How did you teach math facts?

[bttrflyvld]

Just curious what everyone has done or is doing to help your kids learn their Addition, subtaction, multiplication, and division.

[Heidi]

I have them do a lesson from xtramath.com every day.  Works great! 

 

[sunnyday]

Once my son was really, really solid on number sense we've started introducing a little bit of addition and subtraction mental math sheets from the Singapore HIG. Just straight-up repetition, but casual and untimed.

[LaCEmom]

We've used xtramath.com and the math wars card game.

[fourisenough]

Skip counting songs first, then Xtramath (for multiplication/division). Addition/subtraction didn't require anything beyond the practice built into Math Mammoth.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm having dd listen to the Audio Memory chants while reading off a poster. We haven't been doing it long enough to know whether it will work. I played a youtube clip of counting to 100 every school day for 8 months before she got it, so I'm being patient, lol.

[Guest Calmom]

We do rightstart math. My son loves working with the abacus. We also love playing the math games in the program. 

[ItoLina]

I have them do a lesson from xtramath.com every day. Works great!

We do this too. My son likes it, and it's quick :-)

He has improved drastically in just a couple of months.

[wintermom]

We played games with dice, cards, etc. We used manipulative to help cement the math in a visual way (e.g., plastic animals, math balance, etc.). We just kept doing the math workbooks daily.

 

I also did a bit of "Mathletics" where the dc answered math questions and did running, jumping, jumping jacks, sit-ups, etc. in between the math questions.

[momof4monkeys]

Rightstart Math games :thumbup:

[The Way of My People]

We use XtraMath.com. We also play math war and RightStart games sometimes.

[ScoutTN]

Right Start card games, xtra math and sometimes songs.

[Piper]

Reflexmath.com.  They *beg* for it, and my ds is getting ahead of his curriculum.  Win!

[knitmama]

We used mostly Saxon with some Singapore workbooks thrown in when my daughter rebelled against the Saxon (which she did every so often--she's the "I got the answer right already!  Why do I have to do it AGAIN?" kind of student).

 

I also printed out worksheets from mathdrills.com for variety.  For some reason, when the problems were printed with elves or Easter bunnies or whatever in the background, she gobbled them.

 

Also--and this is my favorite--I took my daughter with me every time I went grocery shopping.  Every trip took me two hours, because every time I picked something out, I'd say, "Okay, oranges are 50 cents a pound and we need to buy 3 pounds, so how much will that cost?"  Time intensive, but I have a smart shopper on my hands now!

 

[sbgrace]

We did RightStart, which has great mental math built into the program. My boys learned their addition/subtraction facts painlessly that way.

 

I did Times Tales for multiplication/division for the child who just couldn't get them. One child played Timez Attack and got them solid. The other child couldn't handle the timed portion of that game (or xtra math). So for him I did some drill--about 10 facts a day--to get them solid.

 

Both kids did 60 second sweep from that point forward. I like the 60 second sweep, because it does the multiplication and division at the same time-sort of anyway! With my time averse child, we would just pick two rows to do each day. My other child worked to beat his best previous time.

 

 

[happypamama]

DD learned by having a table and looking problems up on the table as needed.  Over time, she needed the table less and less.  DS1 is using some iPad apps, but he is learning them by using Singapore, because it tends to be a bit repetitive and intensive for a few lessons (which works for him).

[Chris in VA]

We used Saxon. First you skip count, then you do the facts in different ways--doubles first, I think, then doubles plus one. 

(It's been a while!) Anyway, it was very thorough.

 

After you learn them, you drill them.

 

We did both ways of timing--How many can you do in 5 minutes AND How long does it take you to do X amount. 

 

She also played a little on the Flashmaster (got it at a thrift store) and on some computer games. 

[Veritaserum]

We LOVE the RightStart Math Card Games. We use the games to reinforce topics in our main program (some kids use Math Mammoth others use Christian Light Education). Some of my kids like speed drills and flash cards, too, for fun.

[Alicia64]

I have my boys do Xtra every day. They first do the math facts in 3 seconds and then you get it down to 2 seconds and eventually 1.5 seconds.

 

But they really love playing this: 

 

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/

 

Alley
 

[ByGrace3]

For those of you who do RS games, which are your favorite games for each? (Addition/subtraction/multiplication/division)

[PeterPan]

We did all the usual stuff (RightStart games, Flashmaster, Abeka drills, triangle flashcards, math tables to use while working, etc.), and she still had a significant lag between her computation and conceptual on standardized testing.  Around age 12 I put her in TT math (spiral, on the computer) and handed her a calculator.  Within months her math got visibly faster, and for the first time her scores on conceptual and computation came even.  Go figure.

 

 

[Nart]

My first grade son finished  SM1 A and B in May of last year, but was far away from memorizing his addition and subtraction math facts. Toward the end of SM 1B he was getting frustrated because he didn't want to think through and manipulate numbers to solve add/subtraction problems when there were too many steps involved. So I decided not to advance him to SM 2 until he was knew his addition and subtraction facts to/from 20. I put him in Kumon for a few months, but then I someone posted about the book "Two plus two is not five". It is a workbook of 232 pages of addition and subtraction strategies. He does two pages a day and sometimes some flashcards, and he is about 20 days away from finishing the book. He almost there in being able to name any add/subtraction fact automatically. The main math he has done since May is addition/subtraction facts. It really will have taken him 7 solid months to learn them automatically, but I think it has been worth it. The only other math he is doing is Dreambox on the computer and working with money. When he is done I am going to have him memorize multiplication and division facts. So my goal is by the end of first grade to get the all the math facts down and then he can move on (I imagine quickly) through SM2.