Recently, I cornered one of our English specialists and one of our Maths specialist and asked them, "What is one thing someone taught you that made a difference?" I thought I would share their responses. I hope it makes a difference for you like it did for them!
If you want to commit multiplication facts to memory, it is worth taking time to look at some ways to make information easier to remember.
This game is based on noughts and crosses, but can be played by 2 or 3 players. Instead of a blank 3 by 3 grid, draw up a grid of 6 by 6 squares and write into them (in a random order) the numbers: 70, 110, 130, 140, 160, 190, 210, 220, 260, 290, 300, 320, 370, 380, 420, 460, 470, 480, 530, 560, 610, 660, 680, 700, 750, 820, 830, 850, 940, 970, 1050, 1110 and 1250.
The common errors children make are mixing up the answers 63 and 64, and 56 and 54. If your child has a tendency to confuse the answers to 7x9 and 8x8 or 7x8 and 6x9, you can sometimes help them sort it out by working from the answer back to the factors.
Some of you may find the pattern of the 4x table that I’m about to highlight so obvious that you wonder why I’m writing about it. Others will say “Wow I never noticed that” and the rest will probably think “But how could that help?”
