how to teach math facts?

[Chez J]

Help! My daughter can do fairly complicated math. However, it takes her forever because she hasn't memorized her multiplication tables. I spent the last month covering them using Times Attack on the computer, having her copy them from a pre-written page, making grids with squares for her to input the answer to the fact and just plain writing them out one by one. Nothing seems to have cemented them in her mind. Obviously I am teaching her in a way that she is not learning - a learning styles issue. What am I doing wrong? I have no idea what her style is, but I think this may help me figure it out. LOL!

Thanks,

Lesley

[dmmosher]

How old is your daughter?

www.systemath.com (http://www.systemath.com)


Donna

[oakmom]

My kids like to play Product War.

http://letsplaymath.wordpress.com/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/

[MamaT]

We are going through the same thing with my daughter. I finally made a list of all the facts with answers and without in Word, had her study the one with answers and then try to fill in the blank one. I also made the triangle cards from donnayoung.org to drill her, and I think she is finally getting it. I have to do it EVERY day, though. It is paying off - today she only missed three of the cards.

[nmoira]

If not knowing her multiplication facts is getting in the way of moving ahead, I'd be inclined to give her a multiplication chart for use during "real" math and have her work separately on learning her facts.

[Chez J]

If not knowing her multiplication facts is getting in the way of moving ahead, I'd be inclined to give her a multiplication chart for use during "real" math and have her work separately on learning her facts.

Hmm. That's an interesting proposition. We're not that far from the end of the year. We could take the summer to memorize the facts. Would you wait that long? Or, would you cut back on something else, say history, and spend more time with math - doing a lesson, then a separate session on facts memorization? That might make math take an hour and a half. Yikes! Or, if she's able to work the problems with the chart, it might not add more time.

I ordered a CD that has the facts to music in case she needs it in an auditory way. Should be here Thursday.

Lesley

[beth in md]

Hi, I am having the same issue with my twin daughters. We have tried just about everything, but I was just reading about a book called Times Tales that we haven't tried yet. Apparently, it is the thing that just cements it for some kids. See the reviews on Amazon and see if you think it might help.

Good luck!

[ElizabethB]

Flashmaster has been helpful for us for addition, it does multiplication, too.

I like how it keeps track of what she knows and doesn't know (last 15 missed.) That was hard to keep up with as she would learn new facts and start forgetting some of the older ones.

You can also do a lot more facts per time period, it makes it much more efficient. My daughter likes it better than worksheets. (Worksheets were working OK for us, but not great. Flashcards didn't help at all. Oral drill in the car helps some, but it's much more efficient now that I have an updated list of what she need to work on, it was hit and miss before.)

[christielee7278]

Have you tried Learning WrapUps (http://www.learningwrapups.com/main.asp?pageid=1)?

[Cindyg]

I answered you in the other thread.

We tried everything mentioned in this thread and the other one: Music, skip counting, Flashmaster, Times Tales, working all summer, studying the facts written out in sentences, abacus, triangle cards, Cuisenaire rods, charts with blanks to fill in....

None of that worked.

I am resigned to this -- that ds will never fully be able to remember the math facts.

But we still work on it every day, and we will continue to.

And, yes, we cover math facts separately from math class. In other words, we've moved along in math at his pace. (He's doing algebra, no problem.) But we're reviewing math facts probably at a 2nd or 3rd grade pace. Maybe even a 1st grade pace. ?? It's just an odd deficency of an otherwise bright brain. ??

Not being able to remember math facts does slow math down, but it doesn't take anywhere near an hour and a half a day. We spend maybe 5 minutes on math facts review (together), maybe 10-20 minutes on each day's new concepts (together), and maybe 10-20 minutes on his worksheet (independent work).