+ - x /. Facts. What is your method of teaching

[Mommyfaithe]

For memorization. I stink at this! Once again my 5 th grader is stuck because he does not have instant fact recall....grrrrrrrrr....

This is the 6 th kid I have and the 6 th time for this mom.....and # 7 is not looking too good either! I need an easy...get it done Nd into their heads way of memorizing facts....

 

Oh, I am overwhelmed myself looking at the stack of flash cards we have created!!!!! Can someone simplify this for me?

 

I know this is dumb....but for some reason, I just can't get my mind wrapped around this issue.

 

Faithe

 

[PachiSusan]

As Ross Perot used to say, "I'm all ears!"

 

I have not found success in teaching math facts either. However, this kid can memorize all the episodes and dialogue of "My Little Pony" and know all the words to a song within a day. Groan.

[Kathryn]

Listening in also...

[Eagle]

Computer games and apps work for us. Math Bingo for ipad, Tux Math for computer.

 

I recently bought the books Games for Math (Peggy Kaye) and Family Math. They contain descriptions of games that you make that reinforce various math facts. Simple things like tossing tokens onto a board of numbers and adding or multiplying the numbers together. The more we play the games, the better ds is getting at remembering his facts.

 

There is a book that I plan on ordering that tells stories for remembering the multiplication tables. Times Tales.

http://www.amazon.com/Times-Tales-Tables-Made-Easy/dp/0976202441/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I don't have personal experience with it but have heard good things from others who have.

[Mommy22alyns]

xtramath.

[Meriwether]

I occasionally use flash cards, but the kids usually learn them just by using them. After multiplication has been introduced, I spend a week or so using Times Tales. Ds8, who is a very slow worker, improved his speed using Timez Attack. I'm going to have him practice his facts with it this summer so that he doesn't lose speed. Ds6 likes watching him, so he will probably have most of them memorized before we start him on serious memorization next fall (he understands what multiplication is now, but we've spent very little time on learning his facts).

[...................]

Introduce slowly, always reviewing using flashcards. Addition and subtraction have tricks:

 

1. Making ten

2. Doubles plus 1

3. Doubles minus 1

 

Multiplication

1. Use Times Tales, then review, review review, review, first use flashcards for about 6 months then use printed sheets from math worksheet site.

 

Division:

Same thing - start with flashcards then add to drill work.

 

For my kids it takes about a YEAR per operation of daily teaching followed by VERY consistent drill and review to master the facts. Multiplication was by far the hardest and most time consuming.

 

Also my kids do their math drill as part of their evening routines- on Holidays, Sarurdays, and days off.

[...................]

PS my dd learned them faster than my ds...she was more like 6 months per operation before I was satisfied that they were "mastered". ...still my point is that it just takes time and consistency.

[Mommyfaithe]

As Ross Perot used to say, "I'm all ears!"

 

I have not found success in teaching math facts either. However, this kid can memorize all the episodes and dialogue of "My Little Pony" and know all the words to a song within a day. Groan.

 

Yeah, what's up with that...grrrrrrr....

[CatholicMom]

If they will be interested in a computer game, try Timez Attack by BigBrainz. I happened onto it by "chance" (or providence!) and my kids memorized (and retained!!!) all the multiplication facts they have encountered in the game so far. I can't believe it, honestly. We only have the free version right now and what's nice is you can still use the entire game, though it's much more basic and repetitive. I convinced dh to buy the full version soon, though. So worth it! Multiple kids can "save their game" and it keeps track of which facts they have conquered. I highly recommend. I was about to just have them write an entire multiplication table every day (talk about tedious and I don't even know if it would have worked) when I found this. I had ds10 try the free version and he happily played for 1 hour and learned about 6 facts in that hour!!! Gah!

 

I say give it a try. http://www.bigbrainz.com/

[PachiSusan]

If they will be interested in a computer game, try Timez Attack by BigBrainz. I happened onto it by "chance" (or providence!) and my kids memorized (and retained!!!) all the multiplication facts they have encountered in the game so far. I can't believe it, honestly. We only have the free version right now and what's nice is you can still use the entire game, though it's much more basic and repetitive. I convinced dh to buy the full version soon, though. So worth it! Multiple kids can "save their game" and it keeps track of which facts they have conquered. I highly recommend. I was about to just have them write an entire multiplication table every day (talk about tedious and I don't even know if it would have worked) when I found this. I had ds10 try the free version and he happily played for 1 hour and learned about 6 facts in that hour!!! Gah!

 

I say give it a try. http://www.bigbrainz.com/

 

 

I was so happy to see this online game for my gaming kid...but she hated it. WAH!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mommy22alyns]

 

I was so happy to see this online game for my gaming kid...but she hated it. WAH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Same here. Rebecca was mildly entertained but Sylvia hated it.

[NASDAQ]

I made my kid do the entire book, Five Times Five is not Ten. She just finished today and she has all her multiplication and division facts. It was 140 pages and she did three pages a day.

[kiwik]

I found a handheld game in a toyshop this week. You select +/- or */divide and it gives you a kind of mad minute selection. I am tempted to buy it so we can have races.

 

[Ruby Rose]

Computer games and apps work for us. Math Bingo for ipad, Tux Math for computer.

 

I recently bought the books Games for Math (Peggy Kaye) and Family Math. They contain descriptions of games that you make that reinforce various math facts. Simple things like tossing tokens onto a board of numbers and adding or multiplying the numbers together. The more we play the games, the better ds is getting at remembering his facts.

 

There is a book that I plan on ordering that tells stories for remembering the multiplication tables. Times Tales.

http://www.amazon.com/Times-Tales-Tables-Made-Easy/dp/0976202441/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I don't have personal experience with it but have heard good things from others who have.

 

Which Math Bingo? Who makes it?

[Chelli]

 

I was so happy to see this online game for my gaming kid...but she hated it. WAH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Same here. Rebecca was mildly entertained but Sylvia hated it.

 

My dd9 wasn't a big fan either, but she LOVES Reflex Math.

 

We just discovered it this week and already she is doing better at remembering all of her addition and subtraction facts than anything we've ever tried. She begs me every day to play it. Why? Because you set up an avatar that looks like you and based on how many coins you get (aka correctly and quickly answering facts), you are allowed to go to the store and buy clothes, accessories, hairstyles, etc. for your avatar.

 

What I love about it is that it doesn't just quiz them on their facts, it notices which facts they have trouble with and TEACHES the addition and subtraction facts to them by making them type in the addition and subtraction sentences.

 

Our free trial will run out in about 10 days at which point I am going to purchase a year membership. It only costs $35 and is well worth it, IMO.

[Eagle]

 

 

Which Math Bingo? Who makes it?

 

 

This one:

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=math%20bingo%20app&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fca%2Fapp%2Fmath-bingo%2Fid371338715%3Fmt%3D8&ei=v4-lUcrDH4GbiAK57oGYBQ&usg=AFQjCNHmq-bZqXfcfregrCJu3nhdc8IAGg&bvm=bv.47008514,d.cGE

 

By ABCya.com

[Targhee]

My kids don't respond we'll to drill - they are very VIsual-Spatial and the drill just seems to make it worse. We introduce the facts and strategies for each fact, and then play games. I've allowed my oldest (who has the most trouble) to use a multiplication chart to look things up, and that has helped more than xtramath did. RS card games (and other games) have been helpful too.

[Jess4879]

We have struggled with this so much as well. I bought the RS Games book, it was ok to start, but my kids got bored and started complaining as soon as I pulled out the cards. The only card related game they still enjoy is "pyramid". I then bought a handheld game (similar to FlashMaster) and that was enjoyable to them for maybe a week. I tried a DS game and that didn't fly either. They enjoyed it, but weren't retaining much. Then I saw a member here mention Reflex Math and we gave the trail a go. My kids love, love, loved it. I was not at all gung ho about the price, but after the trial ended the kids were begging for Reflex math, I gave in and purchased a subscription. We've only used it a total of 3 weeks now and it's already transfering over to their math. My 7 year old was spitting out her 10 math facts yesterday without even hesitating and she used to have to work through them slowly before.

 

I really like all the teacher reports too. I can see, very quickly, how well the kids are doing.

[Diana B]

Just wanted to share this article I read about instant recall on multiplication facts. I do have my 9 yr old practice them so that he can get faster, but I'm not going to stress if he doesn't have them all in a snap. He's got his strategies that allow him to move forward with math.

 

http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2013/04/rethinking-multiplication-fact.html

[FO4UR]

I've tried everything mentioned in this thread and more. They ALL work...for my dd8. NONE of them work for ds10.

 

 

He gets them almost down, and something happens (summer, baby, I sneeze....) and the facts just float away. Start over. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

 

 

I'm thinking never let the boy eat lunch until he does his math review. (j/k I don't withhold food...but if I could only be as consistent about drill as I am lunch....mmm cheeseburger...maybe they would stick.)

 

 

This is my "mathy" child, and it's very discouraging for him b/c he shined and he knew it, and now it's harder b/c he is not a rote memory kind of person. He can reason his way out of anything...including enough math to not have to work at memorizing the x tables until it becomes overwhelming. I know he'll zip right along just as soon as those facts are down cold, but until then...

 

 

Strayer-Upton book 1 is a good resource. I love the systematic and simple set-up.

[Ruby Rose]

Thanks to this thread I downloaded Math Bingo on the iPad and Math Reflex. Dd has sat down 3 times today to play Math Reflex. That's a record for anything else I have tried. That's the good news. The bad news is she has very few facts memorized at this point. I really hope this one makes it happen for her. I also plan to sit down with her and play with c-rods. I figure we will play a game like how many different ways can we make ten, and then repeat with all the numbers and maybe get her to help me write them down. Fingers crossed! We need to accomplish this now because we are about to embark on multiplication and division.

[violamama]

 

Also my kids do their math drill as part of their evening routines- on Holidays, Sarurdays, and days off.

 

FYI, I posted a S/O thread to ask more about this.

[Violet Crown]

1. Kitchen Table Math Part 1 has lots of useful games for cementing facts. We've used them liberally, with great success.

 

2. Our flash cards are triangular, with the factors/product or addends/sum at each corner, and the signs along the sides. The child makes flash cards herself for any troublesome facts. Works nicely.

 

3. Dice games with various sizes of dice.

 

4. For the most obstinate problems, flash cards with mini-M'n'Ms for each one right per minute (or for every three right, or etc.). Mine like these: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/math-war-staff-of-school-zone-publishing-company/1114082900?ean=9780887432873

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

Thank you! This is right up 8 yo's (who needs the practice) alley!

 

 

 

 

My dd9 wasn't a big fan either, but she LOVES Reflex Math.

 

We just discovered it this week and already she is doing better at remembering all of her addition and subtraction facts than anything we've ever tried. She begs me every day to play it. Why? Because you set up an avatar that looks like you and based on how many coins you get (aka correctly and quickly answering facts), you are allowed to go to the store and buy clothes, accessories, hairstyles, etc. for your avatar.

 

What I love about it is that it doesn't just quiz them on their facts, it notices which facts they have trouble with and TEACHES the addition and subtraction facts to them by making them type in the addition and subtraction sentences.

 

Our free trial will run out in about 10 days at which point I am going to purchase a year membership. It only costs $35 and is well worth it, IMO.

 

[duckens]

We use a flashmaster.

[boscopup]

Kid #1 memorizes just by doing. He's easy. But when it came to multiplication and he was needing to cement those facts a bit more, I just printed out a 5-minute drill from math-drills.com and had him do one table per day. So the first day, it was the 3's table (he knew his 2's, so I didn't bother doing that one), and I told him to do as many as he could, but to skip any he didn't know right away. At the end, I went over it with him standing right beside me. I put a check mark on each correct one, and if he missed one or skipped one, I'd ask him that fact orally. This narrowed it down to just the 2 he didn't have memorized - 3x8 and 3x6. By the end of that page, after asking him 3x8 (or 8x3) and 3x6 (or 6x3) a gazillion times, he knew them. :D We did one of these sheets per day until I felt like he knew the facts well. He hasn't had a problem since.

 

My middle son thinks in pictures, so for him, having a manipulative helps. We used C-rods for addition/subtraction, and he had those facts pretty well memorized in K because of the picture in his mind of the C-rods involved in each fact. We haven't gotten to multiplication memorization yet (he's had an intro, but we'll start memorizing next year). If he has trouble, I do have an ebook I downloaded a while back that has stories for the multiplication facts, and there are pictures to go with them. It's similar to Times Tales, but a different company. I got it free off currclick one time, but I think it's normally $30 (and I probably wouldn't pay that for it).

 

Recently, I've also started doing memory work with the kids each day, focusing on math facts and personal information (address, phone number), plus Latin vocab for the older kid. I loaded stuff into Anki and downloaded the Anki app to my phone, so I can just whip out my phone and drill them a bit. :) They enjoy that memory work time. I only work on stuff that they've learned conceptually first and had time to actually use in their main program, but if it's not getting into the head via plain old use, the extra memory work will probably get it there.

 

There are some people who have a really hard time memorizing facts but are very good at conceptual understanding. I've seen people with PhDs in STEM fields who didn't have 8x7 memorized. They're brilliant people. They just can't hold math facts in their head, no matter how hard they try. With such a child, I'd probably keep trying gently (don't wear the poor kid out), but also let them use a multiplication table during math time. that visual may help to get it in their heads as they search for the correct answer.

[8filltheheart]

Math It has worked for all of my kids that have struggled with quick recall.

 

The 9x tables are also quite easy to teach with a number of "tricks."

 

For 9s, you can simply subtract 1 from the multiplier to give you the 10s column digit and the ones column is 9-the 10s digit. (for example, 9 x 8= (8-1) which is 7 and (9-7) which is 2= 72

 

You can also "see" the answer for 9s by counting across your fingers and bending the the multiplier finger and the 10s is on the left of the bent finger and the 1s is on the right. (try it with 9 x 8 whihc leads to bending the middle finger on your right hand and 7 fingers to the left and 2 to the right)

 

The way I encourage my struggling kids is that 1s are easy. They know their doubles b/c they don't have trouble know 3+3, 4+4, 5+5, etc. The 5x tables are easy and so are the 10s. W/the "trick" above, so are 9s. Then we just tackle them 1 at a time. Once you learn the 3s, 4s, and 6s......when you hit the 7s and 8s all you have to learn is 7X7, 7x8 for 7s and then only 8x8 for the 8s b/c all the rest have been mastered in the others. :)

 

FWIW, the order I teach them for quick recall is (ignoring 1x) 10x, 2x, 5x, 9x, and then go back to 3x and forward from there. (this is assuming that they understand the process of multiplication and are simply working on improving speed.)

[Kathie in VA]

TimezAttack hands down, great tool Love that it shows the picture of the groups with the facts!

calculadders for not just math drill sheets, but timed drill sheets

we also have Muggins, something that will come out this summer!

 

When my kids are doing their hw I tell them to work in this order:

1- do you know the fact? (this is why we memorize)

If not then don't just sit there! Calculate it ...

- use a trick (like those for 9's, or add a zero for a 10, etc.)

- work up from a fact you know (if you know 4x3=12 then 4x4= 12+4; or 4x8= (2x8)+(2x8)= 16+16 )

- skip count (always a last resort)

Once you find the answer, repeat the equation 3 times and move on.

[Bree]

I was checking out Math mammoth the other day and they sent me a link for drilling multiplication. I think I will give it a try. Here's the link.

 

[...................]

 

 

FYI, I posted a S/O thread to ask more about this.

 

I Couldn't find your spin off, but it's rather simple.

 

My kids have "morning routines" and "evening routines" which include getting dressed, making bed, some exercise and simple chores.

 

On their evening routines which are shorter, they just have "math facts" written. So they take out their drill papers and get started. These routines are done every day so this way math drill gets done every day, as opposed to just school days.

 

 

[Chelli]

I just tested out the trial and I love it! I could see my Verbal Math Lesson loving kid playing this for hours. :D Bonus... it has :ph34r: games! I think dd might finally start liking math. She might freeze up with it being timed, though. So, I'll have to see.

 

The :ph34r: games and puzzles are my dd's favorite part too. She's my verbal one as well. Hmmmm...maybe this is a verbal thing!

 

ETA: Dd9 got to unlock a new game today. She chose the Egyptian one where a cat shoots lasers out of its eyes to stop enemies (scarabs, cobras, rats, scorpions). She is loving it and begs to play it. That's a first for any math facts practice we've tried.

[kbutton]

My older son has major issues with math facts and doesn't really absorb them well. He does know them efficiently enough while he's calculating larger math problems most of the time. We do some math fact review much like what others have described, but I make him say the whole problem out loud as well as the answer. It seems to prime the language pump and keeps him moving through the facts. We also shake things up a bit by grouping the facts together by products they have in common rather than by fact family. For instance, we would group together all the facts that have an answer of 24 (1 x 24, 2 x 12, 3 x 8, 4 x 6). We cover the reverse facts (2 x 12 and 12 x 2) as well as the division facts, all at the same time. When we do them sequentially by fact family, he ends up skip counting on his fingers, and we don't want to go there again--three years of drill when he was previously in school taught him to count on his fingers really fast, but he still isn't fluent with +\-! If we group them by product, he forms relationships between facts and uses them as placeholder values to figure out others. I realize this is a bit clunky, but he enjoys factoring, and I think it will help in the long run when we do equivalent fractions and things like that.

[letsplaymath]

For everyone whose children struggle with math fact memory: take heart! Your children may well do BETTER at math in the long run if they do NOT memorize the math facts easily. It's human nature: once we think we "know" something, we no longer ponder or wonder about it. But it is the process of wondering, pondering, considering, and figuring things out that builds a strong foundation for future math.

 

If you're struggling with multiplication facts, I wrote a series of blog posts about how to reason through the times table with a minimum of memorization while building a strong foundation of pre-algebra skills. And I've posted several card or dice games that make practicing the facts easy and painless.

[cintinative]

We use a free online program called Xtra Math. I recommend it if your kids like drill and competition. It's worth a shot at least. My almost six year old hates it but my 7.5 year old loves it. I am going to look for something different for my youngest--I'm off to read the other posts here. Thanks for this question--I'm sure there is some good information in this thread!!