My 13yo ds does not know his multiplication and division facts, AT ALL. So it is taking him days to do a few pages of multipling fractions and reducing them. Help, what do we do to learn them?
Times Tales. It's weird, but it works - and works fast. It focuses on the harder ones to learn: 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, & 9s. I'll bet if you buy this ($40-ish) he'll know his times tables in less than a week. And not forget them.
Make him learn them. If there is no mental or health problem, and he is simply being lazy/rebelious in having not studied them yet, then I don't think you should indulge him personally. (I think I remember you saying he refused to learn them some months ago, no?) I wouldn't spend $40 on them when you can print the typical table offline for free and have him learn them. Take a 3week detour and have him learn his times tables. He can do this in several ways but none of them need cost $$. If simple flash cards dont work, he is old enough to look up a few activites about Multiplication and do them himself and work on an Independent Project and accomplish something, I think. Push him, hold him accountable and guide him when he really, really needs it.
You can also do TimezAttack or Multiplication.com. http://www.bigbrainz.com/ http://www.multiplication.com/
Here is what we did after I looked at a friend's Math-U-See books (and later purchased MUS for ourselves) If he needs to learn the 3's, use graph paper (or make your own) and draw out a 3 by 10 chart of open blocks, 3 wide by 10 long. The blocks on the right hand side will have 3, 6, 9, 12 and so on until you get to 30. For my son, once he could see what multiplication meant (adding quickly), then it clicked for him. He could skip count quickly which then gave him an easier time learning the tables. He doesn't memorize well at all unless he understands the big picture. Math-U-See also has drills online for free to practice all kinds of tables from addition to division.
My dd was struggling & a friend told me to put a couple decks of cards together, excluding the face cards & aces. I would choose a fact family that she WASN'T struggling with first to build confidence. For instance 3's- every card that I turn up from the deck had to be multiplied by 3 until I changed fact family. If she got the answer correct within 3 seconds she earned the card. If it took longer than 3 seconds or it was wrong, I got that card & one card from the pile that she had already earned. (We would also figure out the correct answer before moving on to next card.) Of course, after building her confidence with fact families that she was familiar with, we then moved to those not so familiar. Fun game to play in the car.
I made my own learning wrap-arounds. They were very simple to make and quite effective. I actually had to stop at one point with my two oldest and just drill and drill until they learned the facts. I tried to change the method every day so they didn't get too bored, and also so they would recognize the facts in different situations. There are a lot of good games to use as well, some that you can make yourself. Maybe have them make a mini book of the facts. It always helps to reinforce with other senses. I googled "multiplication games to make" and got quite a few sites that looked like they might have some good ideas. Hope this helps!
I let my 12 y/o use a "cheat sheet" with all the multiplication facts on it. We have been practicing them everyday for years. She still is unable to call about half of them out instantly, she skip counts on her fingers. I don't know if she might have a learning disability that makes it so hard for her to remember them. However, I hated to not move forward in math, because she can do all the other stuff that doesn't require memorization of facts. I know this idea isn't for everyone, but it works for us :wink:
I let my kids use a multiplication chart, also. Memorization of multiplication facts is great, but is only necessary for standardized test. I imagine that are some jobs where is it helpful, too. I was never quick at recalling basic math facts and never made above a B is elementary and middle school. However, I did understand the concepts. I never had a problem Algebra I & II. Quick recall of addition, subtraction and multiplication was not needed. I am going to look into a couple of these online games. I would like to encourage them to memorize a little more of them.
I'm 33 and this is how I do math to this day. I can't do basic math (+, -, x, /) very well at all, but hand me a calculator and tell me to do algebra and such and I can (or, well, I could, it's been so long since I did higher math, I probably couldn't now LOL)
