The Miracle Multiplication Memorization Program

Multiplication Tables. Everyone has a horror story.

I write, because mine has a very happy ending.

I cannot stress enough how incredible and life-changing Times Tales was for us. I know I love a little story-enhanced exaggeration and tongue-in-cheek humor, but I am being dead serious: LIFE-CHANGING.

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The Story (& Desperation) that led me to purchase Times Tales

Our son was in 3^rd grade in public school. The year of multiplication. He spent much of the year sick, in and out of doctor’s offices. We worked diligently to keep up with his work.

We hit a wall with multiplication tables. Ones, twos, threes, fours, and fives, we finally managed to get through. But starting at 6 x 6, there was no retention.

And we tried. We tried every trick in the book. Memorization tools, flat-out drills for days, activities of coloring and counting and creating the tables with actual items…nothing helped, at least not for long.

His teacher announced there would be an ice cream sundae party for reciting the multiplication tables and accused him of not trying to learn them when he struggled in class.

I plotted to pull him out of school early that day and save him the humiliation, because I knew how hard he actually was trying and how frustrated he was. She didn’t divulge the date (probably for that reason) and while most of the other kids ate ice cream with all the toppings, he didn’t make it past the bowl and the banana.

Fourth grade rolled around and found us all at home, with me homeschooling my son along with his sisters, a first grader and a kindergartener. I didn’t know what I was doing and I did a lot of mimicking traditional school methods and used a lot of text books that first year.

I managed to pretend I was confident in my ability to teach them all the things, but my son was still inconsistent with basic multiplication facts from 6 x 6 through 9 x 9. This made it impossible to move on in math – he knew the methods of long multiplication and understood the concept of division, but his errors with the basic math facts meant he got most of the problems wrong. His frustration was heart-breaking.

I searched for answers and tried so many different things. One night, I came across an advertisement for Times Tales and read a few of the reviews. I quickly dismissed it because it sounded too good to be true. Being a stay-at-home mom, I had to be very careful with the budget. Even though Times Tales was inexpensive, I had to make every dollar count. I couldn’t afford to buy something on a whim.

Fast forward months later. We had made essentially no progress, and I remembered that little curriculum I had seen online. I had tried everything else and I was desperate. It’s inexpensive, I told myself, even if it doesn’t work, at least I will have tried.

Times Tales: The Miracle Memorization Tool

When it came in the mail, it was a simple book with black and white pictures. The instructions were specific about introducing the characters. For example, the number 8 is represented by Mr. and Mrs. Snowman. The characters are drawn around the outline of the number.

Then you look at each picture and talk about the story depicted in each. The ‘story’ itself consists of a single sentence. We took our time with each one, and made it as personal as possible. I asked questions about the characters, and also tried to relate the story as much as possible to our lives. The instruction manual and guide included discussion prompts and questions. Your child can easily repeat the ‘story’ back to you, since it consists of only one sentence. Taking your time with each picture is key, locking the sentence/story and picture in your child’s memory.

At first, he knew this was school related, and more specifically, math related.  He was trying to ‘see’ the math in each picture and story…so I told him to relax and just discuss the picture, not to even THINK about math. After that, we just enjoyed the conversations we had about the pictures.

Only after discussing each picture did I show him how it related to math. He was amazed. We went through them together, and he knew the answers for each one.

Then, showing him only the numbers, not the characters, he was able to recite the same facts. He was so excited!

I put the multiplication tables on our dry erase board – by his request – and he answered them all correctly! Then he asked me to do it again, mixing them up, and again, all of his answers were correct.

He wanted to do it again, being timed to see how fast he could do it. We did this over and over, by his request each time, and I can’t begin to tell you how it swelled this mother’s heart to see him conquer something that had given him so much frustration and defeat over the last two years.

If you’re wondering about retention, he never again struggled with multiplication facts. He is now 25 years old.

Times Tales looks a little different now but has the same objective

I have referred people over the years to Times Tales because it changed everything for our son. He spent too long – almost two years – being frustrated in math, feeling that he ‘just wasn’t good at math’ when in fact, he just needed a memorization tool that worked.

If your child is struggling with the upper multiplication tables, I can’t recommend this enough.

I looked for the same book I have so that I could recommend it specifically, but it looks like there have been some changes and updates. For example, they now offer a DVD to help with teaching their method. However, the flip book looks like it contains the same stories in black and white that my son and I talked about all those years ago.

I personally prefer the simple black and white drawings to loud and colorful versions. We sat at our kitchen table and discussed the pictures and I felt like the lack of busyness was a big plus.

The reviews are still the same about this program – years ago, I read that children were learning multiplication facts that they had struggled with in less than an hour, and discarded it as “too good to be true.” When I actually ordered it and followed the directions, I saw the exact same results!! This program boasts that your child will learn their upper multiplication tables within an hour – years ago, I didn’t see how that could be possible. But when I actually ordered this and used it, our son learned the upper multiplication facts in just a little over an hour, after trying everything I could think of to help him learn them over the previous two years!

I have not used the DVD, but I can only assume that the updates to the program have enhanced it. I do know that their method was life-changing for us when multiplication tables created a roadblock to advancement in math. For that, I will always confidently recommend Times Tales for any child struggling to memorize their upper multiplication facts.