Times Tables the Fun Way Book for Kids: A Picture and Story Method of Learning Multiplication

Background: My son is nine. He's in the third grade at our local academic magnet school into which he test in kindergarten. He was a micro-preemie and suffers with all of the attention span problems inherent from that--in addition to having an extremely ADHD father and a mother who has trouble completing her own projects. He is also completely verbal and literal in his learning methods. He never misses a spelling word after the second study session--even the really tough ones they add in just to challenge them. Reading? He picked that up in two months the summer he was four. Math? Not. A. Chance. Then: We tried learning multiplication the old-fashioned way: drill. practice. play games on the internet. (Well, that's not so old-fashioned. But it's still repetition.) 0s, 1s, 2s, and 5s were pretty easy. 9s were doable because there was an easy question and a pattern. Then along came the 3s. We drilled in different locations. While jumping up and down. While standing on one leg. We wrote. We hollered. We cried. I actually said, at one point, "if you can remember that c-a-t spells 'cat,' why can't you remember that 3x4 is 12?!!! You're smarter than this." Thank God I vented on Facebook and a friend from high school who teaches gifted kids told me about this book. I ordered it that night and asked for one-day shipping. Now: Xander aced the test on 3s (100 problems in five minutes) BECAUSE of this book. We had only two days of studying for the 3s using these stories and pictures, but because he now had a visual--pictures, words, a funny story--he had his own cues for answering the problems when he paused instead of trying to access the foreign-language-that-is-math. He has passed every other test (4s, 6s, 7s, 8s) without any trouble. There has been NO strife in our home over math since I ordered this book. I WISH I'D HAD IT WHEN I WAS IN 4TH GRADE learning my own multiplication tables. Perhaps I'd have remember that 7x8 is 56 because 8 is a trampoline and 7 is leaping onto his 5 diving board to dive into his 6 pool. Extras we added: I read the story out loud to Xander while he reads along. He reads the summary below the picture out loud. He traces the numbers in the picture silently. Then he traces the numbers in the picture while saying the problem out loud. Uh. May. Zing. difference. His teachers are glowing in their praise and impressed with the difference in my child. I wish I'd known that there was an Addition book back in first grade. He still uses his fingers for addition, but I bought that book and am hopeful that it will have the same kind of success that the multiplication book has had. He likes to read it at night before bed. Not because I make him. What????? We also own the Story Problems book, but we haven't worked any problems in it yet. He's just reading the stories in it--because he wants to--right now.

I've now done this book with 3 kids (a boy and 2 girls), and it's so easy and, yes, FUN. One girl was here visiting and picked it up because of the colorful cover and asked me to go through the book with her. She's a 5th-grade ESL student struggling in math. She was blown away at how easy this was and surprised herself at how well it helped her remember her facts. Even my 5yodd (who is also attracted to the colorful pictures and stories) remembers some of the facts. All the pages are sturdy un-bendable, water-resistant extremely heavy cardstock. It comes as a spiral-bound book so that you can bend it back and show the big picture (trigger) on one page while you read the (short) story to them from the facing page. Each section has a little memory review and there is a pre/post test at the end to measure your progress. Also, as I stated before, the book is very colorful and fun to look at, so kids can't help picking it up and flipping through it. The student book is really the only thing you need (there are other bells and whistles, but they're not neccessary) and well worth the price. Kids can read through this on their own and at their own pace. Whether they're learning all the facts from the beginning or brushing up on just a few that they just cannot seem to remember, this book can do it. A table of contents at the beginning tell them exactly what page to turn to to learn which fact. It is SSOOOO important that kids learn their facts cold before going into higher maths. Standardized tests are timed and they cannot get bogged down and side-tracked with what the answer to 7x8 is. I wish something like this was available when I was a kid. BTW, for more really great (easy) trigger memory systems (not by this author) check out " Yo, Sacramento! (And All Those Other State Capitals You Don't Know): Memorize Them All (Forever) in 20 Minutes Without Trying " and " Yo, Millard Fillmore! (And All Those Other Presidents You Don't Know) " by Will Cleveland and Mark Alvarez. My 10yo learned all the States/Capitals and all Presidents/# effortlessly and in only 40min (total) per book.

My wife homeschooled our 3 children through elementary school over 14 years. When our oldest son was so frustrated with not remembering his times tables despite flash cards and other math games, my wife was shown this book. She reviewed the stories on a daily basis instead of reviewing flash cards. He was able to memorize his times tables consistently and enjoyed the stories. He even drew his own stories for the fives. When it was time to teach our daughters their times tables, she used the book with them and they enjoyed it too. They each had different learning styles. The book can be used by parents with students in any school setting to help practice times tables. My wife still suggest this book to other parents with children learning times tables. To address the one start reviews: any learning by elementary school students needs a certain amount of repetition and breaking the material down in manageable sized pieces. The material should still be presented a few stories at a time with time to practice in between. The visual pictures and auditory stories decrease the amount of repetition needed to master the skill and engages multiple learning styles. The pictures and stories make the repetition more fun and the students can gauge that they are making progress and not dread math. It was exactly what our frustrated math learner needed and prevented the same frustration for our other learners who followed.

Its worth a buy if your child is afraid of times table. This will create interest in learning times tables. I got it for my second grader, but my kindergarten son also loves to read the stories. He shows off now with atleast 10-12 multiplication he has learned. Now he is eager to learn all times table and is not afraid of learning tables. He really learned multiplication by 0 and 1. When someone asked him 0 times 1, even though it may be tricky for a 5 year old, he answered confidently. As for my second grader, she learned good deal from it as well. Especially the ones she would always forget, we read the story again and again and she remembered the hard ones. The stories are only for 3, 4, 6, 7, 8. For 0, 1, 2, 5, 9 it gives you the concept. Like anything times 2 is when you add the number to itself. Kids learn that well. To make her learn all the tables, this book is not enough. They may not remember all stories or will not read it many times to remember. Buy some flash cards for multiplication (containing 0-12 times). That will give your child the practice and remember random ways. This book is definitely expensive but a worth buy anyway if your kid is afraid of times table. Its good specially for younger kids who are not under the pressure to learn it right away but generates interest and curiosity. Good for older kids who are struggling with times table and are under pressure since all their friends know it. Definitley add flash cards and have them review it everyday for a week.

My daughter was struggling a little with addition facts & then was totally lost when her class moved on to multiplication. Her frustration resulted in frequent shut downs & tantrums. My husband would work with her every day after school for more than an hour, reteaching the basic concepts just to get through the homework. I panic-bought this book. Each night, right before bedtime reading, we go through 2-3 of these stories. Some are so crazy and make no logical sense, YET... she remembers them! I quiz her randomly throughout the day and she just rattles the answers off. My husband said to "make sure you write a review, because this book is amazing!" Homework now never takes more than 30 mins. Her teacher wrote me an email saying, "whatever work you guys are doing at home is working. She is lucky to have such overwhelming support at home." We are only half way through the book. I also purchased the addition one, so we can go back and solidify those facts as well. Make math crazy and nonsensical. I do not understand why this book works but it does. And there is little work you as the parent need to do. It's honestly, the craziest thing I've ever seen.

There is no need to think twice about buying this book. It is a must have for ALL children. I struggled with learning my times tables as a child (and still can't remember some of them part of the time). IF only this book would have been written back then! I bought it for my 10 year old who is still very slow with his multiplication (relies on skip counting too much). The stories are so interesting and the cartoons are so cool that I can't even keep my five year old away from it! My 10 year old already has the few that we've gone over stuck in his mind. I know the price seems high, but it is so worth it! The book is made EXTREMELY nice and durable. It is spiral bound and the pages are heavy duty with a slick finish. It will last through many children. I actually have gone ahead and ordered the addition one for my 5 year old since he loved the multiplication one (and needs to learn addition first). Another GREAT book based on this same type of visual and associational learning (that's lots of fun) is Vocabulary Cartoons. They have one for elementary and one for high school. My 10 year old has learned tons of new vocabulary words through this book also. :-)

We bought this book a little over a month ago. I was really impressed at how quickly my son was learning his times facts. He can associate the stories in the book to the times facts w/ answers fairly quickly. After we had gone through all the stories, I made up a worksheet with just the title of each story (15 stories total)and had him handwrite the times facts and the answers. He did this wonderfully! I was jumping for joy. HOWEVER, (the reason for the 3 stars), when my son was given just the times fact (no story), for example, 7x6 on a flash card, a blank sheet of paper, or orally he could not associate the times fact to the story! But if I did it the other way around (if I gave him the story first) he was able to recall the times fact and the answer, no fail! This was so frustrating! When given just the 7x6 etc, he acts like he's never seen those numbers before. This was unexpected. Now, I am trying to come up w/ new ways to help him. But at the same time trying to incorporate what he's learned so far in some other way. UPDATE: After 1 year of using...My kids do very well when they see the flashcards. They can say the answer quickly, but the problem comes when they don't see the flashcards. When they have to do the math on a worksheet, they hesitate and have to stop and think, "Is this one of my stories?". It really slows them down. I would really recommend going old school and do rote memorization (gasp!). Once memorized, recall is faster. That's how I was taught.

I am still slightly shell shocked that this book is working so well. At first glance, it looks like a convoluted and overcomplicated way to learn math facts, but my child's instant improvement says that it's exactly what some kids need. My child has a diagnosed rote memory issue. For him, remembering information that has no meaningful context to him (like math facts) is extremely challenging. He can discuss things like historical timelines and physics with you in great detail, but struggles to recall our zipcode. He also has a processing speed issue so combine those 2 challenges and things like timed math fact tests are a disaster. This book combines a story and visual image for the math facts and that provides a meaningul context in his brain and he remembers the fact. It would never be the way I would learn or memorize something, but it is working for him and I'm still slightly awestruck. If your child is having trouble with fact recall, I highly recommend this series. Everyone's brain works and processes information differently and this alternative teaching method is just what some kids need!

Love this! A practical and fun way to teach times tables! I only wish I had o had this as a child! Would have saved me so much time in detention for not knowing them!

Great book for teaching kids times-tables! I had this book when I was a kid and 15 years later I still remember the stories associated with each set of times tables! Haha. This book is great for kids who aren’t interested in math, it helps them remember the tables, gives them confidence and makes math fun! It will change their relationship with math early on before they get to the hard stuff. If they “hate math” they won’t have an open mind to learn.

Muy agradecida con la existencia de este libro. Realmente mi hija de 8 años pudo aprender las tablas de multiplicar de manera divertida y casi por si sola. Ha sido un milagro este libro para nosotros, pues ella estudia en un colegio bilingüe y las multiplicaciones se les hacia casi de terror. EN cuanto al envío fue más rápido de lo que pensamos y llego todo en excelentes condiciones. Recomiendo tambien comprar el libro de actividades. Parecen ambos libros a primera vista "infantiles" pero hay ciencia detras y FUNCIONA. Es ideal para niños que gustan de leer historias y dibujar y crear.... Con que todas las noches le lean a manera de cuento tan solo una historia de alguna multiplicacion, creanme que se notaran los avances. Doy como máximo como un mes conjuntamente con el libro de actividades y sus hijos aprenderas las tablas sin problemas y los padres sin estres.

Fun way to learn all ages

I love reading this book. Maths made interesting move in this book. A great way to learn tables. Nice demonstration with pictures and stories. Even if you know tables this is a worth reading to develop an insight that how things can be made interesting. Definitely recommend.