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Opinion
Julie McGuire
Julie McGuire

Learning to go forth and multiply

You are certainly not the first parent to have frustrations trying to help their child learn their tables. It can be particularly tricky if your child has the sort of brain that does not easily retain information or facts, even after repeated practice.

Unfortunately for her, there is no quick fix.

Although education has changed a great deal, the memorisation of multiplication tables has always remained a vital part of the curriculum, and there is good reason for this. When the recall becomes automatic, it speeds up a child's mental and written maths enormously and takes away the stress of having to think before applying the results to solving problems.

Multiplication tables are one of those things that need practising and reinforcing over and over again. The key to success is little and often. Encourage your daughter to practise for five or 10 minutes a day. You can always find creative ways of doing this. For example, if your daughter is a visual learner, there are colourful posters available. Keep the answers covered with strips of paper and get her to time herself when practising. If she's stronger on the auditory side, there are some great CDs that set the number facts to music or easy-to-remember songs.

She could colour in number squares and look at number patterns, and also show each table as an array. If you're doing a short journey by car or public transport, test her on the way. To do this effectively, vary your methodology. First, test the facts in their numerical order and then mix things up, because the idea is that she can recall each one quickly and separately as well as recognising and remembering the pattern.

Also, ask her simple multiplication problems to get her used to applying her knowledge. For example: six horses, how many legs? Nine dogs, how many ears? Vary the practises and make it fun.

It is not just important for children to know tables, but also to understand the concept of multiplication as well as the related concepts, especially division. For example, if four times six equals 24, that means 24 divided by six equals four, and 24 divided by four equals six. Repeated addition is another important multiplication concept: four times six is the same as six + six + six + six. Ask your daughter to show her understanding of how multiplication works using figures, words or diagrams or any combination of these.

The bottom line is that knowing the tables is extremely helpful to her, but ultimately useless unless she understands the fundamentals of what lies behind them.

These days, education tends to focus less on rote learning. The focus is on acquiring skills and engaging in critical thinking rather than simply learning facts. Therefore, many children find repetitive tasks like learning their tables relatively boring as they're used to a more stimulating learning process.

Of course, it's crucial that students such as your daughter are able to apply their maths knowledge to work out real-life situations. Talk to your daughter about the reasons for learning her tables. This may help her to be more persistent and determined even when she's finding it difficult.

Julie McGuire teaches at a local primary school

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Learning to go forth and multiply
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