How to Teach Times Tables: A Step-by-Step Plan for Parents
A calm, proven order for learning the times tables at home, with daily 10-minute routines, tricks for the tricky facts and how to tell when your child really knows them.
Times tables are one of the few things in primary math that really do need to be memorised. A child who has to count up in sevens to find 7 × 8 spends their working memory on the fact instead of the problem, and fractions, long division and algebra all get harder.
The good news: with the right order and a few minutes a day, most kids get there in a school term. Here is the plan we recommend.
Before you start: make sure multiplication makes sense
Memorising works best when a child already understands what multiplication is. Check that your child can:
- Explain 3 × 4 as "3 groups of 4" (or 4 groups of 3) and draw it as dots in rows.
- Skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s without help.
- See that 3 × 4 and 4 × 3 give the same answer.
If any of these wobble, spend a week on arrays with Lego, coins or snacks before drilling facts. It pays for itself later.
Learn the tables in this order
Don't go 1, 2, 3, 4... in order. Start with the patterns that are easiest to see, so your child builds confidence and quickly "owns" most of the grid.
| Step | Tables | Why this order |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10, 2, 5 | Built on skip counting they already know |
| 2 | 11 (to 9 × 11), 1, 0 | Simple patterns, quick wins |
| 3 | 4 | Double the 2s |
| 4 | 3 | Then 6 is just double the 3s |
| 5 | 9 | Finger trick and the "digits add to 9" pattern |
| 6 | 8 | Double the 4s |
| 7 | 7 and 12 | By now only a handful of new facts are left |
Thanks to the "turn around" rule (6 × 7 = 7 × 6), the grid shrinks fast. After step 6 there are only a few facts left that your child hasn't met in another table: 7 × 7, 7 × 12 and 12 × 12.
A 10-minute daily routine
Short and often beats long and occasional. Memory research is consistent on this: spreading practice across days (spaced practice) and making kids recall answers, rather than re-read them, leads to facts that stick.
- Warm up (2 minutes). Skip count the current table out loud, forwards then backwards.
- New facts (3 minutes). Pick two or three facts from the current table. Say them, write them, build one with objects.
- Mixed recall (4 minutes). Quick questions mixing today's facts with ones from earlier tables. Mixing matters: kids who only practise one table at a time learn to guess "the next one in the list", not the fact itself.
- Finish on a win (1 minute). End with a fact they know cold, so they leave wanting more.
Do it at the same time each day, such as straight after breakfast or before screen time, so it becomes routine rather than a negotiation.
Tricks for the tricky facts
- 9s on fingers. Hold up ten fingers. For 9 × 4, fold down the 4th finger: 3 fingers on the left, 6 on the right, so 36.
- 9s pattern. The tens digit is one less than the number you multiply by, and the digits add up to 9 (9 × 7 = 63, and 6 + 3 = 9).
- Doubling chain. 2s → 4s → 8s. If they know 2 × 7 = 14, then 4 × 7 = 28 and 8 × 7 = 56.
- 5s from 10s. 5 × 8 is half of 10 × 8.
- Rhymes for the stubborn ones. "5, 6, 7, 8: 56 is 7 × 8." "I ate and I ate till I was sick on the floor: 8 × 8 is 64."
- Square numbers. Draw them as real squares on grid paper. Kids remember pictures better than lists.
How to know they really know it
A fact is learnt when your child can answer it quickly, without counting, on a day you didn't practise it. A good rule of thumb is around 3 seconds. In England, for example, Year 4 children take a national times tables check that gives just 6 seconds per question.
Signs a fact isn't secure yet:
- Lips moving or fingers tapping while they count up.
- They know 7 × 8 but not 8 × 7.
- They get it right on Monday and wrong on Thursday.
Keep a simple 12 × 12 grid on the fridge and colour in a fact once it has been answered quickly on three different days. Watching the grid fill up is motivating on its own.
Keep it positive
Anxiety is the enemy of recall. A few habits help:
- Never time a child who is still learning a table. Speed comes after accuracy.
- Praise the effort and the strategy ("you used doubling, nice"), not just the answer.
- Make mistakes cheap. "Nearly! Let's build it" works better than "No."
- Give them something to look forward to. A small reward after a good week can carry a child through the boring middle of the 7s. Make it something real, like choosing the weekend film, rather than more screen time.
This is exactly the loop we built Lucky Math around. Kids do a short quiz at their level, and a good score unlocks a lucky chest filled with rewards that you pick. Multiplication and division are in Lucky Math Plus, and you choose which operations each child practises.
FAQ
What age should kids learn times tables?
Most school curricula introduce the 2, 5 and 10 times tables around age 6 to 7 and expect all tables up to 12 × 12 by about age 9 to 10. Go by readiness rather than age: understanding groups and skip counting comes first.
How long does it take to learn all the times tables?
With about 10 minutes of mixed practice most days, many children learn the full grid in 3 to 6 months. Kids who already know their 2s, 5s and 10s are often much faster.
Should my child learn up to 10 or 12?
Learn to 12 if their school expects it (many do), but 10 × 10 is the most important part. The 11s and 12s are easy to add once the core facts are secure.
Is it bad to use fingers?
Not while learning. Fingers are a useful bridge. Over time, aim for instant recall so their fingers are free for harder problems.