Times Tales: Multiplication Math Facts

I first heard about Times Tales from Jeannie Fulbright, and although I completely trust her recommendations, I wasn't sold on it right away. After all, not every program works for every child, so would this program work for my children? I decided to give it a try, and I'm so glad I did!

Times Tales is a multi-sensory approach to learning the most difficult to memorize times tables:
3x6,3x7,3x8,3x9,4x6,4x7,4x8,4x9,6x6,6x7,6x8,6x9,7x7,7x8,7x9,8x8,8x9,9x9.

My children have totally different learning styles yet this program was effective for both of them. I started using it in the summer of 2010, and I still use the flashcards every week.

Here is an excerpt from the Times Tales website:
"Times Tales is a creative, innovative mnemonic-based program that makes it fun and
easy to memorize the upper multiplication and division facts.  Times Tales uses cute, simple stories to provide students with a "memory peg", allowing them to quickly recall otherwise abstract facts.

Students are introduced to each number as a "character" that makes sense in some way. For example, the number seven is Mrs. Weeks because there are seven days in a week. Once students learn the number characters, they learn short, simple stories where the numbers interact in some way. Students simply picture two number characters together to recall the story, which includes the answer to the multiplication fact. It's amazing how much easier it is for students to recall a simple story, than an abstract fact!..."

I used the big flip chart (not the DVD) to teach my children. I followed the directions in the Teacher's Manual with one exception. Instead of my children saying the two digit answers as two separate numbers such as "3, 6" I had them go ahead and say the number the proper way such as "36."

When I taught Part 1, it took about 45 minutes. As soon as we finished reading and talking about the stories, the children took the Part 1 test. Both of them scored a 100%! We continued to review the stories and take the Part 1 test again every day. Not only were the children successful, but they enjoyed the process.

I waited a month before I taught Part 2 to ensure that the children had definitely memorized Part 1. It took closer to an hour to teach Part 2. I gave them the Part 2 test and again, they both scored 100%! 

At that point, I began to give both the Part 1 and the Part 2 tests, so on Mondays and Wednesdays they took the Part 1 test and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they took the Part 2 test. Somewhere in there we managed to squeeze in the flashcards for additional review. The tests and flashcards were our supplementary math for the entire 2010 - 2011 school year.  

For the 2011 - 2012 school year, we stopped taking the tests and used the flashcards every now and then as review along with traditional flashcards. First, we go through the Times Tales flashcards (which doesn't take very long but provides a good review) and then we go through the traditional flashcards. This school year (2012-2013) we have been using this flashcard method once a week, every Monday. Although both of my children know their math facts, I want them to get faster. I have been noticing lately that they are super fast with their recall.

I'm so proud of how hard they've worked, how far they've come and how much they've accomplished. Over the last couple of months, they have even managed to memorize the 11 and 12 math facts, although I have never pushed them to memorize these. They just did that on their own as we went through the traditional cards that included these facts. So they've exceeded my expectations! Yeah!

These are the traditional Multiplication Flash Cards we use:

I bought our set years ago at Staples, but you can order them online through Hobby Lobby:
Trend Multiplication Flashcards