Throughout the ages teachers and parents have been drilling their kids with flash cards, making up songs, poems, and even stories to help kids remember the times tables.
The problem is that the numbers by themselves hold no meaning or context so it is next to impossible to remember random number pairs and the answers for some kids. Especially those who think out of the box might have a lot of trouble with rote memorization. These kids need some clues or some picture and stories to put the numbers into a context. This makes the fact easy to remember. Back in 1992 we were teaching students math at our learning center and couldn’t move ahead because the kids did not know the basic facts. How do you do a problem when you can’t remember what the basic facts are? Lack of these tools makes math miserable. No wonder some kids hate math. If they had the tools, its like a puzzle, like a game, and math suddenly becomes easy and fun.
Here are some samples from the book Times Tables the Fun Way which show how you can teach the times tables in a way that sticks and lasts forever. Kids beg for math class when they are learning the stories. The online program, Online Times Alive, animates the stories and gives music videos for kids to tap along and rock to the tunes. It is so much fun.
Bart Goes Hang Gliding Teaches 4×4
Before City Creek Press, we owned a hang gliding school. It was called Wasatch Wings and was located at the Point of the Mountain near Salt Lake City Utah. We owned the school for fourteen years and as we got older, it became hard to run up and down the hill. Winters were slow because not many wanted to learn to fly in the frigid snowy months. So, we sold our hang gliding school and bought a Sylvan Learning Center in Bountiful, Utah. This was certainly a different kind of school but we were trained by the franchise and soon had a bustling business with certified teachers and kids coming to us for help in math after school. This is when we realized there needed to be a better way to teach times tables. Students couldn’t progress in math without these important skills. The first story we invented was about the 8×8 snowmen. When we tried it on the kids, we were amazed they knew the answer when they came back to class the next week. We knew we were on to something. Each saturday we would sit down and think up a story for each times table fact, then we gave the story to the artist. In about three months, we had the book finished. Times Tables the Fun Way has been a best seller since 1992.
Twins Cross the Desert Teaches 6×6
The next story we came up with was the story for 6×6. We thought now what sounds like 36. Of course, it was thirsty six so then the story was created to put the two sixes in a place they would be very thirsty. Of course! the desert. My favorite song in Times Alive is for the thirsty sixes. “It hot, it was dry, they needed some water and the big bright sun was getting hotter and hotter. “See the tune here on our youtube video with 118,000 views
A Birthday on a Ship Teaches 6×8
This story probably originated from a year and a half back pack trip we took to the tropics in 1972. Sissy the Eight just likes to eat bananas and fish but is so delighted when she gets a birthday cake. I don’t think she ever saw such a thing until the captain invited her aboard his ship.
All of these stories and more are found in the award winning book Times Tables the Fun Way.
You can get the book on Amazon
Or get it on our SHOP page
Stories and pictures teach all the 0s-9s
And if you want to learn the stories and songs with an interactive animated program that keeps track of student progress, try ONLINE TIMES ALIVE
Another best seller is our Times Tables the Fun Way Teachers Kit. It has everything you need to teach a class.
Or get it on our SHOP page.
Leave A Comment