![]() Have you ever wondered why children can learn the lyrics to songs so easily? It is because music can be used as a Mnemonic device, that is a strategy to assist with memorization. ![]() Teach children to skip count to the tune of a simple song. That still leaves the problem of memorizing a string of numbers, and here’s where the magic is. You simply skip count 7’s, 4 times, 7, 14, 21, 28. Say the teacher asks you to multiply 4 x 7 = _. Using this method you can do single digit multiplication with ease. For example, if I was to skip count by 7 I would count, 7, 14, 21… and so on. Skip counting is counting at intervals of whichever number you choose. She ate up every word that man said, so when he taught her to skip count to some familiar tunes she came home singing her math just for fun. It helped that he was male, and my 8-year-old daughter had a major crush on him. By the time they get to the 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s they’ve decided that multiplication is way too hard, and math isn’t their thing.įortunately for me, a wonderful 3rd grade teacher gave us the solution. Then there is a serious slow down as kids hit the 3’s, 4’s, and 6’s. These tables have an obvious pattern and are much easier to learn. I have seen a lot of kids quickly pass off their 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Multiplication tables are strings of seemingly random numbers that our children are expected to not only remember, but keep in order and in context with the numbers they are multiplying by. ![]() What it is about memorizing multiplication tables that make my kids throw their pencil across the room and shout, “I hate math?” It is because, unlike spelling or vocabulary, numbers don’t create pictures for us. That being said, the Mount Everest of elementary school memorization at our house, is multiplication tables. Then, as they get older, they work into vocabulary and poetry. We get the obvious sight words and spelling lists. Photo Courtesy of Poppies & Posies Photography, Lehi UTĮach week, three of my children bring home something from school that they are to memorize by Friday.
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