Ever notice how we parents only take credit for the fabulous aspects of our children? (Little Timmy speaks three languages! Yep, he gets that from me!) We aren’t so enthusiastic about claiming the more trying sides of our childrens’ talents. (Little Tessa doesn’t like to sit still. She gets that from…her daddy!)
Well in the interest of transparency, I’m hear to tell you that one of our kiddos has trouble memorizing bald facts and…he gets it from me!
This trait becomes a nightmare when memorizing those pesky multiplication tables. (Can I get an “amen” from anyone else out there who cried over learning those things?) Really, I’ve been dreading teaching my non-memorizer the multiplication tables since we started homeschooling.
Then, I stumbled upon Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables. (Just typing that name is enough to set off rounds of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in my head!) Similar to Times Tales, this book uses mnemonic devices (sometimes known as funny stories and rhymey words) to help kids remember the multiplication facts. I found it online for $19.99 and figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
When the book arrived, I discovered everything I needed to teach the multiplication facts inside. I simply read the paragraph-long stories to the two bigger boys (a second grader and a third grader) and showed them the silly illustrations. We tackled two facts a day—skipping the easy facts like the twos and fives. We made copies some of the illustrations to color and to make into a reference book (more on that in a minute.)
The result? Without a single flash card—but with some review of the pictures and stories, without a single tear shed—mine or theirs… They learned the times tables!
Easy. Peasy. Lemon. Squeezy.
And of course you know that division is just multiplication in reverse! So Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables helped with that too.
For those hard to recall facts (like 9 x 6—why is that one so hard?), we made copies of the flashcards provided in the book, cut them out, and pasted them into a notebook. Anytime a boy runs into a math fact he just cannot remember, he looks it up in the notebook. (I’ve found that encourages him to think a little more and not just ask Mom for the answer.)
I love, love, love Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables. Personally, I think this is a great tool for homeschools and public schools and private schools and charter schools and magnet schools and—well, I think you get the idea.
Sure, sometimes we still have to review. I also have to sometimes prompt them by saying, “What’s the rhyme?” But we made it through multiplication without any gray hairs.
There goes the “Hallelujah Chorus” again.
Links to research:
For Memorize in Minutes:
www.multiplication.com
For higher level math (I've never used this, but I've heard it's similar to Memorize in Minutes.):
http://lifeoffredmath.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment