Many people are aware of the fear and anxiety that is present for many people with public speaking.

Not so many will be aware of the anxiety and discomfort that hundreds and thousand of adults and children have with maths related subjects such as the requirement to learn times tables.

The discomfort can make itself felt for children whilst at school often resulting in them both forgetting what they have learned and having lower levels of confidence.

The result of less confidence is often poorer results and progress in school. A higher level of confidence can result in achievement and success.

Knowing this is helpful for when you encourage your children to learn times tables.

Broadly speaking the following factors can make it more difficult to develop maths confidence. One – answers to questions are often given with all to see and it can be embarrassing, two - just not knowing the correct answers to questions and three - having to answer in a very short time.

There is a route through these potential anxiety causing issues as highlighted by educationalist Marilyn Curtain-Philips in an article in 2010. She says that they can be avoided or reduced when the learning environment is planned well.

Marilyn says that to do this in the classroom a teacher needs to deal with wrong answers in such a way that children do not lose confidence.

I agree with all this but what can you as a parent do?

Of course you as a parent are not in control of the classroom, however, there is one place where you do have control. Where? Where you live, your home!

This is where you can really help your children with their maths confidence.

You have the tools at hand. When your children learn times tables so they know them well this can result in greater maths confidence in general. What can you do to help them learn times tables?

A great way for your children to easily progress and learn times tables is to get them to use audio times tables worksheets.

With these there is testing involved, however, there is no embarrassment as the answers are given in your home and not with the class looking on.

No getting answers wrong in public and if a correction is needed no fuss.

A big point here. You and your children have the choice of easily learning the times tables so that there is an instant recall ability before there is any testing.

What needs to happen for this?

Easy, your children can learn times tables using an Instant Recall technique. This means using a range of things to make it easy for children to remember the times tables; movement, colourful images, and speaking.

Using the right methods your children will learn times tables well and have more confidence when learning other maths subjects.

To sum up, no pun intended, what can you do to boost your children's confidence with maths? Let's answer this by reference to an earlier sentence and what can result in lower confidence in school.

With audio times tables worksheets and an Instant Recall method used to learn times tables the time pressure that is part of maths tests at school is not there, the public pressure to get the answers right is not there, and the experience of not instantly knowing the answers to maths questions is not there.

All these wonderful factors add to your children's feelings of comfort and confidence when they learn times tables enabling them to know them really well.

And what is the other result for your children?

Not only will your children be confident with times tables they can also be confident with other maths subjects because they have been able to learn times tables so well.

For more information on Learn times tables, goto www.timestablesmaths.com.