Multiplication Activities to Help Your Child Memorize the Times TableFinding the right multiplication activities to help your child learn the times table (which means completely memorizing the multiplication facts 1-12, backwards and forwards) is a key to your child’s success in the upper grades of elementary school, middle school and beyond. Indeed, it wasn’t long ago that every child learned how to multiply well by the end of third grade. At some point in second grade, sometimes even starting in first grade, the times table was learned, and then third grade math problems were devoted to learning the algorithms for multiplying numbers with more than one digit together, and the many applications of multiplication. It is most unlikely that this is your child’s experience today with multiplication activities in third grade, or was his or her experience if he or she is now further on in elementary school or in middle school.
Now third grade math education is likely to be devoted to a bewildering variety of topics, like: estimation, data analysis, and geometry. There will be some multiplication activities, but its quite possible in the scant time devoted to it, that your child might not learn the times table properly, let alone the procedures for multiplying multi-digit numbers.
In middle school classes I have taught in recent years, it is common for a quarter of the class not to know how to multiply, and in some school districts the proportion is far worse. Why Does it Matter? It matters very much now and in the future for a variety of reasons.
So, the reasoning why the time should not be spent on multiplication activities, when we can just do it on a calculator anyway, is part of the rationale that has led to multiplication not being taught properly in our schools. However, it cannot explain how a child who can’t multiply has any chance for success in the subsequent math curriculum. 
Mental Development There is a second and deeper point, mastering arithmetic is part of the mental development of a math student. It is an exercise in a mental abstract operation. This exercise develops the student’s ability to handle symbolic manipulation and to think abstractly. We need to learn arithmetic to learn algebra, not just for the skill mastery, but for the mental development. The child who has not gone through the process of learning how to multiply, along with the other third grade math problems and skills of arithmetic, will not be mentally fit to learn algebra and the rest of high school math!!! Arithmetic is the exercise, the “weightlifting and aerobics,” for the elementary school student’s brain. By the middle of third grade your child should know the times table backwards and forwards. By that we mean if you ask any product from 1 x 1 to 12 x 12, he should be able to shoot back to answer immediately and without hesitation. If he doesn’t, whether in third grade, or eighth, you should help him learn it, and the nice thing is this really can be done fairly quickly and painlessly, using the worksheets found here, or the Kumon multiplication practice workbooks We have prepared multiplication activities and skills practice worksheets designed to help your child methodically and thoroughly learn the times table:
If you don't already have it, you will have to download the Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print the worksheets. We encourage you to have your child work through these multiplication activities one page a day. By the time he or she is done, perhaps with some supplementary oral practice as well, he or she should be a real master of the multiplication facts. We wish your child great success with our free worksheets and encourage you to send us any questions or feedback. Want more helpful tips and ideas to help your child achieve math success? Complete the form below to receive the Sensible Math Tips - the e-Zine for parents.
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provide methodical, incremental multiplication skills practice. Each book costs less than $7 and is eligible for FREE shipping from amazon.com! 
Kumon workbooks, which I highly recommend, and have used myself in my classrooms and with my own children at home! The key is to break the job down into small parts, and proceed in a step-by-step way.
