Comments on: Counting On It

By: WalnutShadeMom

WalnutShadeMom — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:28:38 +0000

Well, rackum frackum. Here’s the natural math site, I hope.

http://www.naturalmath.com/mult/mult1.html

By: WalnutShadeMom

WalnutShadeMom — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:27:39 +0000

oops. The site address didn’t post. trying again…

By: WalnutShadeMom

WalnutShadeMom — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:26:42 +0000

My kids really appreciated this site which explains why you really don’t have to memorize so many of the facts. It was very interesting to all of us and made the whole process seem less overwhelming to them.

So we went through this site, easily learning the 0s, 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s, memorizing the squares, and learning the key for the 9s (product’s tens digit is one less than the number being multiplied by 9; product’s ones digit is 9 minus tens digit). That took care of a whole lot of them!

Then we learned the rest as that site recommends and then drilled them all to death with flash cards.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:25:19 +0000

“I envisioned trips to the park with my children in tow to be relaxing moments of respite. While I sat on a park bench, surrounded by trees and flowers, and my children explored the wonders of the playground equipment”. Hahaha! Were we really that delusional???

By: Kristen

Kristen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:15:58 +0000

Interesting ideas here, I’m going to have to store them away. My eldest (now seven) has been working on her multiplication (off and on) for several months now, purely out of interest on her part (none on mine, I assure you)…

Anyway, one thing that we’ve done for both homework and multiplication is use marshmallows for incentive.

She gets one marshmallow for every homework problem that is NOT ONLY correct, but also properly written in legible English. I’m not above sugar-coated candy bribery when it comes to schoolwork. :O) And we’ve done some of the 2′s, 3′s and 4′s of multiplication with marshmallows, arranging and re-arranging them…

You could also use raisins or raisinets, or jelly beans, or even just regular beans, if you don’t want them to have the sugar. I always think visualization helps, but knowing your daughter’s learning style should help you narrow down what methods you try.

Good luck! :O)

By: Mrs. Bick

Mrs. Bick — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:03:58 +0000

When I taught, money was always tight for fancy supplies. But I always had an abundance of paper clips. And I used those as manipulatives to teach multiplication. Because the clips can be individual, or can be linked up to create groups. Say you need a group of 6, you get 6 paperclips and link them into a chain. Then you create the number of groups you need for the problem. Voila! And the beauty always was that I never NEVER stressed out about losing my manipulatives…because they were paperclips!

By: Sandra in Phx

Sandra in Phx — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:24:32 +0000

Math U See has been a life saver for us!!

By: Heidie

Heidie — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:18:05 +0000

Oh, oh, me! Pick me! We memorized the skip counting to songs we know- and I have even been known to “cheat” and sing them in my head…2′s and 5′s we went by rote but 3′s are set to Jingle bells, 4′s to a song I doubt anyone else knows-sorry, The wheels on the bus for 6′s, 8′s to Eidelweiss(Julie Andrews would be SO proud!) and 9′s to Away in a Manger- sorry that the 4′s and 7′s are songs I doubt anyone knows. The were on a kid’s kareoke thing we have- write out the no’s in sequence and see which fav. tune pops into your mind- after coffee, of course!

By: Dawn Gibson

Dawn Gibson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:57:17 +0000

I have tons of tricks up my sleeve–as a former elem. school teacher, now home school mom….. If your child is an auditory learner/kinesthetic learner the Rock and Learn CD’s are fun. My students liked to move and the times tables are set to a rap beat. (actually a bunch of rodents singing–whatever….)
Visual learners liked the big numbers chart we had. (the kind that actually have the numbers that one slides into the number chart pockets.) It allowed them to see the patterns that are created when multiplying numbers. Also I used Unix cubes to give a concrete example that multiplication is really just “fast adding”. Once we got that concept it went more quickly. Some kiddos liked to time themselves with flashcards/computer games and then try to beat their fastest time in getting a set of times tables “done”.
All in all just remember multiplication tables are all about memorization–the more practice the more likely one is to remember.
Woo hoo!! Teaching is fun. Right? Right???? RIGHT???!!!!!

By: Renae

Renae — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:20:40 +0000

I’ve been looking at Times Tales to solve
that problem here too.
The sample is good, they use picture
stories to learn the facts.
I’ve heard bribery might work too.