My ten year old daughter has always had a hard time memorizing math facts. She gets the concepts of how to perform the various operations o.k., but I just can't seem to cram the multiplication tables into her brain. Mostly we have used flash cards with incentives and worksheets to augment what they were doing in class, and that hasn't helped much. Now that her education is completely in our hands, I really feel that we need to get this simple act of memorization out of the way before we start fifth grade in the fall. So, what methods have worked best for you all? Thanks!
Here too, we make up songs to go with our memorizing things and my kids are super at memorizing stuff like bible verses ... and multiplication facts are so much more fun when you can sing it.. try scholastic ROck.com they have some great helps in there! You mentioned in another thread that you have an artistic child have the child make thier own flash cards up too! then it can be creative and as he/she is working on it the memorization process will have already begun!
My daughter is good with memorizing math facts but I wasn't as a kid. I tended to use tricks and doubling of the tables I did know. Here's an excellent PDF on helping visual-spacial learners learn their times tables that good for anyone facing difficulties - Teaching Mathematics to Non-sequential Learners
If memory serves MUS sells a CD of math fact songs. I'm not quite there yet with my oldest, but I'd imagine having the CD playing in the background during play time/car rides would be a useful tool.
My dd has dyslexia and had a hard time with multiplication. We found free online games that kept her attention and also used cds from school supply stores. She enjoyed the online games the best. You can do a search on Yahoo for online multiplication games. We found several that way. Hope that helps, Melanee
Here's a worksheet generator site: http://themathworksheetsite.com/ I give timed tests and graph how many are correct. The better you have them memorized, the higher number of correct ones you get in one minute. Set a goal, and give an award for meeting the goal. (I draw a line at the top, and they can se how they are getting closer.) This site allows you to be pretty specific about the problems on the worksheet.
Twin Sisters Productions has cd's with math facts songs on them. I had access to them at our Public Library in Fla. I am not sure if the library here has them or not. I will be checking on this for this coming fall. Anyway, they were pretty catchy and I think they might help my dd.
CPuckett, My 11 year old son struggles with memorizing facts as well. The empty tables chart has helped him, also we list the facts on a white board. He says each fact in order, then erases the answer to the nines fact. Then he says them again adding in the missing answer. By the time he gets to the two's fact, he's memorized most of the answers. Then I mix them up and have him fill in the blanks. That's when we see what he is having trouble with. We've decided to use the Teaching Textbooks series for math this year. Check out their website to see if it might help your daughter. Just keep encouraging her so she doesn't get frustrated. She'll find ways to cope eventually.
