How to Practice Times Tables

Teaching a child how to work his way through a set of multiplication tables is a skill that he can use for the rest of his life. Memorizing multiplication tables makes for quick and easy calculations of prices and figures used in everyday life. Websites, worksheets and resources make it fun and easy for parents and educators to help children become pros at multiplication, or times, tables.

Instructions

1

Use pictures, rhyme and stories to engage visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning modes. Try first associating a picture with each number to help visual learners. For example, draw a "2" inside of a shoe or a "3" inside of a tree to help visual and auditory learners remember and associate "2" with "shoe" and "3" with "tree." Do this with numbers 2 through 9.

2

Help children make connections between times-table numbers with stories that involve rhyming. For example, draw two trees side by side with a line connecting them. Place a "3" inside of each tree and draw a T-shirt on the line. Beneath the drawing, write "3x3=9." Beneath that on the next line write "Tree x Tree = Line." Then, tell the child a story that involves the objects and numbers. For example, talk about a basketball player who wore a number 9 jersey. Tell the child that after the game, he had to wash his jersey and hang it on a line between two trees to dry.

3

Create picture-word associations and corresponding stories for every number and every number within a multiplication table or purchase a complete curriculum which does this for you. Work your way through all the multiplication tables, one at a time. Start with 2x1 and move your way through 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 2x5 and so on all the way through 2x9. Move on to threes next.

4

Start with the twos and work on every number in the twos table every day for four days. On the last day of the week, introduce the child to the threes. Work on the threes for the first four days of the following week and use the fifth day to review the twos. The following week, work on the fours for the first four days and review the twos and threes on the fifth day. Repeat this pattern, working your way through all of the times tables. Spend every day of the final week reviewing two tables each day the first four days and all of the tables on the fifth day.