Question: My child cannot get his nine times tables down for the life of him. He needs to pass this last test and he is so hung up on this series that he has just freezes when the test comes. This cannot be unheard of with all of the pressure we place on kids to memorize things. We are almost to June and he wants to do this before school is out. How do you help a child give up a giant monkey he has placed on his back?
Answer:
Children often enjoy learning the secrets behind numbers and your son needs to relax a little and have some fun. Here are some fun tricks you can do with him:
First, have him make two columns of numbers right next to each other. Now have him write the numbers from 0-9 going down one column. In the adjoining column, have him write the numbers descending from 9-0 (making sure the two columns line up together). When he looks at the two columns now, he is looking at all of the answers in order to the nine times tables. Pretty cool, right? Now have him look at each of the answers in rows. Each row is not only an answer to the multiplication problem, each number in each row adds up to nine. 0+9=9, 1+8=9, 2+7=9, 3+6=9, etc. There is another fallback. Whenever you have a number multiplied by nine, the answer begins with one less than the number being multiplied. For instance, 9x5 will begin with 4 (45) and 9x6 will begin with 5 (54). Once the kids see this and then remember that each digit in the answer will add up to nine and can be found in the ascending and descending columns, it seems to fall into place.
Even if this sounds complicated in print, it is not difficult in practice. When I taught second and third grades I began with the 0 multiplication tables, then the 1’s, then the 9’s because they are fun and the students feel so accomplished in memorizing and understanding what is to them a large number for multiplication purposes. He’s done a lot of work in passing all of the other numbers, and nine is full of some of the fun and thinking that he will enjoy after all that rote memorization.
3 comments:
Why does learning multiplication facts have to be drudgery--a chore to be done before "play". Why not turn it into "play" instead and make learning fun?
Parents can carry a deck of cards (remove all of the J, Q, K and the A). Split the deck in half and play Multiplication War.
Cards too bulky? Get a pair of 10-sided dice at your local hobby store and keep score on a piece of paper.
Has anyone taught this parent and child the easy way to do multiplication of 9's by using their fingers?
Most of these ideas do require parental involvement, but you will laugh and enjoy your child while also reaching the learning goal.
Special programs have been developed for the learning disabled, and
I've seen them work. They use dots on various parts of each number and reached children who struggle using traditional methods.
Why should anyone "say" their times tables? We use them in written form, and they occur randomly, not in order.
I taught in Cypress for 38 wonderful years. I believe it is important for children to think of learning as fun, rather than a chore to be done. We all need to be life-long learners.
Brilliant! These are the kind of fun activities that will get kids engaged. Thanks.
Another one is to use both hands spread out in front of you (thumbs towards each other). Turn under the digit (finger/thumb) that corresponds to whatever number you are trying to multiply by 9. [i.e. turn under your pinky on the left hand if you want to multiply 9 x 1; turn under your ring finger on the left hand if you want to multiply 9 x 2; etc]
READ the answer by telling your child to count any digits to the left of the turned down digit as TENS and any digits to the right of the turned down digit as ONES.
Amy Palm
- 4th grade Math/Science
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