Friday 22 February 2019

Is it possible to think about Times Tables when the snow-keeps-a-coming?!

Interesting addition to my ‘Intermediate math’ presentation agenda- (first ‘talk’ is in 11 days, and then pretty much one per week into May, so for BICS talk on 5th March- wish me luck my first goes well!)… THE MOST ASKED QUESTION of me as teacher EVER, is: How do I get my child to learn their Times Tables? Well, I plan to talk about some of the methods I use, but feel so thrilled that have worked on a ‘program’ that is proving to work… and FAST.  A recent ‘new’ student claimed to know (well, count up in) every Times Table after only 3 weeks of us working on them- and that has been just 20 mins per week. But why are the blooming things SO vital? Well, here are some math concepts which rely on having a grip on Times Tables:

·        Column multiplication

·        Worded problems

·        Averages

·        Division (big time)

·        Doubling

·        Addition, subtraction, multiplication & division of fractions

·        Decimals

·        Percentages

·        Ratio

·        Common denominators

·        Simplifying fractions

·        Converting fractions to decimals and percentages

·        Circles degrees and angles

·        Perimeter

·        Area

·        Volume

·        Square/cube numbers

·        Square root

·        Exponents

·        BEDMAS

·        Integers

·        Algebra

·        Prime numbers

·        Equations

·        Time/distance/speed

·        Mass

…. and that is just for starters. Quite amazing. So they are worth knowing FOR SURE.