From: Susan Paul
To: Teacher2Teacher Service
Date: May 07, 1998 at 17:26:33
Subject: Learning multiplication tables

I am not a teacher by profession, but having a child in grade four and trying
to teach him ways to memorize his multiplication tables is proving difficult.
It takes him longer than most of his peers to grasp most mathematical
problems and memorizing times tables is very difficult for him.

His teacher has them do timed multiplication graphs but he is just adding,
not learning the answers - such as in the row where he has to go from 6 x 1
through to 6 x 12, where he is just adding 6 onto each answer, so when asked
what is 6 x 6 for example he wouldn't have a clue.

My question therefore, is: is there a tried and tested "best" way of learning
multiplication?