About City Creek Press

In 1992, while operating the Sylvan Learning Center in Bountiful, Utah, Judy Liautaud was determined to discover the best ways to learn times tables in an effort to help students remember the facts so they could move ahead in math lessons.

Judy and her business partner, Dave,  researched creative ways to teach times tables and came up with the famous picture and story method. At the time, it was unlike any other type of teaching material that existed. It connected visual images, stories, and songs to mundane number facts to make learning fun and memorable. After flashing cards at students until she was blue in the face, Judy taught the story of the 8 snowmen. During the next math lesson, the student remembered the answer. Other teachers at the center were delighted when they received the same results. Finally the kids could remember the math facts. Now the teachers at the center could move ahead with math lessons.

Today, City Creek Press offers 20 original products that serve one purpose—to make learning fun and effective. City Creek Press will continue to provide solutions to educators dedicated to helping their students achieve academic success through a love of learning. Times Alive was designed with these objectives in mind and continues to be a popular choice for teachers and parents. The movies, stories, and songs in Online Times Alive and the app teaches all the times tables 0s-9s. It is available for Macs and PCs, iPads, iPhones, and android devices. City Creek Press is a best seller in childrens math books in the Amazon Store.

Judy Liautaud

Helping Students Learn

Times Alive sample

These exciting results led us to create our first publication, Times Tables the Fun Way, in 1992. Our second book, Addition the Fun Way, soon followed, and also became popular with teachers and students during math teaching.

Eventually we developed a series of math books that kept learning math fresh and engaging. Our lessons are made up of lively cartoons, songs, books, audiobooks, workbooks, clue cards, posters, and digital downloads.

All of the City Creek Press resources are created with the proven method that we developed years ago. Studies showed that by using the picture and story method, retention of math facts is increased by 95% for students ages six and older. The City Creek Press method has also been proven to be especially effective for kids with dyslexia, kids with ADHD, and other learning differences.

By developing fun and engaging teaching materials, City Creek Press has increased the desire for learning in our kids. Our goal has remained the same since we created our first math book in 1992—provide all students a way to succeed in math so they can develop confidence and feel more capable and smarter overall.

The Research

The Research Behind the Times Tables the Fun Way Method

Times Tables the Fun Way is Research-Based*

A study involving 756 students, 18 schools, and 36 teachers showed that post-test scores were significantly higher for the Times Tables the Fun Way group.  Each school was assigned an experimental third grade class in which students learned the multiplication facts with the aid of the pictures and stories presented in this book.  At the same time, the control class learned the facts conventionally  with repetition and timed tests.  The pre-test scores of both groups were not significantly different, however, the post-test scores were up to 24% higher in the picture and story group.  Also noteworthy was the degree of change or improvement from pre-test to post-test score.  Results showed up to 59% more improvement with the Times Tables the Fun Way program.

This widely scoped Utah study involved 11 counties, parochial and public schools, as well as resource and advanced learning programs.  “The positive effect was consistent across schools.  In other words, the Times Tables the Fun Way group showed superior performance over conventional methods, regardless of which school a student attended.”*

*DATA VALIDATION: Using analyses of variance, (ANOVA), results showed that the pre-test scores were not significantly different, F(1,754), p,<605, suggesting that the students in the respective groups began the program at near-equal levels. The post-test results, however, did show a significant difference. Classrooms showed as much as 24% higher comparative scores F(1,754) p < .001m and individual scores showed as much as a 59% improvement F(1,754) p<.008. Campbell Study, Student Research Analysis, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

See the Impact

Math The Fun Way has had on learning

I have been an undying fan of your books and have used them extensively over my career first as a teacher and then a principal, I am proud to say that literally hundreds of students who struggled with memorizing their facts have found great success using your method, especially many Special Needs students for many of them can relate to the visuals.

Denise Kuhna, Hagerstown, MD

Judy, you don’t know me, but you have helped me in a clearly miraculous way to lessen the struggle of learning that has plagued my entire life. Specifically about math. I am 22 years old and still remember the stories and times tables I learned from your book in third grade.

Lee Decker, New York, NY

I have a class of 8 Guatemalan 3rd graders who were really. They bombed the pre test. We used your program on iPads. Today four of them were given certificates for scoring 100% on the post test. The rest of the group decided to work hard because they wanted to make 100% also. To accomplish this with these students is one of the best things to happen my life.

Larry L. Beachy, Florida

I seriously love this book. I taught 2 kids their times tables without it (painful process), then I discovered this on my third time around with kiddos #3. She’s actually looks forward to math and LOVES the silly stories. They really stick in her head! So thankful!

J. Momma