Memorize Those Facts!
Sunday March 25, 2007
There's enough research out there to indicate that children who commit the multiplication facts to memory have greater academic success in mathematics. Yes, the chronic complaint heard from teachers over and over again is that their students just don't know their facts. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to commit those facts to memory. With a already packed math curriculum, it's important that children get support at home to learn the facts.
Here's how:
Comments
I strongly agree: skip counting should lead to every child composing and then memorizing times tables. Times tables should be a child’s personal mathematical discovery. This approach was systematically used Vladimir Radzivilovsky. He proceeded by encouraging his pupils to compose lists of prime numbers.
I think children should be taught the value of numbers first, the rules of mathematics second, and how to make equations third. Without knowing any of these, mathematics have little or no value. The current state of teaching math needs to be overhauled.