Times Fables: Learn your times tables in as little as a week

This book is brilliant! It is a amazon self-published book which is why its a bit expensive and has a thin 'self-published' feel to it but don't let that put you off! I'm very grateful to the author for providing a different way of learning times tables from the same old learning by rote! It never worked for me and unsurprisingly my daughter, who loves to draw, seems to be the same. I've never been able to remember 6 x 9 for example but now for some reason I find it easy to remember 6 elves go to the magic tree (9) 54 days before Christmas. It's like using mnemonics for times tables. Some people will say its far to complicated as you have to learn a story in order to remember something else but for many people the remembering the story part is far easier than just remembering the numbers on their own! Me included!When I first read it, I could feel myself getting a bit overwhelmed with all the characters and numbers but if you take it one story at a time and just stick with it your brain soon cracks the code. You start to see the characters as their numbers and you remember the resulting number in the story.My daughter has enjoyed the stories and has already remembered some of them. As we keep reading, I'm sure the harder ones will stick too. She also loves the rhymes in Part Two for the 3X3, 4x4, 5x5 etc. These are great and she's already cracked these.I'm now planning to get the author's other book on number bonds!

Learning you times tables is not a cognitive task, it is simply a memory recall process. When you "know" your times tables you don't calculate the multiplications in your head, that would be too slow. You simply "know" them by retrieving them from memory. This book uses the popular and effective "Link and Story Method" memory technique to create an odd but memorable story about each multiplication and answer. Its amazing, I read it to my 7 year old son without explaining what it was all about. It took about 2 evenings to complete (part 1) and I took my time making sure to test him on remembering previous stories as I read him the next few. On the third evening I explained what the strange stories were about and how they related to numbers and times tables. He got it immediately and then simply knew all his times tables 3,4,6,7,8,9’s. Slow recall to begin with as he needed to remind himself of the story in his head but over the next few days and weeks it became second nature. The "Link and Story Method" memory technique is nothing new but in this scenario it seems like magic... fully buy into the technique and you can believe the 5 star reviews, this is an amazing book. I can only assume the reviewers describing the book as rubbish just didn't grasp what it was trying to achieve. Make it about stories first... then numbers after.

This is pretty magical this book! Read with my 6 year old and she knew her times tables within the day! It’s great to use imagination to form stories to help remember the other ones too. My only concern is I learnt mine from rote learning as a child and it remains embedded today- not sure how long this will remain for her. Also, there’s no sequencing, the book jumps from one times table set to the next, again, not sure how this would help long term. Nonetheless it certainly helped with engagement and confidence so it’s worth the buy d even just to make maths more fun!!

My daughter is 12. She has been trying to learn times tables since Year 2. I've tried various methods with minimal success. This book arrived this morning, we read it through together once, and she got the concept immediately! She totally resonated with the character and could see all the numbers in the characters straight away and was able to easily remember all the rhymes. Then she could recall all the number facts and got all the answers correct. This book is an ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER. Buy it, buy it, buy it!!!!And then buy a copy for all your friends!Thank you, Author Jessie Wilson, you are a mathematical genius and SUPER-KIND to share this book. We love it!

A nice book and good if your brain works remembering things in this format however for my son games have proved better for getting the times tables facts to stick.

I have three children aged 6,8 and 9. Prior to this purchase my 6 year old could do her 10s, 5s and almost 2s properly. My 8 year old and 9 year old were good at 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 9s, 10s, 11s. The more difficult to work out quickly 6s, 7s, 8s were always tricky for them. My children are bright little buttons and I am an ex teacher (Maths if you would believe it) but always struggled with remembering my times tables when I was younger and getting them to do mental maths (Mathletics and Times Tables Rock Stars online as set by the school) has been a bit of a challenge recently through lockdown. I looked for maths workbooks and came across this on Amazon... I know im a visual learner so thought id give this a go, especially since it is only on the 3,4,6,7,8 and 9 times tables (the trickier ones)It arrived quickly in great condition and while none of my children were too enthusiastic to read it themselves, while my older two were outside I sat down with my little bookworm 6 year old. We read the first few pages and then went over them again. We read a few more pages and then went through them from the beginning again... we finally finished the last few pages and went through the whole book to see if she could remember them. In total spent about 20 minutes reading together.When my older two came in from outside I did them a maths quiz - 15 timed questions - and said they could have a chocolate button for every one they got right. They all tried their best. My 9 year old scored 11, my 8 year old scored 5 and my 6 year old experimental child who had never once answered any of these questions correctly before in her life got 14/15! Absolute Miracle. My older two - a bit put out that the littlest knew her times tables better than them spent a bit of time reading it with me and over the course of the next 4 days now they absolutely love showing off that they know all their times tables! Weve had video calls from their dad, grandad, aunty and nannie who have all quizzed them and been wow'd that they have learned them in such a short space of time. Now they love pop up maths quizzes... They havent got any wrong or forgotten any. Its the best money ive spent EVER.-The concept of the book is based on the fact that some people retain information better through visual aid... just like people memorising a deck of cards or a series of images... by making up stories about them.- Dr Sven is my favourite character 100%- My eldest and youngest love the fact they have an 8 year old sister for the squared numbers page for number 8...Massive thanks

This is a brilliant way to learn the hard times tables. I struggle with mine and I read this and could answer way more than I did before. The problem my child has, is working memory. So he can’t recall them even with the help of this book. My child is 9 and is waiting for an ADHD and dyslexia diagnosis.

Our son was really struggling with Yr 4 times tables checks. He was getting six or seven out of 24We tried all sorts, but then bought this book. Its not a silver bullet; it needs LOTS of parental input with reading and remembering the stories over and over again, but if you are prepared to do that, this book may really help. Lots of parental testing and reminders like "What's 6x7? remember the stories about Elves and Doctor..."It won't work for all children, but it really worked for ours...he scored 21 out of 24 in his year 4TT check and his confidence has risen hugely. He wouldn't have done anything like as well without this book.

Honestly, the idea of writing a story to help recall times tables is great, but these stories have no memory hooks in at all & the illustrations that sre supposed to “look like” numbers, they just didn’t. Feels like a rough draft that needed an editor.

Está en inglés y ayuda mucho a que los niños aprendan las tablas de multiplicar con reglas nemotecnicas a través de historias cortas.

This is the BEST book in the world! I had forgotten my times table and now with the help of this book, I am so proud to learn it so easily with my 7 year old twins!! thank you to the writer for this AMAZING idea!

I cannot believe it really works. My 6 years old daughter remembers the stories (so the times tables) after reading them only one time! Amazing book.