Timed Tests

My kid was having the same problem. Every night we were struggling over her math practice. Her teacher recommended a game that has really helped. It is called Arithmemouse. She has really enjoyed playing it, and now we are no longer fighting over math. Now if I could just get her to enjoy spelling......

I bought a "Math Shark" for my son. It is a hand held, electronic math learning aid. It really helped my son and he is more willing to do it than to do flashcards. Plus it is portable, so it can be used in the car or other places. I bought mine from Amazon.com. Highly recommended.

this link is great, my kids use it all the time,

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/mathfact/default.htm

should allow her to practice in a fun way, and it gives a breakdown of average time per problem.

Rather than just doing boring flashcards try something different. Make a song about it. Adjust the rules to basic games you have around the house to include multiplication facts. My daughter is in first grade and we have to get creative to help her read. If she is an especially touchy person you can put answers on small cards and put them in a container of rice (since that is cheap) or dry noodles and have a chart of the multiplication problems that would make the answer, kind of like Jeopardy. Send her on a "treasure hunt" but give her math problems to find her treasure. EX: Start at kitchen table and take 3X5 steps to your left. This may seem kind of young for a third grader but it may help. I also have list of websites from my daughters kindergarten teacher about math if you want those I can send some to you. I havent looked at them yet but I am sure they have higher math than kinder. on the site.
Good luck
S.

Definitely try some on-line sites. Also, maybe the teacher has a website with math facts. My daughter's teacher did and it was helpful. We would practice in the car on the way to games or a friends house and I would just use say the signs along the road or license plates to make up the facts. At first she was wondering where I got the numbers, eventually she caught on. We still do it now and she is in 4th grade. Good Luck!!

Hi, M.,

I REALLY like Shannon's ideas. A way that you could help her learn her math facts that would make it more fun is by doing things she likes to do and incorporating them in. Does she like to cook? Rewrite the recipe for her with multiplication to get the right ammount of ingredients. For example, let her make a snack for the family, like mini pizzas. She would need canned biscuits. If there are 3 people in her family and they wanted three a piece, how many biscuits is that? How many spoons of sauce? If each person wanted two pepperonis on their pizza, how many would she need a piece and altogether? Make it fun for her. Ants on a log is another good one, with celery sticks, pb, and raisins.

Take a board game like sorry and replace the space cards with multiplication cards. She will multiply and move the appropriate number of spaces.

Find ways you can work it in with things you already have around the house or things you already do.

I'm not big on rewards but have the same problem with my 3rd grader so she gets 5 seconds of cuddle time at the end of the day for ever card correct in 1 minute. It's positive and it's not like there is a punishment for not doing them fast.
Hope it helps

I would recommend asking the teacher if you can get a copy of the timed test they take every week, and have your daughter do that test everyday, with the timer running. My son's 2nd grade teacher (his teacher last year did this too) sent home copies of the test they get, and every day (m-thurs) he sits down, i set the timer for 4 minutes, and he does his test. when he first started doing this, i would set the timer for 10 min, and then slowly work his way down to the 4 min he is at now. it works very well - he gets close to 100% each week. sometimes being put on a timer will cause the child more stress, and make it harder for them to think quickly, because they are so worried about the time, but if they practice with the timer, it gets them used to coming up with the answers under pressure.

good luck! :)
hugs!
~T.

http://MamaWorksFromHome.NET
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Hi M.....Remember to have her say the flash card...ex.say "3x3=9, 4x5=20" saying it out dos help to retain the info better. also, encourage her to keep practicing, its too important. but make sure you are helping her. And try not to make it a chore, more just 5 min before dinner, and then 5 min befor bed. and then just keep supporting her, and point out an area that she does do well in, and that not all other kids do as well as her there. GL

We found a great website that I suggested to my daughter's teacher last year. She likes it so much, it has become a permanent recommendation she gives to all her students. My daughter thinks it is a lot of fun. www.multiplication.com

I have my daughter's flashcards as part of our daily homework. We go through all of them, and the ones she takes a little extra time to give the answer to, along with the ones she gets wrong, go back into the back of the stack to go through again. Once it becomes routine, she'll be okay about doing them. Sure, sometimes my daughter doesn't feel like doing them, but I don't leave her a choice. You can't let what a child does or doesn't want to do come into play when it's schoolwork.

Arithmemouse Times Tables is a multiplication facts video game. My daughter loves it. A cute little robot mouse teaches times facts 0-12. I think it's Windows only, though. It's not just a test, it really teaches, too.
It's nonviolent. It's funny how many teaching video games have you blow something up or punish a child for missing an answer.

http://www.arithmemouse.com

Timed tests are a sore subject for me. I was timed tested when I was in the 6th grade. My mother and I did those flash cards every night. I knew my times tables inside and out and yet when it came right down to when the teacher said "GO!" I got nervous, my mind went blank, I couldn't do the test. I am not good under pressure. Talk to the teacher and see if your daughter can do the test w/o being timed to see if she does any better. Some kids just aren't good under pressure. and besides....WHY do we have to be time tested on multiplication? As long as we KNOW them...timing will come eventually.

Keep track of her times/scores so she can see that she is improving. Tell her you are proud of her and her efforts. As long as she is improving she is learning.

Hi M.. I am a teacher and all the responses have such great suggestions. Why don't you try and mix it up by using several of the suggestions given. Math is really all about memorization. I know people don't like flashcards but they do really work. Start with the easy ones- 0,1,2,5,10. These are the easiest families. It will help her become confident that at least she knows these. Then add to them- 3,4, etc. Only practice the flashcards about 5-10 min. a day. Dont overdue them. Also try singing them and do play games with them. Good luck.

Hi M.,
This is what I have done with my son. It makes it more fun.
I write all the possible answers on YELLOW index cards. (yellow helps you remember) and I put the answers on the floor and as I give him the problem, like 5x7, he has to jump to the right answer. She just may need to move around while she is studying. They call that being a Kinethetic learner. Nothing wrong with that, it just doesn't fit into a public school setting. I hope that helps you and your daughter out.
blessings.
M.

www.aaamath.com has timed tests on the computer. Kids love to "play games" or "beat the clock" My daughter is 3rd grade, couldn't pass her timed tests and I had her start going on the website everyday for 15 minutes - she is now in the "Math Hall of Fame" in her class! :)

make it a game. when you go to the store ask her "if a bag of flour costs $3, how much do I need to get 3 bags?" stuff like that where its a game for her, but she's still learning times tables.

My son's teacher recommended Timez Attack, a free online game. My son loved it so much he would play it for fun! I plan on using it for my daughter next year as well. They do have a paid version but the free one is great with graphics just like a video game.

L. Etta, mother of a 9 year old boy and a 7 year old girl.

Is the problem not knowing the facts or is the problem anxiety about it being a timed test? My son knows the facts but gets anxious about the timed part.

Buy her a Didj from Leapfrog. It's a handheld video game system that came out last year for older elementary/jr high age children. You can connect it to your computer then modify the games. Like if you have a math game (my son loves the Spongebob one) you customize it to tell it what you are working on -- like the times 5 tables. Then, all/most of the math problems will be the times 5 tables. Or just a broader "single-digit multiplication". Or whatever. Then when she's playing the games, those are the problems she gets. Since it's fast-paced, it encourages kids to answer quickly.

The games themselves are more like 'real' video games instead of the Leapster ones where the activity is incorporated into the gameplay. With Didj games, you play through part of a level then it switches to asking 3-5 problems and after you get those right it goes back to the video game play. You must answer so many questions correctly to continue and complete the level. It keeps track of correct answers and you can unlock extras like backgrounds, higher levels, secret rooms, etc after so many correct answers.

The games with spelling (my son likes a racing game) are nice, too, because we just give it the week's spelling list and those are the ones they do in the games. The Didj is very good for spelling, fractions, grammar, multiplication/division, etc.

Unfortunately we are all talented in different areas and she needs to be let know this now. It is nothing to feel badly about. We tried other ways to teach things instead of flash cards. There are some songs about multiplying you can use, etc. if she is good in addition then teach her the simple ways to figure it out, if 3 + 3 is 6 then 2 x's 3 is 6. Once she grasps the simple formula she will do better.

There are all sorts of math games that make practicing the multiplication tables more fun. Go online and do a Google search. A lot of them are free.

At our school, we have a program called Rocket Math that does exactly what Teri suggests. Practice every problem out loud - saying the entire problem and answer. Instead of using the flash cards, use her times tests from school. Rocket Math starts easy and only adds 3-4 problems on each new level. Make a verbal race out of it and have her go as fast as she can. If she misses one or pauses for more than 2-3 seconds, give her the answer and tell her to "go back 3" problems so that she hits it again quickly.