The best times tables tricks turn hard facts into easier ones your child already knows: double for the 2s, count by 5s for the 5s, think "tens" for the 10s, and use your fingers for the 9s. Learn the easy tables first, use turnarounds to halve the work, then practice a few minutes a day.
Each trick below is a real math strategy, not just a shortcut, so your child can still work out a fact when memory slips.
The Common Core State Standards for third grade ask children to use properties of operations as strategies to multiply. Children don't need the formal names, but these two ideas sit behind every trick here:
Turnarounds: if 6 × 4 = 24 is known, then 4 × 6 = 24 is also known.
Breaking a fact apart: knowing 8 × 5 = 40 and 8 × 2 = 16, you can find 8 × 7 as 40 + 16 = 56.
By the end of third grade, the standards expect children to know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers. The tricks are a bridge to that goal, not a replacement for it.
A What Works Clearinghouse practice guide on math intervention suggests that, for multiplication facts, children focus on zeros and ones first, then add the tens and fives, and so on. Here is one example order that follows that idea:
0s and 1s
10s
5s
2s
4s
9s
3s
6s
8s
7s
Turnarounds make this faster than it looks. Once your child knows the 0s, 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, only 21 facts up to 9 × 9 are left, counting each turnaround pair once.
Zero groups of anything is zero, so 0 × 8 = 0. One group of a number is just that number, so 1 × 8 = 8.
Two times a number is the number plus itself: 2 × 7 = 7 + 7 = 14. If your child knows doubles from addition, they already know the 2s.
10 × 6 means 6 tens, which is 60. Instead of "just add a zero," say "6 tens is sixty." The add-a-zero rule stops working with decimals later, while thinking in tens always works.
5 × 8 is half of 10 × 8, and half of 80 is 40. Answers in the 5s always end in 5 or 0. On a clock, the minute hand on the 7 means 35 minutes, which is 5 × 7.
4 × 6: double 6 is 12, and double 12 is 24.
8 × 7: double 7 is 14, double 14 is 28, and double 28 is 56.
3 × 7 is 2 × 7 plus one more 7: 14 + 7 = 21.
6 × 7 is 5 × 7 plus one more 7: 35 + 7 = 42. Or double the 3s: 3 × 7 = 21, and double 21 is 42.
9 × 7 is 10 × 7 minus one 7: 70 - 7 = 63. The finger trick works for 9 × 1 through 9 × 10:
Hold up all ten fingers.
For 9 × 7, fold down your seventh finger, counting from the left.
Count the fingers to the left of the folded one: 6. That's the tens.
Count the fingers to the right: 3. That's the ones. The answer is 63.
Two patterns help check answers from 9 × 2 to 9 × 10: the tens digit is one less than the number being multiplied by 9, and the two digits add up to 9.
The 7s have fewer patterns, so break them apart. 7 × 8 is 7 × 5 plus 7 × 3, which is 35 + 21 = 56. Some kids like the rhyme "5, 6, 7, 8": 56 = 7 × 8.
For 11 times a single digit, the digit repeats: 11 × 4 = 44. Then 11 × 10 = 110, 11 × 11 = 121 and 11 × 12 = 132. For the 12s, add the 10s and the 2s: 12 × 6 = 60 + 12 = 72.
This is only an example. Adjust it to your child's age and mood.
2 minutes, show it: build one fact as an array with coins or dots, like 3 rows of 4. The second grade standards already use arrays like this, finding the total by adding equal rows.
3 minutes, say the strategy: work through the target table out loud: "4 × 6, double 6 is 12, double 12 is 24."
3 minutes, mix it up: the practice guide suggests including easier facts as you move on to harder ones, so children practice telling fact sets apart.
1 to 2 minutes, gentle timed round: the guide recommends regular timed activities as one way to build fluency, usually 1 to 5 minutes long. Aim to meet or beat your own score, and keep any score chart private.
Stop: end while it's still fun.
Array draw: roll two dice, draw that many rows and columns of dots, and write the fact.
Flip and multiply: take the picture cards out of a deck. Flip two cards. The first person to say the product keeps them.
Real-life hunt: spot facts around the house. A 12-cup muffin tin is 3 × 4, and an egg carton is 2 × 6.
Three piles: sort flashcards into "know it," "use a strategy" and "not yet." Practice from the middle pile.
Times table bingo: each player writes nine products on a 3 by 3 grid. Call out facts and cover the answers.
Learn the easy tables first, use turnarounds so each fact counts twice, and use a strategy for the rest. Short daily practice is usually easier to keep up than one long session.
The Common Core expects children to know all products of two one-digit numbers from memory by the end of third grade. Children move at different speeds, so treat it as a goal, not a deadline.
The 6s, 7s and 8s have the fewest shortcuts, so they often need the most practice. Break them into facts your child already knows, like the 5s plus one more group.
Timed practice can help when it's short and kind. The practice guide notes that some students feel anxious when they see a long list of problems, and suggests flashcards or working as a group to meet or beat a shared score. It also stresses that accuracy is the goal, not how many problems were attempted.
Brainy Bucks: Math & Reading is an iPhone and iPad app with a short daily quest that mixes math, reading and phonics questions, with 5, 10 or 15-minute options. Wrong answers give a clue and a second try instead of lost lives or a red X, and missed questions come back in later quests and are rechecked days later. It has no ads and no accounts, and it works offline.
Get Brainy Bucks free on the App Store
Common Core State Standards: Grade 3, Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Common Core State Standards: Grade 2, Operations and Algebraic Thinking