So my son has been struggling with his multiplication tables, yes, you read correctly. Even a teacher’s child will have their challenges in school. I have tried flashcards, have had him explore through word problems, write the number sentences down repeatedly, etc. Nothing would seem to work! But yesterday was a breakthrough. I prayed to God to just give me some inspiration or an idea to help him with his tables and Boom! It hit me. How did I learn my tables as a child?
Probably not the way New Age teachers are recommending, but it worked and I still remember them to this day. I used my fingers!!!!! I know this sounds crazy, teachers never want children depending on their fingers after the second grade. My fingers worked for me. I remember saying the 6x tables across my fingers and doing it over and over again. Before you knew it, I had memorized all my tables from 1 to 12. Of course, the 1s, 2s,5s, 10s, and 11s are the easy ones but I knew the hard ones as well!
Back to my son: So yesterday I asked him to say the 3x table and as he had to put his fists out and lift one finger for each number as he said them. Every time he made a mistake he would have to start all over again. This is important because I want his brain to remember the table the right way and I want the brain to know that mistakes are not an option. Within 15 minutes he had the 3x table completely memorized. To assess him and promote the repetition, I had him complete simple drills. I would ask what is 3×2 and he would either know it automatically or just use his fingers strategy then follow-up by saying the full number sentence with answer, 3×2=6. We practiced again this morning, afternoon, and will again before bed. He was successful, his confidence had increased, and as the day went by he became less and less dependent on his fingers.
If you want to try this with your child, be patient and make sure that he/she looks at her fingers when they are saying the tables. You want them to start associating the fingers with the numbers to increase automaticity. If you do try it, let me know how it turns out.
TeacherTell 