Math Fact Fluency--What is the best method or resource you've used?

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We have a lot of resources...XtraMath, flash cards, speed drills, Learning wrap-ups, Right Start games, other math games, etc.

 

What is the best resource or method you have used in helping your kids master their math facts quickly and thoroughly with lasting retention?

 

If your child is not a natural at this, what are the best ways to remediate?

[Arcadia]

My DS11 has his multiplication facts down after starting AoPS prealgebra. He learned it by mostly by singing. There is a Chinese and a Japanese multiplication table song. It didn’t hinder him to have his math facts down after he turned 8 years old.

 

My DS12’s computation speed is so fast it makes no difference if he had his multiplication tables down or he added on the spot to get the answer.

 

Both my kids dislike XtraMath, math drills and flash cards. They find those boring.

[MyLife]

We had a lot of success using CLE's addition and subtraction flashcards that come with a 1st/2nd grade scheduling guide. Because that worked well, I am doing the same sort of scheduled memory work using multiplication and division flashcards, I'm just having to make my own schedule for multiplication and division.

[ElizabethB]

For multiplication, a combination of the 60 second sweep and flash master.  (Offline 60 second sweep, doing a row or two at a time until it was mastered, then moving on.)

 

For addition, Flashmaster.

 

https://www.flashmaster.com

 

http://www.boveecruz.com/kids/images/60SecondSweep.jpg

 

 

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

My DS11 has his multiplication facts down after starting AoPS prealgebra. He learned it by mostly by singing. There is a Chinese and a Japanese multiplication table song. It didn’t hinder him to have his math facts down after he turned 8 years old.

 

My DS12’s computation speed is so fast it makes no difference if he had his multiplication tables down or he added on the spot to get the answer.

 

Both my kids dislike XtraMath, math drills and flash cards. They find those boring.

 

This is very encouraging for my oldest who is starting pre-algebra next year, hopefully with AOPS.  He still sings his skip counting songs when he is multiplying, and I'm looking for some things to help him practice with a little more automaticity, as well as something his siblings can do as they are learning their facts.  We started doing a lot of Right Start games, but I love hearing what is working best for the hive.

[Arcadia]

This is very encouraging for my oldest who is starting pre-algebra next year, hopefully with AOPS. He still sings his skip counting songs when he is multiplying, and I'm looking for some things to help him practice with a little more automaticity, as well as something his siblings can do as they are learning their facts.

Oh, I just meant don’t worry too much. Some kids just take longer for math facts automaticity. My DS11 still have to sing Days of the week song and Months of the year song to get days and months sequence correct but that did not stop him from getting more than 1500 for the new SAT in June when he took it. It is just how it is for him and he is in AoPS precalculus now. Asynchronous much :lol:

 

Movement and singing help this kid remember things. People use acronyms but he make up songs. He set poetry to music to remember them easier.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Arcadia

[RenaInTexas]

For my tactical kid, Learning Wraps worked quite nicely.

 

For my audio-visual kid, nothing worked for a long time. Finally, dad stood at a whiteboard and recorded himself writing and saying all of his multiplication facts. DS watched them everyday for two weeks. It worked. We had gotten to a point where not knowing his multiplication facts was slowing him down too much: desperate times, desperate measures.

[Earthmerlin]

I am still working on arithmetic fluency with my 8 year old & she is getting faster. Please do share links of these songs you've used as I believe it may also be helpful in our house. Thanks!

[fourisenough]

Skip counting songs from Math U See and Classical Conversations were brilliant for multiplication fact memory.

 

Right Start Abacus and user guide were great for +/-. Also loved Addition Facts That Stick by Kate Snow.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I am still working on arithmetic fluency with my 8 year old & she is getting faster. Please do share links of these songs you've used as I believe it may also be helpful in our house. Thanks!

I think I got most of them from the ACCS website. We just set the numbers to a tune and have picked up some along the way. Some jingles we picked up from when he was in school in first grade.

[MeaganS]

Times tales worked wonders for my math-impaired dd. I wish they had an addition/subtracting video...

[Lecka]

Reflex Math.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

Thank you all for these wonderful suggestions.

[ScoutTN]

Beta testing Kate Snow's Multiplication Facts that Stick now. Very good!

[birchbark]

Times Tales

[aelgraham]

Absolutely, the best thing ever... doing the saxon math drills every day. And don't ever stop. My daughter has been doing a math drill page every day for a few years now. She used to struggle but now knows her facts, and we've used many of the other resources discussed above. We will never stop doing these.  I use these drills now as we no longer use saxon, but it's basically the same thing:

 

http://www.schoolmadesimple.com/calculadder.html

 

(terrible website, but the product is good- I bought the downloadable version: CalcuPak 1 and CalcuPak 2 Home Editions together are $27.95)

[TracyP]

Reflex math. My 6th grader knew his facts but was still slow after years of speed drills. He had add/subtract and mult/divide mastered by the end of the free trial (30 days).

 

My 4th grader has some mild learning challenges, but he mastered add/subtract in about 2 months. He is working on mult/divide now. I expect to have to switch back and forth for long term retention, but I could be wrong. So far they really seem to be sticking.

 

My 3rd and 1st grader are also painlessly learning their math facts. They think Reflex Math is a fun game they get to play, not school. ;) It's been a great purchase.

[Lori D.]

DS#1 (auditory-sequential) seemed born knowing them, so I really can't remember ever needing to use anything with him.  :laugh:

 

DS#2 is an extremely visual-spatial (right brain) learner, with mild LDs in math, so I tried a TON of different things with him. Wrap-ups were a bust here, as DS#2 is such a great right-brained puzzle solver that after wrapping twice, he had the wrap pattern memorized, and knew nothing about the numbers on the wrap-up. sigh. Math-It might have helped a little, at least the tips part, like multiplying by 10, just add a 0 at the end, or multiplying by 2 is doubling. The timed aspect of Math-It made DS shut down, though.

 

What absolutely did NOT work was a timed page of math facts (looking at you, Saxon 3!  :eek: ), or any kind of timed element, even with a computer game or handheld device (he was suspicious of those -- too much like school rather than a "real game", and then the timed element also frustrated him). Standard worksheets and repetitive drills also were completely meaningless for helping DS memorize -- there was no context and no "reason" for him in order for the facts to stick. (Re: worksheets and timed drills -- Calcu-ladders -- shudder! I'm remembering the massive math melt-downs those caused, to the point where school came to a screeching halt for the day... )

 

What seemed to work best for him was a combination of:

 

- time for his brain to mature in those math areas (about age 10-12 for DS) -- some kids just are later bloomers

- skip count songs and Schoolhouse Rock: Multiplication Rock song videos

- Times Tales -- or any way of visualizing math facts with a memorable image and "story"

- triangle math cards:

Reduces amount of math facts to memorize by 75%, as each triangle flashcard has 3 numbers that make a math fact family, that covers 4 math facts (example: 6, 7, 42 on the corners of one triangle card make the math facts of 6x7=42, 7x6=42, 42/7=6, and 42/6=7). Fact families are more visual and make it easy to see all of the connections between the numbers, which gives them a sort of context or meaning.

Edited November 2, 2017 by Lori D.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

DS#1 (auditory-sequential) seemed born knowing them, so I really can't remember ever needing to use anything with him.  :laugh:

 

DS#2 is an extremely visual-spatial (right brain) learner, with mild LDs in math, so I tried a TON of different things with him. Wrap-ups were a bust here, as DS#2 is such a great right-brained puzzle solver that after wrapping twice, he had the wrap pattern memorized, and knew nothing about the numbers on the wrap-up. sigh. Math-It might have helped a little, at least the tips part, like multiplying by 10, just add a 0 at the end, or multiplying by 2 is doubling. The timed aspect of Math-It made DS shut down, though.

 

What absolutely did NOT work was a timed page of math facts (looking at you, Saxon 3!  :eek: ), or any kind of timed element, even with a computer game or handheld device (he was suspicious of those -- too much like school rather than a "real game", and then the timed element also frustrated him). Standard worksheets and repetitive drills also were completely meaningless for helping DS memorize -- there was no context and no "reason" for him in order for the facts to stick. (Re: worksheets and timed drills -- Calcu-ladders -- shudder! I'm remembering the massive math melt-downs those caused, to the point where school came to a screeching halt for the day... )

 

What seemed to work best for him was a combination of:

 

- time for his brain to mature in those math areas (about age 10-12 for DS) -- some kids just are later bloomers

- skip count songs and Schoolhouse Rock: Multiplication Rock song videos

- Times Tales -- or any way of visualizing math facts with a memorable image and "story"

- triangle math cards:

Reduces amount of math facts to memorize by 75%, as each triangle flashcard has 3 numbers that make a math fact family, that covers 4 math facts (example: 6, 7, 42 on the corners of one triangle card make the math facts of 6x7=42, 7x6=42, 42/7=6, and 42/6=7). Fact families are more visual and make it easy to see all of the connections between the numbers, which gives them a sort of context or meaning.

 Your DS2 sounds like a lot like my oldest.  By the time we got to Saxon 3, he went running for the hills, and timed math fact tests are meltdown triggers.  He does great with working through Beast Academy problems and complicated concepts, but his computation speed still slows him down a little, and I want to boost it.  He is often singing his skip counting songs to calculate.  I am pulling out RS games since his younger brother is now learning multiplication, but I am happy to know all that is out there. It's encouraging to hear that late boomers aren't doomed.  I never did try the triangles.

 

The Reflex Math sounds interesting.  He loves games.  

[Lecka]

For Reflex Math, it is expected that you miss some facts -- it is set up to identify what facts to practice by seeing that you miss them.

 

That was frustrating for my oldest son.

 

For my younger kids I have made sure to explain that and really push that it is okay to make a mistake.

 

The games really are fun, too.

 

My younger son is a slow learner and he is almost through add/subtract after 9 months :) It's a huge accomplishment for him and he is proud when he looks at his chart showing what he has mastered. He forgets some mastered facts sometimes, and he has plateaus sometimes, too.

 

For the larger numbers for him, (like 6+6 and higher) I have worked with him informally in other ways, and he needed more exposure to them than just Reflex. He needed more time to see patterns, he needed some more time with manipulatives.

 

But Reflex adjusts to him and when he forgets a fact it provides wonderful review.

 

All my kids have liked the games, buying items for their avatar, and buying items for their tree. It didn't seem motivating to me, but my kids have been motivated by it.

[MrsRobinson]

Commenting so I can find this again. Great suggestions, we need help here, too. :)

[Lecka]

I can see the timing being a problem on Reflex Math. My older son would get upset sometimes when he wouldn't be fast enough. Very frustrating for him. He managed but I can see that as a problem.

 

My younger son doesn't care if he gets a "red" square on Coach Penny's puzzles. He doesn't have any emotional reaction. And then a fact he misses will be reviewed and reviewed. It adapts to kids -- it reviews a lot more for him than for my other two kids.

 

My son would definitely be getting upset if he got three red squares in a row, and I would often let him quit or take a break.

 

If you ever take a break and kids forget some of the recently-learned facts from right before the break, when they come back they may miss a lot of those. If you kind-of know what they are you can review them ahead of time, or stop and review them, to keep from just getting the red squares.

 

That didn't bother my two other kids though, but for my older son it would really frustrate him.