Helping Your Child Memorize Their Basic Math Facts

Why Practice Basic Math Facts:

• Having a quick recall of basic facts comes in handy when your child is doing long division or multi-digit multiplication (not to mention algebra and more!)

• Automatic recall of basic math facts frees up the brain for deeper comprehension of the skills/concepts being taught.

How to Memorize Basic Facts:

• Using flashcards of basic facts (one operation at a time, please) flash the cards to your child at a fairly fast pace—you don’t want to give them too much time to think or use their fingers!

• Put the correctly answered cards in one pile.

• Put the hesitated/wrong cards in another pile.

• Take the hesitation cards and have your child write down the entire fact (4 + 7 = 11) on a separate piece of paper. Have them write fairly big.

• Next have your child trace the entire fact with one color crayon as they say the fact aloud.

• Have them repeat the above step with a different color crayon. (This memorization technique is called “Rainbow Writing” and is useful for memorizing spelling words, too.)

• Now flash the hesitation cards to your child, again making two piles.

Did they increase the number of automatically answered facts?

Only work for 10-15 minutes. The brain likes to work in short bursts!