Hacks for times tables?

[MBVitoria]

Not sure where best to place this.

Eldest (8) is struggling with learning her times tables - any tips?

So far we're just reciting them time and time again.

We've come up with a little song / rhythm for 3 and 6 and that seems to be helping. Youtube seems to be full of times tables songs that frankly seem to be confusing!

[breamster]

Have you seen https://ttrockstars.com/

[anonymous-user]

Another vote for TT rockstars here too. Been used at our eldest's school for a few years now.

[thebraketester]

9 is an easy one. The sum of the digits always equals 9.

Also it’s psychologically helpful to know that 2x7 is 7x2…. 4x8 is 8x4.

[toasty]

Being helpful, anything times 5 will end in 5 or 0.


But....

If anything x 0 = 0 and anything x infinity = infinity.

What's 0 x infinity?

[jjones]

9 times is easy if you show them the fingers method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIeFV4oMp4&ab...

[MBVitoria]

jjones said:

9 times is easy if you show them the fingers method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEIeFV4oMp4&ab...

Ace, that's exactly the sort of thing I'm after.

Cheers to the others for the website above will take a look too.

[JuniorD]

thebraketester said:

9 is an easy one. The sum of the digits always equals 9.

[dundarach]

breamster said:

Have you seen https://ttrockstars.com/

Another vote

[Tango13]

thebraketester said:

9 is an easy one. The sum of the digits always equals 9.

Also it’s psychologically helpful to know that 2x7 is 7x2…. 4x8 is 8x4.

That's similar to a good hack for finding the common denominator when working with fractions.

[LunarOne]

I struggled to learn my times table by rote at school (my memory just doesn't work that way) and I've still never learnt it. In fact I found it far easier to just learn a few easy ones and then do mental arithmetic to get to the number I need. And I work in IT where I have to deal with numbers all the time.

so 7x6? No idea, but I know 6x6=36. Then add 7.

So in my head, the whole process is:
7x6? Err...
6x6=36
+6 = +4+2
36+4=40
40+2=42

For 7x9, I just go:
7x10=70
70-7=63

Might sound weird, but I find it easier to just do the maths than to remember my times table!

[ARHarh]

For 7 x 6 I would do 3 x 7 = 21 then 21 x 2 = 42. As 7 x 3 seems easy in my head. So devide them up to smaller numbers.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Tango13 said:

thebraketester said:

9 is an easy one. The sum of the digits always equals 9.

Also it’s psychologically helpful to know that 2x7 is 7x2…. 4x8 is 8x4.

That's similar to a good hack for finding the common denominator when working with fractions.

It's good for percentages too. If someone asks you for 8.6% of 50 you might struggle. But it's the same as 50% of 8.6, so 4.3 comes to mind almost instantly.

[Dingu]

toasty said:

But....

If anything x 0 = 0 and anything x infinity = infinity.

What's 0 x infinity?

Boringly, I’m afraid it’s undefined.

[deckster]

Dingu said:

toasty said:

But....

If anything x 0 = 0 and anything x infinity = infinity.

What's 0 x infinity?

Boringly, I’m afraid it’s undefined.

More specifically, you can't multiply anything by infinity as it's a concept and not a number.