Tips for Memorizing Multiplication Facts

By fourth grade, multiplication facts are in many areas of math. Without having the multiplication facts memorized, math soon becomes tedious and frustrational. Below you will find a few tips to help with the memorization of the basic multiplication facts. The key is to make it fun.

• Play license plate math. Take the first two numbers on the license plate in front of you and multiply them.

• Practice flash cards. When a card is mastered, take it out of the deck. Soon you will only be practicing the ones that are hard to memorize.

• Play war with flash cards. The two players flip a card. The card with the highest value wins (be sure you say the answers to the problems). The person with the most cards at the end of a given amount of time wins.

• Underwater fact practice. If you enjoy swimming and are looking for games to play in the pool, this one may be for you. Say a math fact to your child, then both of you go underwater (this is best played with goggles). The student will then show you the answer with his/her fingers. If they are correct, nod yes and you come up for a new fact. If not they keep trying. The goal is to get them all right without having to come up for a breath (please, don't hold them under, no matter how sure you are that they know the fact J).

• Have fun playing games at http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm

• Make a multiplication chart and look for patterns.

• Practice timed multiplication drills as a family. Have a competition to see who can improve the most and beat their high score.

• Go to http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.learn.multiply.html for advice on making math facts fun.

• Go to http://www.gdbdp.com/multiflyer/ to print out extra practice pages.

• Schoolhouse Rocks. If your child is musical and can learn a song after hearing it only a few times, this may be the answer. Play the songs whenever possible and just wait and see how they stick in your head. I still sing "…3, 6, 9 / 12, 15, 18…".