What is a good way to remember the mutilpucation table?

Answer 1

Have a table to be worked on all ready written on paper. We will use here the table of three as an example.

1. The first task is to memorize the list of answers, so to speak. Study first the skip-counting list up until the midpoint (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18). Have your child say it alound while pointing to the answers one by one with a finger or pen - thereby using many of his senses simultaneously. After he has gone through if a few times, ask him to repeat the list from memory.
   
   Try require the answers from your child, and not give them to her too easily, because ONLY by straining her mind will she make the effort to eventually memorize these facts. The mind is like muscles: it needs exercise to become stronger.
   
   Require her to memorize this list both upwards and downwards. Continue this way until she can 'rattle off' the first list of 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18.
   With some tables, like table of 2, table of 5, or table of 10, point out the pattern in them. The pattern in table of 9 is more subtle but still usable.
   
   
2. Then tackle the last part of the list: 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36. Do the same things you did with the first part of the list.
   
3. Lastly, work with the whole list of answers. Practice the list UP AND DOWN until it goes smooth and easy.
   
   This part may be enough for one day. But review it later in the day.
   
4. Next, practice individual problems randomly. You can ask orally ("What is 5 times 3?") or point to the problems on the paper, or use flashcards. However, I would recommend saying a question aloud and simultaneously pointing to the problem the child can see, because again, using multiple senses should help fix them in the mind better.
   
   The goal at this stage is to associate each answer 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, with a certain multiplication fact (such as 7 x 3).
   
   You can also mix earlier tables that she already knows with these new problems, and drill both with flashcards.
   
5. The last step is to do this the other way round so that YOU say the answer, say 21, and the student has to produce the problem (from table of 3). Have the table handy, hide the problems, and point to the answers in random order.
   This one you can work the other way around: the student says answers, and you produce problems. Answer wrong sometimes, too, to check her out.
   
   As an extension, you can say answers from several tables that you've studied, and the student gives the corresponding problem. Sometimes there are several answers: for example 36, 30, 24, and 20 are in several different times tables. This is an especially good exercise as it prepares to division concept and factoring.

The memorization won't probably happen overnight. On subsequent days, you can mix these drills 1-5 (and hopefully you don't need to concentrate on steps 1 and 2). This kind of drilling takes a little time and effort from the teacher, but it can be very effective. And, homeschoolers can obviously do some of it while going about other tasks, or while traveling in the car, etc.

While you are doing this table by table, you can also try to teach the process to your child, so that she will learn how to do memorization herself. She can hide the answers and try to produce the list in her mind.

Other helpful ideas

• Hang a poster with the 12x12 or 10x10 grid on the wall. Remind your child to glance at it a few times a day. It can work wonders for visual learners!

• Hang beside it another, initially empty, poster, to which the child fills in those facts he has mastered.

• Recite the skip-counting lists or multiplication facts aloud just before going to bed. This can turn them into mastered facts by the next morning.