see if your son likes it.

Edited by IsabelC
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Prodigy might work.

 

In our house we go old school and play war.  I take the Js,Qs, Ks out of a deck, split it in two, and we each flip over a card.  The first one to tell the product of the two flipped cards wins them.  It's fast paced, takes about 5 minutes, and usually goes through several of the facts before they're done.

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Not to take away from any fun games, apps, or high-tech alternatives, but for some children, it seems really useful to fill-in old-fashioned times table charts with a pencil (not virtually) as there is something about this writing/brain connection that helps things click.

 

As the "easy ones" are proven, sheets can be made with only the "hard" spaces left blank.

 

Not super "fun," but often super efficient for children whose minds are wired to memorizing best through writing it out.

 

Bill 

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Not to take away from any fun games, apps, or high-tech alternatives, but for some children, it seems really useful to fill-in old-fashioned times table charts with a pencil (not virtually) as there is something about this writing/brain connection that helps things click.

 

As the "easy ones" are proven, sheets can be made with only the "hard" spaces left blank.

 

Not super "fun," but often super efficient for children whose minds are wired to memorizing best through writing it out.

 

Bill 

 

After we do the app, DD writes out the ones that took too long. She also writes out the whole set for ones we're about to add to the timed rotation. Like we're about to add the 6x tables today, so I've been having her write the whole set every day for a week. It definitely helps her. But the timed with writing makes her too anxious. 

Edited by Sk8ermaiden
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Not to take away from any fun games, apps, or high-tech alternatives, but for some children, it seems really useful to fill-in old-fashioned times table charts with a pencil (not virtually) as there is something about this writing/brain connection that helps things click.

 

As the "easy ones" are proven, sheets can be made with only the "hard" spaces left blank.

 

Not super "fun," but often super efficient for children whose minds are wired to memorizing best through writing it out.

 

Bill 

I agree with this.  

 

DD has a maths LD but filling in a math fact sheet at the beginning of each week and then using it while she did math actually helped her to learn a lot of her math facts (coupled with games and some use of flash cards in unusual ways).  At first she didn't like it but eventually came to find it soothing and helpful. She started noticing and remembering the patterns.  Also, she got much better at skip counting while filling in the math fact sheet.  Skip counting is a great default for her for the facts she has never successfully memorized.  I found a lot of options on-line to print out.  Some were more appealing than others for DD.  We tried out a few until we found a layout that she liked.

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After we do the app, DD writes out the ones that took too long. She also writes out the whole set for ones we're about to add to the timed rotation. Like we're about to add the 6x tables today, so I've been having her write the whole set every day for a week. It definitely helps her. But the timed with writing makes her too anxious. 

 

I'm with you. Math anxiety is a killer. Timed tests are fun for those who don't need them, potentially dangerous otherwise.

 

Bill

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Thanks so much, everybody. I will take a look at the various suggestions to see what may work best. DS is actually not too bad at it - I think he just forgot a lot over the summer and is rather slow. A bit of drill definitely won't hurt but I don't want to add too much work to his day as he is kind of stressed out with school/extracurriculars at the moment.

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... do you have to register in order to donate the rice?

 

We never used to, but they might have changed the system. Registering lets them store the levels you pass, I think, so it would definitely help with vocabulary words, and probably with the basic math, so you don't start out at the beginning each time.

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My son loves Reflex Math. He is NOT a kid who likes being timed, and yet he can handle Reflex Math fine (well, sometimes there is some shouting, but he always finishes the session with a smile). He has played for 10 weeks, and went from 22% fluent to 98% fluent. Once he maintains 100% for a week, I will let him cut back to 3x a week for a while. It has helped him SO much with his regular math - it's hard to work with fractions if you're not fluent in math facts, you know?

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DD(8) took a while to internalize multiplication facts.  A few weeks of systematic, cumulative review with Five Times Five is Not Ten together with a daily game of Multiplication War improved her confidence, speed and accuracy dramatically.  Different things work for different kids.  I had heard good things about Times Tales, but that approach was completely useless for my daughter.

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