What is your favorite method of teaching math facts??

[Mommyfaithe]

My dd...9..needs help!!
Me too!
Frustrating because we can't move ahead in math...this lack of memory is causing her to sloooooowwwww way down.
Thanks,
Faithe

[Beth in Central TX]

I know I sound like a broken record, but for us, R&S Math has been a great program. My middle son struggled with learning math facts under Saxon. I switched to R&S, and he is now flourishing in math. R&S is a mastery program. The TM provides mental math exercises, the current lesson, and review problems. I backed my son up to R&S 3, and it's been smooth sailing since then. The blacklines helped during the transition year, but now I just get the speed drills to go along with the pupil book. It was a perfect fit for us.

If you are interested you can call R&S for a sample of their curriculum by grade and a scope & sequence booklet. It will help you decide where to begin.

[vmsurbat]

I have a set of old-fashioned flashcards (from Abeka) where the problem is given complete on one side: eg. 9+6=15 and as just the problem on the other: eg. 9+6= . One key to using flashcards is to keep it short and sweet--*never* more than five minutes. We are aiming for fast recall and that is taxing on the brain.

The second (and all-important) key to using flashcards is to use them to *teach* the facts first. Most people immediately use them as a testing device, hoping their child will eventually come up with the right answer. We are assuming that your child understands the basic meaning of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and that you are after automatic recall.

To get to that point, here are some steps you can take. Get your set of facts that you want your child to master (all the +5s or the problem facts or doubles or however your particular program introduces them) and work through the following steps:

1. Flash the cards WITH the answer side showing and have child say the entire problem with answer. Eg. "Nine plus six equals 15" Your child will find this ridiculously easy. Use this step to require giving the full, proper answer.

2. Once that is easy (and it should be pretty quickly with a nine year old, go through the flashcards again WITH the answer side showing and have the child "take a snapshot". That means he/she LOOKS at the card, closes his eyes, and states the full equation again. Eg. Looks, closes eyes, says "Nine plus six equals 15". This step may take a first grader several days and it can be a lot of fun when he uses his fingers to "click" the picture! This step forces the child to actually look closely at the problem.... (This is important because future facts will have the same digits (9x6) but a different answer. Many careless mistakes are made when children don't LOOK at the problem closely and they are getting a mix of add/sub/mult/div problems all at once.

3. Once that is easy (again, pretty quickly with a nine year old), go through the flashcards again SANS the answer side showing. The child sees "9+6=" and see if they can give the full answer pretty quickly. If they can, progress to giving a slightly abbreviated answer: "Nine plus six, fifteen" (Note, the word "equals" is not used--we are trying to shorten the response of 9+6--we don't want our child to ALWAYS have to mentally insert the word "equals" to get the right answer.)

If your child could not give the answer quickly, but instead is trying to figure it out, flip the card to answer side and have him take a "snapshot" and give the answer that way. The goal is always a correct answer quickly.

4. Once the child can give the answer to a flashcard, shorten the step to giving just the answer. Eg. Child sees "9+6= " and responds "Fifteen." When your child can do that, you can review a lot of mastered facts quickly.

Once you've reached step 3 or 4 with one set of facts, you can begin introducing a new set of facts at the Step 1 stage. Just remember to never go more than five minutes. Also, many kids go through plateau periods where it seems that you have flashed the same facts over and over and over and you think they will NEVER get it. Three days later, the kids find it a piece of cake.

This type of flashcard work is quick and painless and incorporates hearing, seeing, and saying.

For written practice, you can require your child to write out at the beginning of the week a "help" chart. I'll use addition as an example. Make a grid that will cover the facts you want your child to learn. If you want addition facts up to 9+9, then you will need 9 rows down and 9 columns across. Number down 1-9, number across 1-9. The box where row and column meet should be the sum of the numbers at the beginning of the row and column. The same type of chart can be done for subtraction, multiplication, and division. This kind of chart is easy for kids to fill out because there is a pattern to each of these help charts. Let your child use his chart as an aid in daily written math work--NOT during flashcard drill, though.

We worked on mastering math facts from 1st-4th grade. It is easy to make simple motivational games (esp. for younger students). Eg. One step forward for a correct answer. (No penalty for a wrong one, though). When they reached Mom. they got a hug and a kiss! For a nine year old, though, you may need a different motivational rewards like stickers, M&Ms, and nickels to make it fun and worthwhile (from the child's point of view!).

HTH,

[Beth in Central TX]

Dear Vicki--Thank you for the great post on flashcards!

[Cadam]

Still figuring this out for my dc but I have them play the math games here (iknowthat.com) and do some timed drills to test how things are going. What is her learning style? My visual kid isn't helped by the audio tapes that help my audio kid. kwim?

[debbiec]

Yes, Vicki ~ Thank you. That was very helpful and I'm inspired about flashcards once again ~

[Georgia]

Times Tales is fun and as painless as memorizing can ever be.

They give you a simple picture to help recall, and you naturally, gradually wean off. It costs around $15 or $20. One of my best HS purchases.

They are used for only the uppers, 6X6 to 9X9.

Sorry, I don't know how to link text to the web :o, but I think you could google it.

I have several friends who have borrowed my copy and everyone likes it.

HTH.

[Sue G in PA]

available as a free download. We also just started taking one day each week for just drill (no math lesson). I have him fill out a blank mult. chart. That helps for him to see the patterns (skip counting patterns), etc. He then does a regular mult. drill sheet or div. drill sheet (sometimes I throw in add/subt. b/c he still uses his fingers for those!). Then he does a 2 dig. mult sheet (which is what he is doing in Saxon right now). He likes the change of pace from the Saxon lessons. WE also play games that use mult. like Mult. War. Basically the game of War using playing cards (minus the picture cards). Instead of getting the set of cards if you have the higher number, you must first multiply the 2 cards and get the answer correct before you can take them. KWIM? We also have a board game that helps reinforce mult. Love the post of flash cards, too. Will have to try those suggestions. Good luck...she'll get it eventually (so will my ds!).

[Closeacademy]

Rhythmic drill is working here.

We toss a small ball back and forth and go through tables. You can also do this while skipping rope, jumping on the trampoline, walking in rhythm, etc.


Hope this helps.:)

[Kathy in MD]

The stories helped him relate to the facts and using the workbook he was able to transfer the stories to remembering the plain facts. Also the stories gave us more ways to practice. We played charades and ds drew pictures in addition to worksheets and flashcards. It was much more fun :D I then followed it up with about a year's worth of drill to cement the facts in place.

Math the Fun Way is similar to Time Tales, but it covers addtion (& subtraction) and all the multiplication facts to 9 (& division).

http://citycreek.com

[Jill]

I was just thinking of starting one of these threads about various ways to practice math facts.

1 - I gave my son a set of flashcards for the car (we have 10 to 20 minute drives to town for shopping and library and errands several days a week) and he could quiz me - similar effect to having the child read through the whole equation. I would get some "wrong" so that he had a chance to read them all the way through.

2 - BlackJack. I forget which educational game site it is but we play BlackJack for addition. for free...

3 - Learning Resources Board Games. They sell a pack with 4 or 6 games in it including spinners and markers, etc... addition, subtraction, and choice of either...

4 - Monopoly. Our son has to be the banker.

5 - Made up games with dice rolls where the dice get added together.

6 - Hooked on Phonics. We're actually using the multiplication set right now at my son's insistence - hey, I'm glad he's motivated! I'm not using the drill pages but the bingo games are much like the Learning Resource games.

7 - Schoolhouse Rocks Multiplication Rocks.

8 - Skip counting on a number line where he draws the "skips" (imagine inverted ocean waves.)

9 - Computer games: Funbrain math arcade at funbrain.com (a little advertising there from pearson publishing); Path O Math puzzles at enchanted learning.com (some pages are free); Math Blaster; Jumpstart games.

10 - Quiddler. Yes, you have to spell words but you also have to add up points for 3,4,5,6,7, and 8 card hands.

that's about it here. we talk about math a lot in our home however so there are lots of times we pose story problems verbally with our son and talk them through. - Jill

[Dee in MI]

I've tried lots of things. Everything works for a little while; nothing works for very long. It's like fighting the borg.

Lately we do math war. I pulled the kings (and some aces, twos, and jacks and tens) from the deck. Then we play like war, except he keeps the cards if he comes up with the answer quickly. He starts with about five cards and I get the rest. We play until he wins the deck. He loves this, and is disappointed when I try to skip it.

We've also done timed worksheets, times tales, timez attack, and old fashioned flash cards.

[WendyK]

flash cards, video games, math games

[Kimber]

I've tried lots of different methods inconsistently which may be why they didn't work. But since I've started doing drill a la CM, we've had humongous improvements.

Basically, my ds8 takes a timed drill along with my dd9. She knows hers, but not him. So he does the drill but uses a multiplication chart. This helps because when he knows the answers it's faster for him to just not look, but when he does he looks. He's almost got them all down.

I did this with her too about two years ago, but not timed.

[Tarheel Heather]

Someone on the old board posted the link, and 6dd has been doing that. We cover the 2's, one week etc. She copies the problems and the answers. has been good so far.

http://www.homeschoolestore.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=math+facts+cop y+work&search_in_description=1&search_in_author=1&search_in_artist=1&search_in_editor=1

[Cindyg]

I'll add just a few thoughts to these wonderful suggestions.

First, separate Math Facts from Math Class. That is, go as slow as you need to on the math facts, but if she understand the concepts, don't hold her back in math class. Do a lesson a day, and let her use manipluatives to solve the problems. At our house, this is two separate classes. DS is doing just fine in math class, but math FACTS class is going pretty slowly. :)

Second, the best manipulative in the world (IMO) for a kid who is struggling with math facts is the Right Start Abacus, which they call the AL Abacus. This is uniquely color coded, and it makes it very easy for the child to see the answer without counting. Your child will use this every day for years. Really. And it's not expensive. You can use it for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions from digits 1-100 up to 99,999.

Third, just concentrate on a few math facts a week, not all of them. Let your child really master 6 facts rather than wrestle with all of them at once.

Fourth, study the facts in families. Singapore calls these Number Bonds. Or you see them as triangle cards. But whether you use triangle cards or not, introduce your child to the families. That way you get four facts for learning 1. In other words: 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-2=3, and 5-3=2. It's just one fact to learn, but now you know three things. If you have this on a triangle card, 5 would be at the top and 2 and 3 would be at the bottom. If you show it with Cuisenaire Rods or MUS rods, you would have a 2 and 3 end to end next to a 5. (They're the same size! How 'bout that!) However you want to show it to your child, it really reduces the number of facts she has to learn.

Good luck. As you can see, you're not alone in this. :)

[Jann in TX]

My favorite method is anything that uses the 'whole body'. Jumping rope has been the secret for one of my daughters and many of the children I have taught and tutored.

My oldest dd was NOT able to memorize her math facts...and you know what?--she was still able to work her math homework on grade level. In fact, she has a better sense of number theory than her sister (who memorizes very easily) will ever have! If oldest dd cannot remember a fact--she sure can figure it out quickly (on her own).

I was a little disheartened at first (after all "I" am a math teacher by profession!)....but in reality I was doing the wrong thing by pressuring dd to the point that I was holding her mathematical progress back due to lack of memorized facts. Once I let her move on--and gave her/taught her a support system, she flourished!

Just something else to think about....

I still used OCCASIONAL drill/flashcards and oldest dd is currently in Algebra 2 and knows MOST of her facts...maybe someday.... but she is VERY good in math!

[supermom]

We use the drills on this site. It's only multiplication as far as I know. The child answers the multiple choice drill with a timer going and try to beat their time each time through. It's very quick and easy and my kids enjoy trying to set a new time record.

We also got to a point in our Saxon where I just had to STOP the book for awhile and we only did math facts for 2 or 3 weeks. That was all the math we did each day and when we returned to the book, it was much better and the lesson went much faster. Well worth the time off we took to learn the math facts and the girls were thrilled to get the break from the book.

HTH,
Monica

[threetreasurs]

ALEKS just added a math fact drill program!

[Jenny in Atl]

I found the little of everything works. I often feel like I am tossing wet paper towels at a wall, some stick and some don't. I find games and math that they can apply, use in the real world sticks faster. Games, like many before have said, are a great way to do this. Cooking, shopping, etc... all help too.

[Kimber]

Math drill sheets with the list of math facts to copy from if they don't know it. They race to beat the clock. Sometimes there's a treat at the end.

With my kids, we've raced the clock and eventually it became faster to write down what they remembered than to look it up on the list of math facts.

HTH!

And it's Charlotte Mason like in that they aren't allowed to guess. It's no stress because they don't feel pressured to remember. But the bonus of beating the clock helps them to want to remember. My kids ask to do drills. :tongue_smilie:

[Suzanne in ABQ]

We tried lots of things -- Triangle Flash cards (add/sub and mult/div), Mult/Div "wheel" cards (the answers revolve within the card, showing through a window -- mult on one side, div on the other), Calculadders, home-made drill sheets, etc. Like Dee said, everything worked for awhile, but then not. I realized that I needed something that didn't involve ME! Something with no emotion, no variable frustration levels, no stake invested in whether or not dc learned the facts, none of that.

I recently found FlashMaster, and we all love it! The kids practice everyday without whining or complaining. They are learning the facts -- finally! All the feedback comes from the machine, not from Mom. There are several settings, some timed and some untimed. There is no mommy-time involved, so I can work with one dc while the other is doing their Flashmaster. I can go back later to look and see how much they did, and how they scored. It's not fancy, and it was rather pricey, but it is a well-designed, drill facilitator. I'm really glad I got it.

http://www.flashmaster.com/

[mom2three]

My 9 year old was struggling with math too. Then we switched to Rod and Staff. We have been doing Rod and Staff for 3 years, and he is doing well in math.

hth.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

and have settled on a mixture of flashcards, math sheets, and, believe it or not, the school house rock videos on YouTube. This has been the winning combination for us.

[April in NC]

The games kit from RightStart Math is really cool. It includes decks for addition, multiplication, money, time, etc, as well as a Games book with 300 math games, and a new DVD that shows how to play the most commonly used games. (Plus a mini abacus for helping kids understand facts before they memorize them.) My kids LOVE to play the games, and are currently memorizing their addition facts without having to do lots and lots of drill.

The games kit works with any math curriculum, and it would be great to work with over the summer.

Last I checked, they also sell individual decks of cards, if you only want to work on addition, or multiplication, etc.

[Narrow Gate Academy]

My girls both love using the Math Wrap Ups here. We keep working on a key until the girls can do it in under a set amount of time to make it more challenging.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

The games kit from RightStart Math is really cool.

The games kit works with any math curriculum, and it would be great to work with over the summer.

I second this suggestion. I use RightStart math curriculum myself, but I would highly recommend the games for anyone to use as a supplement.

[Barbara in NH]

My children used to complain about doing the math facts and it would be a constant tension. A friend told me her kids loved math facts that she used a Flashmaster. It is a small hand held devise that tooks life a hand held game and you can practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on it. There are also different levels and the devise tells you how well you did. I have them do it twice everyday for 90 seconds and they love it. It has really decreased the amount of arithmetic errors on their math assignments also.

[tinag]

Copying the Math Facts is what worked for us. It is also a lot less painful for my ds than everything else we tried.

[Jackie in NE]

We sing our facts as much as possible! MUS has a great CD of math fact songs. So we sing, sing, sing, and I am VERY pleased with retention. We also do speed drills. Because my dc are hyper-competitive... so anything that looks even remotely like competition is great for them.

HTH, Jackie

[Kari C in SC]

Math the Fun Way is similar to Time Tales, but it covers addtion (& subtraction) and all the multiplication facts to 9 (& division).

http://citycreek.com

We have Times Tales and it has worked pretty well. My dd still struggles with quick recall of addition and subtraction. Do you think it would be beneficial to go back and get the Addition and Subtraction program? I didn't see a whole program for subtraction, just cards. Are these as good as Times Tales? Thanks!

[Eliana]

Do they make sense to her?

As someone else said, I would not hold a child back in math because she was still learning her math facts, anymore than I would hold a child back in English because she needed to improve her handwriting. I believe they are separate issues.

I like the way Saxon teaches math facts:

Start by memorizing the doubles facts (2+2, 5+5). I've found that my kids have absorbed most of these before we formally start math, but even if a child hasn't, these facts make sense and are easy to learn quickly.

Practice counting by twos, practice evens and odds - use manipulatives, skip counting tapes, clapping games, a 100 # chart... count forwards and backwards - it will make these subtraction facts really easy.

Using color tiles, illustrate the double facts, and then show 'doubles plus one' s. Have her start with these by always identifying the double, finding that answer and then adding one - soon it will be instinctive.

Is she comfortable adding 10 to any number? If not, play with a 100 number chart - add and subtract 10 from number after number, and let her discover that instead of counting it out, she can just move down a line, and then (we use pennies and dimes - Saxon has some great exercises for this) show her that you are adding 1 to the ten's column.

When she can add ten easily, she can add nine equally easy - that is just adding ten and subtracting one.

Adding four is just adding 2 twice.

Some kids do well with skip counting threes, others like to add two and then one more.

Another logical grouping is the pairs of numbers which make ten - my kids generally just absorb these from Saxon's exercises, and they have a card game reinforcement they recommend as well... I just only needed it with one child, so I have forgotten it...

There are some oddball facts left which just need to be memorized, but once the others are really solid, I've found that the remainder feels so manageable to a child and s/he is so confident with his/her math facts that it isn't a problem.

Multiplication facts have been learned best when we do some regular skip counting practice - 2'3, 5's, and 10's are usually well mastered before we are trying to memorize multiplication facts, 7's we do early on as well as part of calendar work. Threes we memorize. Most of my kids learn the other facts best when they have first explored the patterns - 9's are so neat! the number in the one's column decreases by one as the number in the ten's column increases 8's go 8, 6, 4, 2, 0, in the one's column and 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4... in the ten's column! My kids get such a kick out of finding the patterns, and then recreating them for themselves to use as a 'cheat sheet' during fact practice. I've encouraged this, and it seems to really speed the memorization process.

[Kim in SouthGa]

I went through all the facts with my 8dd orally, and the ones she did not know we wrote on the whiteboard in black. We pick one fact and write that one big in red, so she sees it all day. Then she copies it 20 times a day(10 times one way, 10 times in reverse-for example 8x3=24, 3x8=24) until she knows it without hesitation. I also try to remember to drill her orally on just that fact throughout the day, while driving in the car, at dinner, etc. Then we check it off and move on to the next one. This is working better than anything else we have tried.

[mom26]

We tried lots of things -- Triangle Flash cards (add/sub and mult/div), Mult/Div "wheel" cards (the answers revolve within the card, showing through a window -- mult on one side, div on the other), Calculadders, home-made drill sheets, etc. Like Dee said, everything worked for awhile, but then not. I realized that I needed something that didn't involve ME! Something with no emotion, no variable frustration levels, no stake invested in whether or not dc learned the facts, none of that.

I recently found FlashMaster, and we all love it! The kids practice everyday without whining or complaining. They are learning the facts -- finally! All the feedback comes from the machine, not from Mom. There are several settings, some timed and some untimed. There is no mommy-time involved, so I can work with one dc while the other is doing their Flashmaster. I can go back later to look and see how much they did, and how they scored. It's not fancy, and it was rather pricey, but it is a well-designed, drill facilitator. I'm really glad I got it.

http://www.flashmaster.com/

I keep wondering about Flashmaster...it looks so tempting but pricey...it just might be worth it though....the younger ones would think it was their own 'gameboy' Lol
Thanks for the FM plug!!
Blessings,kathi

[Stacy]

Quarter Mile Math ... computer cd. It's fun and the kids have learned well on it.

[Rebel Jedi Mom]

I second the School House Rock videos. Two of the neighbor kids were over playing with my kids one day when I put the video in, they all protested. When I came back in all 4 of them were singing along to the 5 song - hands in the air counting by fives and all. It was too funny.
I wonder what the major difference is between the Math Shark and the Flashmaster. Hmmm.. I'll have to do some research.
Jill