Knowhow-Now Article

For millennia there has been the need to learn times tables.

Ian Stewart of the University of Warwick says that ancient civilizations used them including the Babylonians who put them on clay tablets.

Since times tables have been around for so long an excellent question is – Have we a last found a way to make them fun for children to learn?

One fantastic thing about the times tables is the patterns that can be seen in them. These number patterns can help to motivate your children to learn the times tables because they make them more interesting.

To see what I mean read on to the following example given by Professor Ian Stewart in an article he wrote in 2010. The ten times tables pattern;

By adding a zero to each number from 1 to 12 you get the answers to the 10 times tables;1 times 10 is 10 (1 Plus 0), 2 times 10 is 20 (2 plus 0), 6 times 10 is 60 (6 plus 0 is 60, etc.How about the nine times tables? Any patterns there? Yes. Look at the answers to the nine times tables from one times to ten times - 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90.

Do you see a pattern? It's a bit more difficult than the ten times table to see it but what is happening is that the end digit is going down by one each time the table goes up a number. Like this;

9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, Do you see it in the answers above.

A last example, lets take the 5 times table.The answers to the first ten 5 times tables are; 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50.

When you look closely you can see two patterns. First, the last number pattern which is the last numbers of five and zero simply repeating. 5,0,5,0,5,0, etc. And second, after the first answer of one times five is five, the second digits have the pattern; 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 and so on if you wanted to continue beyond ten times five is 50. Did you know about these patterns? Each of the times tables has their particular patterns which you can find out about and all of them make the times tables far more interesting to learn when your children know about them.

So, knowing about the times tables numbers patterns is great.Knowing about these patterns is brilliant, but they are not a substitute for your children knowing the times tables so well that they can give you the answers to them in just a second when asked. Children need other things besides the patterns to help them learn easily and fast.

At the end of his article the professor mentions that times tables do not have to be learned as they have been in the past, and of course the dreaded drilling and rote learning that children dislike come to mind.

One thing you can do is to get on the net and see all the methods available, loads and loads. But what works and what doesn't?

Which should you encourage your children to do so that they know them with ease?

Yes, yes, yes, there is an answer and it makes it sooooo easy for children to learn the times tables.The secret is to use a method based on use of colour, pictures, movement and location. Movement and location as well? Yes, totally!

Methods that teach the times tables using these ideas are masses of fun and make them really easy to learn.

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

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