The Multiplication Table:

good, bad and ugly.

The Multiplication Table is the LAST way to teach multiplication. ⇐Click that please BEFORE you start using a table to try and memorize multiplication. You'll need the site wide (MOD III) password. 

Just search "Crewton Ramone Multiplication" and you'll see all kinds of vids and ideas you can use. Also visit my blog, (links below), do a simple search for multiplication there and see why my students get them memorized out to 20x20. I assure you they don't just use a table for memorization. Along with the number line and math flash cards, filling out multiplication tables over and over again is a very effective way to turn kids OFF to math. Still, if used correctly they can be FUN and can teach a lot as a homeschool math multiplication project. Add color to your multiplication tables for added enjoyment. 

BEFORE we get to these tables as a teaching tool, be sure your students can write their numbers and have most of the skip count songs memorized or multiplication rock songs memorized or whatever songs you are using for your students. Be sure they have built lots of rectangles and towers with the blocks and have a good idea what you mean when you say

(3)(6) means three taken six times and that (6)(3) is still 18 but it means six taken three times...the difference between six threes and three sixes is technically ZERO but there is a difference and it is visually and kinesthetically obvious when you have six threes instead of three sixes which is which if explained properly. Read about multiplicand and multiplier here.  Multiplication should be child's play, not a source of anxiety or fear. 

If you are working with older students where singing songs may or may not be cool (teenagers) we STILL start with manipulatives to be sure they understand what the symbols mean. After you have spent time with manipulatives and drawings then you can move to symbol based lessons.

Writing the symbols and making a multiplication able after playing with blocks turns the purposeful play into a whole brain exercise as the two hemispheres "talk" to each other in order to write it down.   This six year old was very proud of his work. Those symbols stand for the blocks he just played with.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to do all of this BEFORE we start on the multiplication tables. I met many students in may states who thought 3x3 turned into 9 and 3x5 turned into 15 etc. without any understanding whatsoever that 3x3 meant three threes, and 3x5 meant five threes. I've also spent more time than I care to recall debating the order and what it means with teachers.

Multiplicand, multiplier, product. Dividend, divisor, quotient. Period, end of discussion.

The multiplication table can be used for drills and speed tests but it can also be used to discover patterns. Discovering patterns can be fun even exciting to young students.

 Think about fun ways to present the tables to your students...change your thinking to "first I am going to put them in a position where they can discover patterns not just memorize multiplication tables."

Make no mistake knowing the multiplication tables by heart is CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT, however in their zeal to get them to memorize multiplication facts some teachers and parents turn their student off to math FOREVER.

As a fun math activity have them make their own tables. Make them discover the patterns for themselves.

Make a rubbing of a hundred square, just like when you were a kid and you made a rubbing of a coin...just take a piece of paper and a pencil and gently rub the led as flatly as you can across the big red square. For little kids this is fun and takes some practice.

Then you can make custom tables for your students in a jiffy instead of trolling the internet for free downloads of generic multiplication tables for your hapless students to memorize thereby damaging their natural love of math and numbers and destroying their self esteem later by making math something that they despise but need to get that degree, but since they have told themselves they aren't any good at math and that they hate math and that math sucks ever since they had to try and memorize some stupid tables for multiplication when they were little, they fail miserably and then all those dreams of being a nurse or engineer or architect or scientist crash to the ground like only so much delicate glass from the glass works of high hopes and expectations and their life comes to naught or they end up doing something they really hate but are marginally good at, when really what they wanted to become had a math requirement and that math requirement kept them from leading a happy productive life. As an added bonus failing math often leads to impaired critical thinking skills...but really the most critical factor for a successful life is self esteem. Do not allow the math to damage your student's self esteem.

I have talked to literally thousands of people who can point to math as the culprit, they usually blame algebra, but in my experience it starts much earlier at multiplication. They failed algebra because they were unable to count quickly and/or see patterns and factors because they never learned how to multiply which lead to problems with fractions...which lead to problems with...couple that with a negative attitude toward math and any subject involving math becomes hard.

This method stresses using other math topics to teach multiplication. Look around this website and YouTube you will see examples of using 2nd, 3rd and 4th power algebra to teach multiplication (and addition). Fractions naturally teach multiplication. Here is a list of polynomials for that can be used for addends or multiplication facts depending on your emphasis. 

Check out my blog and Facebook pages too multiplication is sprinkled throughout because it just that important.

All math is is counting and multiplication allows you to count really, really fast. You cannot afford to flub this.

Click here for more video on teaching multiplication.

Look how boring this table is and how much more interesting to look at the table with lots of colors added is. 


This vid needs re-cutting due to fan being on. It was a hot day. Didn't realize the wind was hitting the mic. But the info is here, although the noise is a little annoying:

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“You save an old man and you save a unit; but save a boy and you save a multiplication table.” ~Anon.

"Our kids are going to be acting out their multiplication tables and singing out their history lessons." ~Jackie Collins

"Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table."~Calvin Coolidge

"Keep computations to the lowest level of the multiplication table."~David Hilbert

"The world looks like a multiplication-table, or a mathematical equation, which, turn it how you will, balances itself."~Ralph Waldo Emerson