Just Like That, She's Multiplying

So Pepper, who cried all morning (and for the last 3 months, for that matter) showed her multiplication pictures to her dad.  And because explaining something to someone else is the surest way to know it yourself, she now KNOWS all the facts for which we drew pictures.

From the kitchen, where they are rolling truffles, she calls to me, "Mom?  What's 8 x 8?"

"You know that one!"

"Oh, 64!  I made 66 mint truffles!"

And she's cracking up because I caught her KNOWING her multiplication facts.

Just like that, she's multiplying AND using it in real life.

Conquering Multiplication Without Any Effort

In new developments, Pepper has been spending her days shedding tears over math.

Wait! That's not new. That's the same thing she does everyday!

In new developments, I was a GOOD mom/teacher today and took steps to help her learn in the way she does best (ie: not with a workbook or anything that requires any effort at all)

I reminded myself that the reason I homeschool is so that I can meet the unique learning challenges of each child. I tend to focus on how much work that is (times 4 kids!) and just resort to workbooks.

So anyway, while stuck on her "times eights" I quickly sketched out a funny picture for her.

Try not to focus on how smelly the party looks. It's supposed to be confetti.

Seeing how delighted she was with this idea (read: she stopped wailing and only sobbed quietly) I sketched out some more.

This one I actually borrowed from my very favorite multiplication games site.

I used the 8x8 that is featured on the cover of the book.

If you would rather not think of your own mnemonics, then I encourage you to visit this site and buy one of their books. They offer two different books, both of which use a picture/story and offer lessons plans etc. I've not purchased either book, so I can only tell you what I've read on the website. Also on this website are tons of resources to use in making your own unit on the multiplication tables, such as worksheets and drill tests.

Another similar resource is Times Tales


If all you need is work on a few of the facts, you could just make your own little stories. Pepper has times through the fours down pat. Fives she'll master quickly if she thinks about it a little bit. Sixes she knows from the 100 Sheep Skip Counting CD. Nines she's using a nine trick. So it's just sevens and eights she is really stuck on, and then, only the uppers.

Here are the rest that I made today.











Right away when I told her it was dirty food, she said, "Oh, 32!!" Yay! Pepper!
In case you can't tell from my prize-winning drawing, the eights are crabby and dirty and the ham and peas (you DID know that was ham and peas, right?) have dirt on them.

Maybe you'll want to buy the books!

Multiplication for a Friend

Here are some multiplication links I promised a friend.  Enjoy!

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

Timez Attack   Video game that teaches multiplication facts. Explore the castle, fight the ogres (or whatever they are). There is a free demo available for download that does most of what the purchased version does. I think you get a better variety of monsters to fight in the purchased version, among other things.

Multiplication.comMy girls LOVE this site. Fun, simple video games that drill multiplication facts. Their favorite is Fairy Fun. If I had one complaint, it's that the answer seems to usually be in only two of the four places you can choose. Not as random as I'd like, but fine. You can choose which facts to work on (perfect for Pepper who is only learning 2s and 3s right now and Daisy who needs extra work on 7s)

100 Sheep Skip Counting CD

The sixes is our favorite song!!!

Schoolhouse Rock Remember the multiplication songs from when you were a kid? Figure 8s were my favorite. And the hide and seek one.

One more: Roll n Multiply Math Bingo, only more fun!

The Latest

Daisy has been having trouble seeing, so she had to get glasses

Here the girls are giving and receiving spelling words. Daisy is 100 lessons farther than Pepper (although Pepper can spell most of Daisy's words!), so they took turns reading each other their spelling words.

Pepper is beginning to multiply. Here she is buzzing about her multiplication bees! I drew flowers, each with a product in the center. The bees had the factors (I know there is a complicated math word to describe those but I'm too lazy to look it up and I never liked it anyway. Who needs addends and divisors and dividends and multiplicands and rubber bands and so on. 5 times 4 is 20. The end.) Anyhoo.... she had to match the right bees to the right flower. She loved that activity!