How long did it take for your kid to learn multiplication?

[Anonymous]

And did it make division come much much easier and quicker, or was division a slog too? DS has had doubles and 5s down for about a year, and he is reasonably good with 3 as long as he can count up. 4s and 6s are still shaky, and 7s, 8s, 9s, I'm not even sure when it will happen!

[Anonymous]

I forgot to say he is filling out a 10x10 or 12x12 table once a week, doing flashcards right before bedtime story, and also 10 to 15 mixed problems (usually a mix of 2 or 3 of the numbers) every day after school. Am I going about it wrong? SHould i group them smaller by 3s only for the week, and then move on to other numbers?

[Anonymous]

How old?

[Anonymous]

We didn't start memorizing multiplication tables until the start of third grade. DC could skip count, but didn't really connect that to multiplication until it was explicitly taught. We're now halfway through the year and she just did a practice test tonight. She knows about 2/3 of the table up to 12s. She knows her 2s, 5s, 10s, 11s, and 12s perfectly, most of the 3s and 4s with a bit of hesitancy in the higher numbers (she can skip count these, but has to actually count up when the problem is greater than multiplying by 5), and about half of her 6-9s.

Her math teacher said she needs to focus more on her times tables, so not sure if those are high demands or if most other kids know them better by now.

[Anonymous]

We covered it in homeschool in 3rd grade. ( homeschooled for Covid)
She had it down.
Then back to school in 4th she’d forgotten it and we had to work on it all again. Was a struggle.. prob was a few months into 4th before she knew them reliably

[Anonymous]

Here’s my post (02/06/2025 22:24 - bottom of page 1) from a similar thread about learning the multiplication tables:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1255758.page#29384489

Basically, if you consider that of the table is a repeat of the first half (AxB=BxA) and get the easy ones out of the way first, it makes it a lot less daunting.

Do one set of numbers at a time so you can take advantage of the patterns/tricks (explained in the links - including 6s and 9s).

Then it comes down to practice. I highly recommend practicing with screens. Pick any multiplication game that you think will appeal to your child and turn them loose. Games not only provide instant feedback, they motivate the child to practice more rathe than it being a chore to practice at all.

Other posters offered different approaches, so I encourage you to look at the other posts in the thread.

As for division, once he knows his times tables and knows that division is the inverse of multiplication (if AxB=C, then C/A=B and C/B=A), he should be able to apply that knowledge for simple division problems. Long division is more complicated and he’ll have to learn that procedure separately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How old?

8. I don’t remember when we learned as kids but they learn multiplication in 3rd grade now. 8-9.

[Anonymous]

Also, use patterns to help them make connections between facts. For example, knowing doubles helps with knowing 4s, and 3s with 6s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And did it make division come much much easier and quicker, or was division a slog too? DS has had doubles and 5s down for about a year, and he is reasonably good with 3 as long as he can count up. 4s and 6s are still shaky, and 7s, 8s, 9s, I'm not even sure when it will happen!

What does this mean? It sounds like you're saying he's skip counting to find the answer to the 3's. Is he able to skip count to find the answers with 4-9's too?

[Anonymous]

So my kids did not know multiplication until this year in the 3rd grade. I learned at the beginning of 2nd, but I went to school in another country so I do not compare. But, one thing I would say is repetition is the main thing, as somebody said above. I said this because I use https://www.ikoree.com/brands/3247, which has pages and pages of just repeating and repeating. He transitioned to division way more easily now and currently learning long division. We only do about 3 pages a day for any 5 days in the week.

[Anonymous]

Triangle flashcards summer going into 3rd grade for each of my 4 kids. 10 mins a day.

[Anonymous]

It's repetition like others said but one kid learned much more quickly from hearing me tell him a few facts a day to memorize. Before that we had spent literally months writing/flashcards and it went very slowly. No idea how division will go.

The older child saw patterns in the filled out multiplication table so figured it out from there. He's the one who picked up division on his own too.

[Anonymous]

For many kids, it is a slog. It really is just memorization.

[Anonymous]

It’s usually a 3rd grade skill. 7,8,9 are the hardest. I forgot most of those because I don’t use them in everyday life. If I’m not sure, for example on 7x6 I’ll think in my head 7x5 is 35, add another 7 is 42.

I’m probably the only one who has to do that but I just can’t be sure with the higher numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For many kids, it is a slog. It really is just memorization.

This. I’m teaching my second grader and we are about 2 months in and at 6s. I vividly remember learning the times tables in 4th grade. Kids are doing everything earlier now