Customer Reviews

Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables, Teaching Manual

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My son didn't "get" multiplication at all until we got this book. After using the book, he now finds it easy. Multiplication is taught using stories. Each number has its own character in the stories (4 is always Door). For a visual/reader learner it is the best thing out there. If your child doesn't get multiplication by rote memorization, please try this method. It really worked for us!

As a public school teacher I searched for thirteen years to find something to help my students learn their multiplication facts. Now that I am homeschooling my own children, I have finally found something that actually works!
Everything you need is in this Teaching Manual. There are no other materials to buy.
The whole concept seemed a bit odd at first. In fact I waited until now, when we are almost finished with the book, to write this because I was a bit leary about the program.
Now my daughter knows her facts in a snap. She has not missed one fact on the timed tests I give her each day since begining the program. Also, her times get faster each day. She has told me more than once, "Mom, this is fun!" How many times do you hear that when teaching children multiplication facts?!?!
I give my daughter two facts a day. There are big and little flash cards included in the book. Each number and each multiplication fact has a story. I have her act out the stories and repeat them back to me. The author explains that it is easier for our brains to remember pictures than it is numbers. If your child can remember the stories and pictures, they will remember the facts. Why didn't I think of this?!

When this book arrived I took one look at it and thought "Why should I confuse my kids with stories that go along with every fact?" It sounded like too much translating from story to numbers to me. I expressed my disappointment to my 8 year old who had watched me open the package. She took the book from me and began reading the stories (which are very simple and short). Within minutes she and her 6 year old sister were on the couch laughing and learning... literally teaching themselves. The book is written with such easy to follow "teachers" instructions that my kids were "playing" school and learning the facts themselves. There is also website www.mulitplication.com which provides you with incredible support. If you have creative kids who love to read, act out stories, and draw then they will love this method of learning the times tables. The basic concept of multiplication is laid out and an almost automatic way of remembering the facts via very short stories and pictures is the vehicle by which they are able to recall the facts. I would like to thank the author and publisher for this has lightened our load immensly!

My daughter looked me in the eye and said "I don't want to learn the multiplication tables! It's too hard! and it's boring!" I was shocked to hear this, since my daughter is a straight A student. So I searched for a product (or "gadget") that would make this process fun. This is it!!!! My daughter loves to read, And the stories were so silly that it made it easier for her to remember them. Within a couple of weeks she had learned the multiplication tables. She's just started 3rd grade last week, and she already has a jump on the year. I scanned all the flash cards into my computer and then printed out the flash cards so I can have them for future use, instead of cutting out the pages (this way you can also make them as large or as small as you want). Great product!!!!!

My son struggled in Math last year gradually losing self confidence. I knew it was because he just didn't know those facts.He has almost completed the program and tests with 100% accuracy. He also has said "This is kinda' fun" HELLO..has anyone else EVER heard those words when memorizing the times tables?

ADHD? processing speed issues? difficulties with working memory? dyslexia? probably discalculia? This might just be the answer to your child's multiplication woes.

I was hesitant to plunk down $29 for another multiplication tool that might not work. Having been working on mutiplication for a year and a half and gotten almost nowhere, I'd already spent a ton on other books, video games, montessori materials etc.

But, what the heck. $30 is $30 and if it works, it's worth $3000.

And work, it did. She wasn't excited about it but she also wasn't *that* resistant. She kept telling me it wasn't working. Heh;) But in 3 days, yes three whole days, she knew her multiplication tables. We just did a few minutes here and there while doing various non math related craft activities. If she was painting, or cutting paper, or making little containers from cardboard (she's always creating something) I'd sit near her and read the stories to her and show the pictures.

And she "got" All of them. Not rapid fire, but she knew them. If I asked 6x9, she still had to translate it into the picture words and think of the story, but she'd get it: "6x9... chicks x sign = .....okay, the chicks are fishing on the sign with a core...54! 6x9 is 54!"

Just like that. In three days, she and her six yo (nearly 7) sister learned their multiplication tables. The younger one is a more neurotypical auditory/sequential learner and after 3 days knows them cold. No translating them through 'story language' first.

I'll be passing a copy onto the little one's teacher this year and recommending _Memorize in Minutes_ to anyone and everyone who has a child that needs to learn their multiplication tables.

I bought this based on the great reviews and even though the cover says "teaching manual", I really thought it would be more useful for the parent trying to review with their kids... This book is half text explaining to the teacher how to teach their classroom, the student pages in the book are just small examples and sideways!!! I'll be returning mine to amazon today. Why doesn't amazon sell the student version??? A times table book that I LOVE is "Times tables the fun way"

I really like this approach to learning the multiplication facts. The first few lessons teach your child what multiplication really is (repeated addition) instead of starting out memorizing stories immediately. They also show you the chart with the times tables on it. Shaded out are the 0 facts and the 1's (those are easy), also the repeats (if you know 2 X 3 then you know 3 X 2). After that's done there are only 36 facts to memorize. It's still a lot, but on a chart with 100 it helps you to see that this is doable. The book teaches you those 36 facts.

What I really like is that the numbers stay the same; all the 2's are shoes, 3 is a tree, 4 is a door, 5 is a hive, 6 = chick, 7 = surfin', 8 = skate and 9 is a sign. Once you can remember these 8 numbers/pictures there's no guessing what the number is for that story (unlike Times Tables the Fun Way where the number pictures do not stay the same but change). Of course, the numbers in the answer are not the same.....if the answer is 9 it doesn't mean the 9 in the answer will be a sign. Each picture also has the number inside it (the shoe has a 2 inside of it, there's a 3 up in the leaves of the tree, etc).

This book has pages of everything you need in the back of the book. Some things, like the flash cards, you could just cut right out of the book. The larger cards you can also, but you might want to also make copies so that your child can color one. Every lesson is spelled out with exactly what you need and even tells you what to say.

The first story is for 2 x 2. The story is: "A young boy received a pair of new shoes and they were just what he wanted. When he put them on, he found they were too big. Even though they didn't fit, he decided to wear them to school the next day. Sometimes, as he would walk along, he would step right out of them. He would look down at his feet and be in his socks. The shoes would be sitting on the floor. As you can imagine, this was very embarrassing for the boy. 2 X 2 = 4; Shoe X Shoe = Floor". After reading the story the child can color the picture (obviously it's 2 shoes on the floor). The child is also told to close their eyes and picture the 2 shoes sitting on the floor. It also explains to your child that the 2's rhyme with shoes and the 4 rhymes with floor and they can close their eyes and picture this. They can even act out the story.

Here's another example further along in the book: 8 X 8. "Two skaters went to a skating rink. They put on their skates and started skating. After only a few seconds, they stopped moving. They didn't know what was wrong. They looked down at the floor and were shocked. The floor was covered with sticky, gooey gum. Their skates were stuck to the sticky floor. 8 X 8 = 64; Skate X Skate = Sticky Floor".

Even the product of the numbers multiplied has a consistency to it that you won't find in Times Tables the Fun Way. What I mean by this, as an example, is that the answers in the 60's are all sticky.......63 is sticky bee, 64 is sticky floor. If another multiplication sentence has the answer 63...it will be sticky bee again. The 30's are dirty.......36 is dirty chicks, 35 is dirty dive, etc. I can see that my kids could really learn from these stories and pictures (and me too). If they see on paper 8 X 8 they'll probably remember the two skates and think....."oh yeah, sticky floor.....64". In the back of the book (its over 200 pages) are large cards to color, smaller flash cards, quizzes and picture quizzes where they draw the pictures. I'm more than happy with this book and highly recommend it.

I have a son who struggles with memorizing facts, so I bought this book despite its high price tag. The pages are very sturdy, and the black and white illustrations are fairly simple, which is good. I think the rhymes are great, but both my younger sons (3rd and 4th grades) gave the book a big "thumbs down". They thought it was too silly and babyish. Being a patient mom, I plan on toting it out again in a few months, but their initial reaction is disappointing... we'll see how it goes in round 2. I think I will choose just a couple strategic pages to put up near our kitchen table and see how that goes.

That being said, I will keep this book in my professional library because there ARE children who will love it and learn from this method. I know that I will be able to successfully use this book in the classroom. I really was surprised that my fourth grader, a visual learner and generally silly-humored boy, did not care for the book- I guess I had him pegged incorrectly.

I gave it three stars because of the negative reactions of my own children and because of the high price tag ($29 on Amazon). However, I think this can be a useful tool for the right child.

This book is both a teacher's manual and contains the duplicatable materials for the child to work with. So, read the instructions carefully and be prepared to make copies of the pages for the child. One reason for the success of the book in teaching the multiplication facts is that it uses a sound-alike name for each number, uses those names in stories for each multiplication and both the stories and the mnemonics make the multiplication fact utterly memorable for the child. If you use the book as intended and work with your child, you'll be astounded at how quickly s/he'll have success in multiplication.