by Dad on Parenting, Rocket Math, Strategies
Many grade schools now using various types of timed tests for basic arithmetic. This web site was originally created to provide practice worksheets for a time testing program used at a local school district. If your child’s school is using a similar program, these worksheets will provide several variations on the single practice sheet that typically comes home for each lesson.
The Rocket Math programs are typically divided into multiple levels usually identified by letter, where each level introduces a small number of basic facts. The problems on each level are built on the The tests are usually given daily, with each test lasting one minute. Practice on the problems is pretty critical to success, especially if your child isn’t one that works well under the pressure of the clock.
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by Dad on Strategies
Learning multiplication facts is a challenge because it’s the first math operation where your child needs to contend with relatively large numbers. Two digit addition and subtraction is squarely in the realm of numbers less than 20, which is familiar territory. There’s something concrete about 12 or 15 or similar numbers countable on fingers and toes, but 73 really is a big step out of the pond.
There’s two ways to approach this. One is just brute force memorization. I remember endless flash card drills after school, the timed tests in the classroom and the gradual accumulation of resentment towards anything with that little ‘x’ attached to it. While we love the Rocket Math program the schools use here, it is largely just memorization and could use something to back it up.
The other alternative is to make multiplication something of a game, with systems for some of the numbers. There still an inevitable amount of memorization that goes on, but by getting 90% of the multiplication table down to a few simple rules, the goal is suddenly within everyone’s reach. Split second, memorized results are still going to come, but having some means to reach incremental (albeit slower) success takes the fear and dread out of the process.
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by Dad on Parenting
Dan Akst penned an inspired article for last Friday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. I don’t know that we’re ready to give up Hannah Montana and Guitar Hero just yet, but the advice here resonated strongly. Straight to the point…
More than budgets or bureaucrats, more than textbooks or teachers, parents are the reason that kids perform as they do in school.
That’s not to take anything away from the support our teachers and schools are providing, and our teachers here are the first ones to raise the same flags Mr. Akst is waving. Nay-sayers not withstanding, this article hits the nail on the head. There’s only so much a teacher in a classroom with 20 kids can get accomplished, and these days a one-on-one homework hour with your child is more than just an opportunity… It’s a necessity.
Read the full article here.
by Dad on Rocket Math, Strategies
If you have memorized your addition facts, you can master the entire multiplication table in minutes by learning the eight simple rules below. You only need to memorize the ten facts in Rule #8! Follow the link at the bottom for the full strategy!
Rule #1: | First Number Times Second Number is the Same as Second Number Times First Number |
Rule #2: | Any Number Times One is that Number. |
Rule #3: | To Multiply by Ten, Attach a Zero. |
Rule #4: | To Multiply by Two, Double the Number |
Rule #5: | Multiplying by Four is Doubling Twice (Double-Double Rule) |
Rule #6: | Multiplying by Five is Just Counting by Five |
Rule #7: | The Nine Rule – Tens is Number Minus One, Ones is Nine Minus Tens |
Rule #8: | Memorize the Ten Remaining Facts |
| 3 x 3 = 9 | Three times three is so fine,
three times three is nine. |
| 3 x 6 = 18 | Three times my bird ate six beans, three times six is eighteen. |
| 3 x 7 = 21 | Three candies each for seven days, that would be fun, three times seven is twenty-one. |
| 3 x 8 = 24 | Three boys on skates fell on the floor, three times eight is twenty-four. |
| 6 x 6 = 36 | Six dogs with six sticks, six times six is thirty-six. |
| 6 x 7 = 42 | Sticks from heaven, stuck in glue, six times seven is forty-two! |
| 6 x 8 = 48 | What do we appreciate? Six times eight is forty-eight! Flight Six Times Eight! Don’t be late! Leaving at gate forty-eight! |
| 7 x 7 = 49 | Seven kids in seven lines, add ‘em, up its forty-nine. |
| 7 x 8 = 56 | Five – six – seven – eight, Fifty-six is seven times eight.
Seven packs of gum, each with eight sticks. Can you chew fifty-six? |
| 8 x 8 = 64 | Eight times eight is sixty-four, close your mouth and shut the door!
Had two eights, dropped them on the floor, picked them up, had sixty-four. |
Eight Simple Rules for Mastering Multiplication: The Full Strategy!
Multiplication Worksheets
Worksheet Practice Timer
