How to Learn Your Times Tables

lifeatthezoo | January 22, 2016 | Education | No Comments

Yes… we are in the midst of the DREADED TIMES TABLES learning. Every child has to go through it at some stage, and boring as it is, I feel that learning your times tables WELL is a bit like learning to read – not quite of course, but if you can do your multiplications tables easily and well, SO MANY maths problems of the future intuitively fall into place. Divisions and fractions are ALL ABOUT your times tables, if you can see the relationship between numbers, you will find these topics much easier too. If you know that 6 x 4 = 24 and 24 = 4 x 6, but also 3 x 8 and 12 x 2…. well, there is all sorts of things you can work out………

So, boring as it is for my kids, we are LEARNING OUR times tables.. and we are LEARNING THEM WELL.

Unfortunately that involves a LOT OF learning by rote. I get my son to write them out over and over again ENDLESSLY. But we also use a some apps to practice the times tables.. we like SqueeblesTT and 10 Monkeys (though my son doesn’t like the time pressure this comes with). I also ask him multiplications randomly.. and focus on some of the really “hard to remember ones”.. for some reason, I feel that that is 8×7 and 8×8. We are also where can i buy propecia uk learning all our squares (2×2, 4×4 etc) as they give you reference points and have worked out tricks to remember the 9s.

All good. But it is still PRACTICE.

Here is a fun little game from the National History Museum.

I was really keen to see if my son would like it.. and I confess to asking the PR for a review copy, they kindly obliged (thank you PR!!!).

The back comes in sets of 12 shiney cards and one set of 1, 2, 5, 10 cards. It has instructions of how to play about 5-6 different games and how to vary the difficulty level. Which is great. I feel that we have mastered out 1, 2, 5 and 10s.. BUT still like this round, as it gives my son much reinforcement and confidence to then move onto other combinations.

He REALLY enjoyed playing it (to my great surprise, as after all, he is till doing his times tables) and I think that this is a GREAT addition to our times tables learning. Especially, as it really introduces the “random element” of knowing your times tables well.

I think this would be a GREAT resource in schools – for group work or for one one – especially those children struggling to learn and practice at home!

Love them

DISCLAIMER: we received the game free of charge!

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