Learning things should never be harder then they need to be. These multiplication tricks and hacks will make your kids learning experience much more enjoyable.
Memorizing your times tables can be nerve racking. I don’t really remember multiplication being taught in school, it was mentioned and then it was just like we were supposed to have memorized them.
I moved around to a number of different schools during that time, so I assumed I had just missed the learning part moving from one school to the next.
But now having a daughter in grade three, I’m seeing the same thing. The concept of multiplication was taught and now with the different home work she’s getting, it appears as if she should have them memorized.
I learned a lot from not having had my times table memorized and struggling in early math. First thing I learned is that $100 is the most amazing motivation ever to memorizing your times table. Thank you mom. I memorized those numbers in record time.
Second thing I learned. If you don’t use it you lose it. As soon as I got my $100, I never wanted to look at multiplications again.
Third thing I learned is that there are so many cool math tricks and hacks to memorizing your multiplications that I didn’t find out about till many years later. Thank you very old infomercial: Human Calculator.
The Fastest Way to Learn Multiplication Facts
The first trick is to make learning 144 times tables less daunting. Once you take out the easy ones, 1s, 2s, 5s, 9s, 10s, and 11s, what’s left to memorize doesn’t seem so overwhelming. And to realize you already know so many of your multiplications already is very empowering for kids.
If you are thinking, “Wait, 9s are one of the easy ones?” Scroll down for one of the best multiplication hacks ever.
Multiply by 9 Finger Trick
This has to be the coolest trick. Like how does that work? I love this one.
Best Way to Teach 3s Times Tables
There are of course going to be numbers you need to simply memorize, but I really like this system for learning the 3 times tables.
Always Remember Your Times Table (6 to 10) Using Finger Multiplication
This trick is also pretty crazy, again using your fingers to figure out your 6-10 times tables. I can’t imagine you needing it for the 10s and using the above trick is faster for the 9s. But you have this for 6, 7 and 8s. To use this trick you first need to be comfortable with all the multiplications before 6. So just make sure you have those memorized first.
Then you are ready to press play and be amazed.
Learn 9 Times Multiplication Table
I know we already learned a trick for the 9s times table. But everyone processes numbers differently and this trick might click with some more then others. It is pretty cool pattern to see that takes place with the 9s.
Games for Practicing Multiplication
My favorite multiplication game so far is using two 10 sided dice. Roll the dice and multiply the numbers together.
As I come across any more tricks, games and resources I’ll be sure to add them here. If you have any you’d like to share, I’d love to here about them in the comments below.
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