Have you ever tried to teach multiplication facts and failed? I have. Teaching them by memorization alone can be so frustrating for both your child and you.
Ever heard of math tears? They’re real. Read our story below and I’ll tell you two easy ways I teach multiplication and division without tears and frustration.
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Teaching Multiplication to a 3rd Grader
When my son was in the 3rd grade we started multiplication and division. He’s an intelligent boy and has always caught onto everything super fast, so I thought this would be a breeze. I was wrong.
At the time he was doing Teaching Textbooks, and while it was a good fit for him and he loved the independence he felt using Teaching Textbooks, it didn’t teach him the actual multiplication facts. That was up to me. I tried teaching him the same way I learned it in school. With copywork and tests. It worked for me. Why couldn’t it work for him?
It didn’t. It just caused a lot of frustration and placed a wedge between us.
So, we quit the copying and moved on to a workbook called 10 Days to Multiplication Mastery and used wrap ups to go along with it. It worked… for a short time. He forgot them pretty quickly.
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How Did I Teach My Child To Learn Multiplication?
I couldn’t help him learn this. I knew I had to figure out how to teach the multiplication tables easily, so we put it away and tried again the next year. This is when we had a breakthrough. I finally figured it out and all it took was 1 hour to get him quickly and easily learning multiplication and division (without tears and frustration).
Two Easy Ways to Teach Multiplication and Division
Times Tales is a DVD that makes learning their multiplication facts fun and easy. Your child will learn their facts through stories that he will later recall when he sees 6×8, 3×6, etc. Not only do they work on the multiplication tables, but they work on division also.
I was pretty skeptical at first. It seems kinda cheesy and robotic as you watch it, but apparently that don’t bother kids so much. And I was wondering how in the world he was going to memorize his times tables through this, but after him watching it one time I could see a dramatic difference.
Help Your Struggling Learner to Memorize Multiplication Tables Fast With Times Tales
The videos are broken up into 2 parts- upper times tables and lower times tables. Your child will watch the stories of each character and these characters act as a memory trigger. For example, Mrs. Week went fishing sitting on a chair and caught 8 trout and 2 boots. Mrs. Week is always a 7, the chair is always a 4, and the 2 boots and 8 trout is the answer. 7×4=28. Each video (there are 2) is 30 minutes.
Later, you can do flash cards, roll the dice that is provided in the workbook, crossword puzzles also provided in the workbook, and mnemonic multiplication and division tests.
He was surprised ( and proud ) that he knew his facts when I gave him his first Times Tales test.
He even retained his facts through the summer without working on them at all. I was pretty proud of him when he did his first 5 minute drill of the new school year:)
You’ll want the workbook and quiz to go with it. This contains tests, crossword puzzles about the tales, and fun games to solidify the facts that they’ve learned.
Times Tales totally changed the way I teach multiplication and division. If you’re trying to teach multiplication to a struggling learner, go check it out.
2. Easily Learn Multiplication with Skip Counting Songs on YouTube
If you don’t want to try Times Tales then try skip counting songs. This is a longer process, but I believe this can work without tears, you just have to stick with it longer.
Royce learned to skip count through songs before he started watching Times Tales.
I found free skip counting songs on YouTube and this helped with several of his numbers in multiplication and division. He could just count them on his fingers when he needed to.
However, this wasted a lot of time. He had to remember what tune went with what number and then count them up on his fingers.
You have to be more diligent with this method. We were listening to at least 2 songs a day to keep it in his head. Did it help him memorize them like Times Tales did? No. But, it did help and I think if we kept it up he eventually would have got them memorized.
Not all of the numbers on YouTube have good memorable songs to go with them, but they’re free, so I couldn’t whine about it. Here’s a list of what we used. ( I didn’t use 2, 5, or 10)
If you have a child struggling with memorizing their multiplication and division tables you should try one or both methods.
I wish I would have found this a year before I did because not only would it have saved me a ton of time, but he’s a little behind now because he couldn’t get his tables learned. That isn’t something I worry about, but he’s been worried about behind his public school friends for some reason here lately.
My daughter is in 3rd grade this year and she’s using Times Tales also. She’s enjoying the videos and learning it just as well as he did.
Have you taught multiplication facts in a different way? If so, hit the reply button and let me know how you did it. Maybe you can school all of us.
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Hoping for a great school year,
I want my kids to Multiplication and divide