I have always struggled with my multiplication tables due to moving multiple times during those years I was to learn them. Long story short, I never fully learned them until around college! So naturally I was a bit nervous teaching my kids and I had them doing xtramath.org daily and I saw great improvement with them doing + & – and I knew I would never do the flash cards. I hate them since I tried learning from them for years with no success. I learned about a DVD called Times Tales. Yes it is a bit goofy and it looks like it is for 1st or 2nd graders, but it works. I used it with my 2nd & 3rd grader last year and within an hour they knew them. Now we had to keep reviewing to get it from short term to long term, but it was super easy. It only covers the harder ones. You still have to teach the 0’s, 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10′, 11’s, & 12’s…. by year end last year both of my kids could fill in a multiplication chart on their own without any problems and I know their math this year is a lot easier because they know them. I highly recommend this product!! It’s teaching method is a bit strange. It just tells you a bunch of stories and the characters represent different numbers (Mrs. Weeks is a 7 because there are 7 days in a week) anyway after you here the stories, then it drills you on the stories and once you have the stories learned, then the answers are in the story and apparently our brains can remember a story easier than some random numbers. I had no intention of learning the stories, but after one watching, they are imprinted on my brain. The best thing is that since they know the story, once we started division, they are having an easier time of it too. HTH best of luck. Oh and btw, I have never used one single flashcard with either kid!
