I taught five of our seven children their times tables without anything more complicated than flash cards and a pile of seashells. One, The Cherub, is profoundly retarded. And for one, who would probably have been diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder, we used "Muliplication Memorizers" by Arthur Bornstein. Bornstein is the author of other 'memory booster programs such as Bornstein's Memory Training Course, How to Improve Your Memory, Train Your Memory the Easy Way, and I do not know anything about them other than I have heard of them.
Personally, I found the cards irritating, distracting, and annoying, but our child loved them and finally made some headway on memorizing her facts.
We bought ours through Dianne Craft, who lives not far from me and spoke at a hsing seminar I went to. She also explained how to make your own using the same ideas, but I've forgotten what she said. I know I didn't have time for it.
You can read more about her here:
http://www.diannecraft.org/
We just "chanted" them when I was at school - it worked well up to 12 but nobody ever ventured to 13!
ReplyDeleteOf course, when the answer is 42 Life, the Universe and Everything has to think again *g*
Of course you know this one:
“Eight eights are eighty one
Multiply by seven.
If it’s more
carry four
and take away eleven.
Nine nines are sixty-four
Multiply by three
When it’s done
carry one
and then it’s time for tea.”
And, oh, the time we spent on "money sums" in the old British
coinage!