There are certain tables which seem harder for some than the others,
yet there is often a difference as to which are considered most
troublesome. The 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's, and 11's are easy for all of us.
The 9's are as easily learned with the aid which follows. This leaves
the 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's and 12's, remaining to work on. The combinations
that are new in these tables are the following; all other combinations
are known from the other tables:
4 × 4 = 16 6 × 6 = 36 7 × 7 = 49* 8 × 8 = 64*
4 × 6 = 24 6 × 7 = 42* 7 × 8 = 56 8 × 12 = 96
4 × 7 = 28* 6 × 8 = 48 7 × 12 = 84 12 × 11 = 132
4 × 8 = 32 6 × 12 = 72 12 × 12 = 144
4 × 12 = 48
The first help in mastering these few necessary combinations is
visualization. If you will print them in large figures and the answer
in red, each table on a sheet or page by itself so that they can be
handled and studied, they will form visual impressions that can be
recalled with ease by almost any one. This is especially true of
children at the ages when they will be learning these tables.
Repetition seems the most valuable aid, but to be most advantageously
applied it should be a combination of visual and auditory repetition.
Let the child look at the tables in the large form in which you have
made them, while he repeats them.
Use addition and subtraction. In learning the tables there are always
some which make a stronger impression and which the child will "never
forget." Use these as starting points or bases of operation. For
example, 4×5=20, all will recognize this at once. 4×4=16, just four
less than twenty, and the subtraction will quickly give the correct
answer. Also 4×6=24, or 4 more than the known point of 20. To take
advantage of this it will only be necessary at first to learn 4×7=28
in order to master the entire table of 4's. The 4×4, and 4×6, would be
figured from 4×5=20, and the 4×8 from the 4×7, and the 4×12, from the
known 4×11=44. With these known bases to work from it is only necessary
to fix the one starred combination in each table in mind indelibly at
the beginning, the others will be easily figured from the known bases
and will become fixtures from use.