Tagged: multiplication facts
My son is having a hard time with multiplication. I thought that he had it down but now that we have started back up I realize that he doesn’t. We are using MUS and he is in Delta. There is NO way he can do this book without knowing his multiplication tables. Outside of drilling flashcards and boring him to tears with worksheets, how can I help him learn them?? He’s more of a hands on type child but the blocks in MUS aren’t helping him any.. I’m at my witts end and so is he.
I am in your shoes and someone here said to get Times Tables the Fun Way. I got it this week and it’s like a light went off even for me. I think for the kids it will be a great help. But time will tell. It tells a story with the numbers so you have something to “remember” with the story. I’ll keep you posted. But it’s just a thought.
We’ve enjoyed these online math games: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/meteor/meteor.html
It improved their multiplication skills quickly…
Thanks for the website!! I played it and it’s addictive. My son is going to LOVE it.. I’m going to look into “Times Tables the Fun Way” It sounds really neat. Something like Life of Fred possibly?? We may purchase it and if we don’t need it for my son I have two others coming up that may use it.. Thanks again!
How old is your son? My DD had a hard time memorizing the times tables and I just set it aside for a (long) while. At age 10.5, we approached the topic again, she memorized the facts quickly and painlessly (in the past she was in tears). If you are comfortable waiting, that might be a solution. I know not everyone is comfortable waiting.
Times Tales Trigger Memory System works great for visual kids.
My ds learned all of his multiplication facts in less than a day using this.
gr8tfulCMmom, thank you for the website! My DD 3rd and I had fun playing some of the games today. She was challenged by it and her recall skills improving too.
Glad they helped. We’ve enjoyed them, especially the 2-person games. If you click on “additional games” on the bottom, then “games” on the main website, you’ll see they have word games as well. You might have to buy them, but I believe there’s a free version that was still fun.
Yes, we found the other games, including one for verbs, and played the free versions. I like directing DD to educational games online! Mar
LOl, I had a huge problem with this! I had an unmotivated, struggling son and a father in law who was a math teacher! Every time he came over he would ask my son a multiplication problem. It started as a joke but ds did not think it so and he became very hesitant every time he heard Pappa was coming over. I had to do something so I resorted to 1. asking pappa to stop! (he wasn’t very happy with me) and 2. plain old bribery. My son could retain the facts, was having no problem with his math program – he just was unmotivated to see the purpose of memorizing. SO, I bought a lego kit. A nice lego kit that he had been drooling after. I set it up high, in plain site, and explained to him that when he could answer any and all multiplication Q’s thrown at him, it was his. Took the lad 3 months and pretty near drove him to distraction, lol, but it was worth it. That son is now 26 and still enjoys talking about those months, he has great memories now and even jokes with his Pappa about it! He was 11 when we played that out. Now I haven’t had to use the same technique on any of the other kids, but it sure was needed with that one, and it worked! lol, just had to share the memory……… good luck
My son struggled with subtraction facts and using the facts as copywork really helped. I plan to do the same with multiplication. I just had sheets of different facts with answers (I have a site with free downloads, if you want it) and he copied one sheet per day, plus one page of MUS. I occasionally drilled with cards to check his speed. I liked that it didn’t require much from me…drilling is not much fun:) Gina
How did your son get through Gamma without knowing the mulitiplication facts? Maybe you weren’t doing MUS at that time? We stopped our Gamma book recently and have just been working on times tables because it seemed like nothing I did helps him learn his 6s through 8s. One thing we did that my son liked was to play memory with the facts. I just made them on cardstock with each set, so we would play memory with the 9s one day, the 8s the next, etc.
I also second the Times Tales, although you have to buy them. I found mine for a reasonable price on homeschoolclassifieds.com. They helped him learn them in about 2 days because we went slowly. We’ve been on a break from school and will do the times tales again to get him back into Gamma. Hope that helps
Someone on here mentioned xtramath.org My kids have been using it and really enjoy it. It has really been helping with their recall and memorization.
momto2blessings: Could you share the site that you got your free downloads for the math copywork? I think my dd would benefit from this and I’d love to not have to invent the wheel. =)
One thing that has helped my dd, is to either draw a picture out of the problem and/or make up a story for it. For example, for 6×4 we made 6 and 4 buddies that decided to roll down a hill together. 6 landed upsided down and backwards with his legs sprawled out; which makes him the 2 in 24 (We write our 2’s with a loop on the bottom, so they look like backward upside down 6’s, with legs). And 4 landed right side up. Now this might not make much sense to others, but this is the story my dd came up with. We drew 6 and 4 as smiling people going up a hill. then we drew the 24 with the 2 frowning, and 4 happy. It really sticks in their head this way, especially if they come up with the story themselves. It takes time but it works! Always make sure to make the picture around the problem as it is usually written. That way they will see the picture in their head when they come to it in a workbook.
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