One Thing You Must Do If You Love Your Kids

Parents are lazy these days. I give you a real-life example at the end of this article of what happens. If you don't want to be that kind of parent, read on.

The thing you must do is give them confidence with their times tables, and here's a really fun way (for all generations) to do it.

I learned this new game from some really nice Mexican colleagues who are wonderful parents, and it's so fantastic that I want to share it with everyone.

The game has these benefits:

• It is very simple and inexpensive.
• It ties the family together.
• It gives your kids a life skill that many of their peers now lack.
• It teaches you to be a better parent.

Here's how you make the game:

1. Get some old business cards, or buy blank ones from the store, or make some by cutting up paper.
2. Write pairs of cards. One piece of each pair has a timestable on it, and another one has the answer. e.g. 5 x 7 and 35.
3. Place all the cards upside down on the table.
   It will be much easier if you place them in rows.
4. The older and smarter you and the kids are, the more you can put on the table. You'll not be wanting to have 288 pairs from all of the timestables to 12 unless you're megabraniacs or have all day.

Here's how you play the game:

1. Okay, number one rule, and the one that, if I may generalize, Mexicans tend to be better at than Canadians and Americans: you the parent have to shut your ego down and let everyone shine without being impatient and shouting out the answer. The Mexican family I learned this from were awesome at patience. Even when the little ones didn't know the timestables right away off the top of their heads, nobody got impatient while they went to the Montessori-style timestable board and figured out the answer. Instead they got engaged with the process of finding the answer, by paying attention, patiently.

2. Okay. Now that your ego is shut down, you can begin to play. The youngest kid (or decide by scissors paper rocks) turns over any two cards, one at a time.

3. As the player turns over each card, they either have to say the multiplication fact that matches it, or the answer.
e.g. if you turn over 2 x 6 you say 12.if you turn over 24, you say 1 x 24, 2 x 12, 3 x 8, and/or 4 x 6.

4. If the two cards match (fact and answer), then the player keeps them and goes again. If the two cards do not match, they are turned upside down again and the next player goes.

5. Keep going around the table in a clockwise direction until all of the cards have been claimed.

The neat thing about this game is that it levels the playing field between kids and adults, because the kids tend to be better with their memories, while we adults (hopefully) are better with our timestables. So it's still challenging enough to be engaging at all ages.

And here's a real-life story illustrating why you want to play for the sake of your kids:

I used to teach and tutor high school and college math. I particularly remember a brilliant, wealthy young man who I was tutoring in Calculus. He was handicapped in a way that many are handicapped -- he could not do his timestables. He was having a very hard time with learning the Calculus because he was disabled by needing to pick up a calculator every time he needed to multiply 7 x 8 or 3 x 9.

What a terrible thing his parents and teachers did by allowing him to not learn his times tables! (I would have said this kid had above-average intelligence, but lax/neglectful parenting at his early ages did this to him.)

Love your kids. Make sure they know their timestables. Drill, practice, say them in the car, quiz them on the street. Start at Grade 2 or before and don't stop until they can give you instant answers.

Yes. It takes YEARS. But if you love your kids, you won't leave them without basic math fluency. They need to read, and they need to be able to do math without a machine. Don't leave them handicapped! Care enough to equip them.

Thank you to Mauricio Gonzalez for the photo and the game!