1. Questions

Multiplication

What is the best way to teach my 8 year old her multiplication tables.


You'll probably get lots of answers and opinions! I'll tell you what worked with my brother and then with my grandsons -- repetition, repetition, and more repetition -- both verbally and in writing and with flash cards. With my younger grandson, we took each set (the twos, then the threes, then the fours, etc.) and had him write out the problems and the answers in a column; then we had him state from memory the problems and the answers.

Finally, we used a set of flashcards we got at Target (available just about anywhere, actually) and held up each card for about 5 seconds -- if he answered correctly, that card went into the right-hand pile; if not, into the left-hand pile. We'd re-do that left-hand pile until it was down to nothing. We did this in the house, while riding in the car, etc., We had both my grandsons learn the tables from 0 x 0 through 12 x 12.

Good luck -- and let us know how you progress.

=)


I did this (myself) when I was a child by rote memory. My dad worked with me and he would say "5 x 9" and I was supposed to answer 45. As I try to remember to those time long ago, I think I might have understood just what was going on if I had understood that 5 x 4 = 20 was the same thing as 5+5+5+5 and the 4 came from the number 5 written 4 times. In other words, that multiplication was a shortcut to addition. But the memory work worked until I finally understood what was going on and that wasn't until I got to college. (Long time to be --huh?). (I may not have known exactly what was going on but I sure could spit out those numbers.)The point is that I think I would have had an easier time had I understood what I was doing. There was no reason that I could see why I needed to know that 9 x 5 was 45. One thing that helped, however, was that I soon caught on that 5 x 9 was 45 and when I came to 9 x 5 it was the same number. I felt as though I needed to memorize only HALF the tables because the other half was just the reverse. I was blessed with a good memory and that helped. So much for 70 years ago. Good luck.


In addition to the excellent suggestions posted by Writeacher, I suggest you start with visually demonstrating multiplication with food!

Use grapes or popcorn or M&Ms. To start, put 20 of these objects in 10 groups of 2 on a table. Ask her to show you how many objects are in 2 groups of 2 (2 x 2). Continue up to 10, letting her count the number of objects for each. You can continue this demonstration for a few minutes with groups of 3, 4, 5, etc. Of course, she should be able to eat this demonstration as she shows she knows how to do this math! <g>

These Web sites have other ideas for teaching the multiplication tables, including games.

http://www.math2.org/math/general/multiplytable.htm

http://www.aplusmath.com/cgi-bin/Homework_Helper/mtable

http://perso.orange.fr/jeux.lulu/html/anglais/tableM/tableM1A.htm

  1. 👍
  2. 👎
  3. 👁
Patricia

Respond to this Question

First Name

Your Response

Similar Questions

  1. Algebra

    Mina's catering service is organizing a formal dinner for 280 people.The hall has two kinds of tables, one that seats 4 people and one that seats 10 people.The hall can contain up to a total of 52 tables.Write and graph a system

  2. Ancient Greece, please help! 💝

    Why do we still use fables from ancient Greece today? A. to teach moral lessons B. to illustrate tragedy C. to teach about the gods D. to teach about heroes Its A Right? __________________________ Which of the following describes

  3. Calculus

    A sporting goods store sells 100 pool tables per year. It costs $20 to store one pool table for a year, based on the average inventory on hand. It costs $40 for each delivery of pool tables. How many times per year and in what lot

  4. Math

    Betty has the option of using three types of tables in her coffee shop: square tables with a side length of 42 inches; rectangular tables 26 inches wide and 73 2/3 inches long; and round tables with a diameter of 36 inches. Which

  1. Math

    What property is shown in the equation below? 6x0=0 a)zero property of multiplication b)inverse property of multiplication c)identity property of multiplication d)commutative property of multiplication

  2. math 116

    The owners of River View Bakery have hired enough servers to handle 17 tables of customers, and the fire marshal has approved the restaurant for a limit of 56 customers. The owners need to purchase two-seat and four-seat tables to

  3. Math

    You are planning a dinner for 174 people. The tables at the restaurant are large enough to seat 4 people at each one. How many tables will need to be reserved?

  4. History

    Why are fables from ancient Greece still used today? * (A) to illustrate tragedy (B)to teach about heroes (C)to teach about gods (D)to teach moral lessons I think it is D. Please check! Thank you very much, Sliverstream.

  1. algebra 2

    Lincoln High School has 98 teachers. Of the 42 female teachers, 8 teach math. One seventh of all of the teachers teach math. What is the probability that a teacher is a man or does not teach math?

  2. math

    a party rental company is renting tables and chairs. the total cost to rent 2 chairs and 6 tables for $54. the total cost to rent 5 chairs and 3 tables is $36. how much per chair and table

  3. mATHS

    Vladimir builds 3 legged stools and 4 legged tables. Last month he used 72 legs to build 3 more stools than tables. How many stools and how many tables did he build?

  4. Statistics

    How do frequency tables, relative frequencies, and histograms showing relative frequencies help us understand sampling distributions? A. They help us to measure or estimate of the likelihood of a certain statistic falling within

You can view more similar questions or ask a new question.