How to Teach Multiplication Facts

I have two children who are home schooled. One of the trials I have encountered since beginning to teach them is dealing with subjects that I personally didn't do so well with myself when I was in school. Math was and is my worst subject. I am still terrible with numbers, if there's no calculator available don't even ask me to figure out anything that doesn't have a 5 or a 10 in it.

So when the time came to teach my children multiplication I could clearly remember sitting at the dinner table miserably being quizzed by my father when I was small, and the tedious monotony of memorizing each of the facts from 1 time 1 all the way up to 12 times 12. I dreaded going through this experience with my children.So to prepare I sat down and wrote up all of the little tricks I could think of pertaining to multiplication, I also printed out a multiplication table and thought that I had it under control.

Teaching them the basic premise of multiplication and explaining how it works was easy, telling them the tricks and showing them how to find the answers on the table was also pretty easy. The hard part came when I took away the table and started asking them the basic facts, starting with ones- okay ones they did great on, same thing for twos, once we hit the threes the frustration was mounting. I quizzed, they thought and counted fingers and toes, and they couldn't remember the answers. ARRGH!

I finally decided there had to be some way to help them memorize their multiplication facts without causing all of us to suffer horrendous headaches. So I began sifting through all the home schooling websites and links that I had at my disposal to see if I could find any sites that would help.

Lo and behold the absolute best multiplication website to help children learn their times tables/multiplication facts is located at www.multiplication.com this site has literally saved my sanity.

It features games of all levels from beginner to advanced, including pet stores, racing games, fishing games, jungle games etc. The games all offer the level choice as well as the choice of which numbers will be included. From 1 through 12 with three levels on each game, and more then 10 games to choose from the boys had no problem with boredom, while using the repetitive thought required for memorizing facts.

By spending one hour a day on this site, playing the various games my kids were ready to take a quiz on the multiplication facts from 1-6 in about a week. The next week we concentrated on the higher numbers while also reviewing the previous numbers so they didn't forget. Within 3 weeks they had their multiplication facts down cold. This was a much better solution than the dinnertime ordeal I had to go through when I was learning my multiplication facts.

Technology is wonderful! This is a great website for all children who are facing the challenge of multiplication, whether they are home schooled or go to a public or private school.