RAPID RECALL

Have you tried XtraMath.com?  It is just a few minutes every day, it’s free, and it quizzes students on math facts and keeps track of which ones take too long.  It’s not flashy or anything really creative, but just a few minutes each day really helps my kids.

I just wanted to add about our experience with xtramath.org. It can work well if they already know strategies and if they know it is more important to get the right answer than to answer too quickly with the wrong answer.

We are doing both MUS and Rapid Recall Division.  We are not having any problem with it. It is working out very well.  When we first started RR we did stop MUS but I was doing RR addition and subtraction at the same time.  I find that RR doesn’t really take much time.  We do a set of flash cards or listen to the CD real quick in between other subjects.  Sometimes I can get one in before she leaves the breakfast table and another in right before we start school.

I think it really depends on the child and how much they are struggling.  You could always try it and if it is too much for your child, then stop MUS.  We use xtramath after we finish RR to continue our practice and keep our speed up.

We use an app on our iPad called Math Drills. I love it, totally customizable, tracks mistakes and time spent on each fact (and provides charts for you). It also uses that information to prioritize which problems your student most needs to practice. I just assign each child 20 facts a day, it has worked pretty well for us!

Sorry I’m late chiming in on this discussion. We used RR by itself. We took a break from MUS to focus solely on facts. I thought it would make us “behind”, but it didn’t at all. We were able to catch right up because they weren’t taking so long to figure out their facts on MUS worksheets. I’m so glad we just stopped and focused on facts, and RR was exactly what we needed. Now, there is no more frustration for any of us because they are able to recall facts easily and quickly. 

Now, they use the online MUS drills daily to review. I’ll check out these other recommendations. MUS’s online drills app has been making errors lately, and saying a problem is wrong when it’s actually correct. 

But if you’re struggling w/ facts, RR on its own is the way to go, in my opinion. Then just pick up where you left off w/ MUS. 

(petitemom, I am not sure if or how to private message you but if you think this sounds like it would be helpful for your 8th grader we can send you a copy at no cost.)

We are a homeschool family with 8 boys and 2 girls, and have had many struggles teaching times tables to reluctant learners over the years.  “Why do I need this?”  “Don’t we have calculators for a reason?” If you have a child that is struggling with their math facts and want to try something other than drills, we made an iphone app that TEACHES ALL the 0-12 multiplication tables using cartoons, mnemonics and some easy rules. The other nice thing is that the app learns from your child’s weak areas and drills those more often. The entire family worked on it and it was quite a fun learning experience for us.   The app shows a quick breakdown of performance overall or down to individual times tables questions the child is struggling with.   For encouragement the app awards karate style belts and trophies based on how well your child does after going through the lessons and it keeps track of multiple kids.  We would offer our children rewards like “if you get all brown belts, then you can….” and pick a reward that was most appropriate to the child to help in motivation.    We just released it in the apple app store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/funtimes-tables!-fun-times/id944109275?mt=8 .  We would really appreciate any feedback or suggestions and really hope it helps other families.